what did I learn from this experience?

According to Paul Bloess, “The term ‘Big Apple’ was originally used in the 1920s and ‘30s by jazz musicians as a way of saying, ‘there are many apples on the success tree, but when you pick New York City, and you pick the Big Apple”(Origin the name). As you can see this, New York City is the heart of the American dream and a city where people, who live in today, want to go at least once in their lifetime. That’s why New York City is composed of many different nations which have different cultures. When I came to New York at first, September 1^st 2016, I met many people in varies background and have different experiences but It was not always good things because those give me uncomfortable that unfamiliar and unknown things for having different cultures are going to be confusion.  Sometimes, people had be embarrassed each other because they have in other cultures behavior among people.

First of all, there is different table culture. In Korea, occasionally, people used to live in a big family which consists of three generations. This is because, we have a special table cultures. When we eat bowl soup, we almost share together of the same bowl pot which is unacceptable and unfamiliar behavior for many foreigners. For instance, one of my friends, who is American, was very embarrassed when he saw Korean people sharing soup with the same bowl.

Secondly, there is different way to express emotion.  I think that a lot of Americans like to hug with their friends to express affection. However, we never like this hug each other in Korea with our friends. We think that is too much things of an expression and very rude between woman and man. In my experience, when I came abroad at first, I have no any experience about western culture ever before. Of course I had been watching movies or books to enjoy my life, I never met foreigners well until I came to New York. It has been almost three months since I came to the States from Korea. The dramatic change in my environment forced me to readjust myself. When I met my date with his old friends and when we were leaving, he hugged all the girls. At the moment, I was surprised to see that and angry to him about that situation. Later then, I realized that it was just one of way to express affection which is a part of American cultures.

Lastly, People in my neighbors walk up and say “How are you.” The first couple of times, it took me a long time to respond, because it was unfamiliar to me, and I did not know how to react to someone. Wherever I go, people keep asking, “How are you,” and it makes me thinking I have met him or her before. Because people in Korea never speak to each other on the streets or in shops unless they know each other, so even very simple and daily questions made me freeze and unable to say anything at first.

In conclusion, Living New York is faced to different cultures by the various background people while we live together and it can be embarrassing to experience other cultures. However, when we try to understand the way of people’s life, it will allow us to make our lives more successful in this globalized city.

Work Cited

Bloess, Paul.  “Origins of ‘The Big Apple’”.  ny.com  Mediabridge Infosystems Inc. ND. web. 1 Sep 2017