Blog #4

We have talked a lot about cultural differences in both of my groups. In particular, we have talked a lot about different foods. We had a meeting at Sweeting where I tried bubble tea and sweet sticky rice with red beans. Bubble tea is Taiwanese, and my Taiwanese group members decided that Sweeting has good bubble tea, but not as good as what is available in Taiwan. They also said that it is much cheaper there because it is not a specialty, it is just everywhere, from restaurants to street food carts! We have also discussed quite a bit about the differences in education systems between the United States and other countries. It was very interesting to learn, not only what is different compared to here, but also to hear my group members discuss the similarities and differences between their own respective countries. I've also realized that it is quite unique that, in the United States, more than test scores are taken into account when applying to universities, and that we can take our entrance exams more than once. Taiwan, Malaysia, and China all have these all-or-nothing exams at the end of high school. I also know that entrance to university in France is also based on a country-wide one time test. We did come to the general consensus that there are good and bad things about all of the different systems.

We have discussed many other things beside this, and I feel comfortable taking about these differences. I'm extremely interested to learn about the other ways of doing things that take place around the world. I also enjoy sharing US culture ideas (most recently, Halloween!) and discussing them. It's always interesting hear how someone who did not grow up with the same ideas views the way things are here.