What should we do when we are confronted with other cultures?
My life so far has been very multi-cultural. I was raised in the U.S so my views are very closely tied to American views. However, both of my parents are Korean and generally speak Korean with me. I was born in Syracuse, New York and after a few years my parents and I moved back to Korea due to my parent's jobs. After 3 years of going to SIS I moved back to the states and this time went to the west coast to live. I actually don’t remember much, but I know I got along well with American kids and I felt a connection between my classmates and me. After 2 long joyous years living in Irvine, California, I came back to SIS. This change of environment did not disorient me in any way. In fact, I felt happy to be with my old friends and enjoyed being in Korea. This is greatly due to the fact that 90% of SIS students are American citizens and more than 70& of the population of my grade has lived in the U.S for more than a year. The cultural status of SIS was mostly American. I felt at home in SIS and I was accepted by my friends. I never really felt a huge change in culture when I moved from the U.S to Korea back and forth. However, the biggest cultural shock came when I came to TCIS. As soon as I came here I noticed that most of the students spoke Korean. When I was at SIS I hardly ever heard Korean being spoken around me; even during lunch. During my months at TCIS I met many people that were OCKs or "pastor kids". I was confused about what kind of people they were and i finally learned that they were "out of country kids" and children of pastors. This was the first time that i heard of those terms.
The one factor that really helped me to understand other cultures is that i have traveled extensively. The only continents I have not been to are Africa, South America, and of course, Antarctica. These visits to places of different cultures really helped to to be tolerant of other cultures and helped me to appreciate their cultures.
