[#5 Posting] Class

I experienced both Korean and American class in University, so I can feel the differences between them.  Comparing differences is very fun to me because I can prove the cultural differences, especially, the difference of education. 

The most differnt thing is the students' participation.  In Korea, if students ask or say in the middle of class, they think this behavior interupts other students' concentration.  Moreover, they even think that the student who did like this have a strong intention to show off.  Thus, Korean students usually don't ask or coment in class. Instead, they ask the question after class.  However, in America, I saw many students feel free to ask teachers about question right after they find it.  Also, teachers answer the question natually. 

The second difference is about the relationship between teacher and student.  In Korea, people think teacher is higher person, and students are lower person.  What I mean is that Korean students are strongly educated to respect their teacher.  For example, students in Korea can not call the teacher's name.  In America, it was unfamiliar to call my teacher's name!  Whenever I called my teacher's name, I even felt guilty.  This makes me feel rude.  However, In America, I think students also respect their teachers, but they have more equal relationship.


Although I felt the differences between students in both nations, I could find a lot of similarities. 

[#4 Posting] American Individualism

One of the most culture differences between Korea and America is Individualism.  I think that Individualism has both sides, good and bad side.  I want to expain these sides, and my opinion about it.

First of all, In America, people understand differences well.  They don't think that difference means wrong.  Sometimes, Korean people might think if someone is different from them, they are wrong.  Because they has very similar culture, and there are not many foriegn people like America.  However, I felt that American understand the differnce well.  I think it is because of their Invidualism.  They don't care a lot about other people if there are no relations.  What they concern is only theirselves.  Therefore, it is hard to judge other people for them.

Also, Individualism makes people safe, but not happy.  What I mean is that people don't suffer from other people because they don't want to harras others.  However, I think that they felt lonely because it is easy to think that they are alone.  For example, I could see a lot of people who eat lunch alone on campus in America.  In Korea, eating alone on campus mean the person don't have any friend.  Thus, when I saw many people were eating alone on campus, it looked lonely.  Because of Individualism, I think that they always don't want to spend time to their friends.

All in all, I don't know whether Individualism is good or not.  However, I believe that there is no answer.  If we use it well, it can operate good in our society.

[# 3 posting] Pet shelters in America

I am very interested in animal rights, so I continued to volunteer pet shelters both in Korea and in US.  In Korea, pet culture is not long, so the pet shelters don’t be organized, yet.  However, I think America has long pet culture, so they have already have lots of “know-how” about it.  Actually, after I experienced
both pet shelters, I realized the same opinion that I mention above.  Therefore, I want to say about the key factors that American pet shelters have in order to learn about it.



The first key factor is American pet shelters know the pets well.  This means that they already know about pet’s behaviors, usual medical problems, and etc.  Therefore, they can handle the pets without confusing. This makes them operate the shelter with not only their sympathy but also an appropriate responds to the pets.

The second important factor is that people have a strong trust about the pet shelters.  I think the best way to save pets in shelters is adoption.  In order that people in their neighbors adopt many pets, the shelters give them a trust about the shelter pets.  Personally, I volunteered in the dog-walking part in Austin Pets
Alive.  In there, I can see many dogs are trained well by volunteers, so the dogs in the shelter are perfect for pets, now!  For these reasons, I believe that people don’t hesitate to adopt pets from shelters.

The third important thing of American pet shelters is that they are supported by lots of people.  They can operate the shelter with high rates of donations.  Because of these donations, they can handle their pets well.  Moreover, there are well organized animal hospitals.  This means that many local animal hospitals volunteer the medical service to pet shelter. As you know, medical service is very important to pets in shelter because they are needed to get a health inspection.  Therefore, the pets in shelter can keep healthy.



All in all, I think that the factors that I mentioned above are the fundamental reasons why US pet shelters are developed well.  In the future, I want to learn about the specific system of pet shelter.

[#2 Post] Relationship with Nature

Regarding relationship with nature, both Korean and American want to enjoy unpolluted nature, and protect it.  I think it is humans natural mind because we are from nature and in nature.  However, there are some differences between these two country.

Compare to Korea, American love natural parks, and fresh air.  It seems they know how this nature can give us good things.  For example, they want to live near good park, and they try to protect their neighbor's nature.  Also, they loves animals. I can see many squirrels on campus, there are lots of birds in the city.  They don't want to destroy it.  I think it is very good way to live together.  On the other hands, in Korea, although people like to be with nature, they think developing the city is more important.  This means that if they have some empty area, they try to build building to earn money.  Therefore, they have only small parts of parks near them.

Another difference is the trash system.  When I came to Austin, I was surprised because I can trash all without distributing recycle stuff.  In fact, it was so convenience, but I worried about the fact that they don't recycle their trash.  This means their tremendous trashes go to the landfill in America.  Although America has large land, their next generation will suffer from these contaminated land.  In Korea, recycle policy is very strict, so people should not trash recyclable stuffs.  Moreover, We should trash wet trash only one day of the week.  Also, in order to trash, we should buy special plastic bags which decay well in soil.  Therefore, people try to reduce trash, and the minimizing trash technology was developed.  I think for next generation, it is important habit.

[#1 Posting] Cultural Differences

After I came to Austin, I feel the culture differences between Korea and USA.  Sometimes it makes me embarrass, but it is usually interesting.

One of the cultural differences is indoor life-style, especially the carpet culture.  In Korea, people use carpet in the living room, bed room, and restroom.  However, they don't use it most of house.  In Austin, there are rug on all the floor of my house except kitchen.

At first, it was uncomfortable because it is hard for me to clean perfectly.  This means that when I spill some soda on the floor, I can't polish the site.  What I can do is only spray the carpet cleaner and try to get rid of soda from rug.  Moreover, on the rug, it is difficult to use a vacuum machine.  However, now I found out the good points of this indoor culture.  I always feel soft whenever I walk around the house.  Also, it can protect my furniture from hard floor.

This is the biggest difference that I feel about indoor life style between Korea and USA.