Essay from Huan Wen

The Differences Out There

By Wen Huan

Only when I come to America, do I find out so many differences between my life in China and the life in America.

The first big difference I sensed right after I arrived here is about the population and the surroundings.

In China, I live near the center of my home city. There are a lot of people there. In the city, we only have the many apartment buildings with many people living in them. Thus, we have many neighbors. Building near building, it is really very rollicking. Children of different families can get together easily and have fun together. When you go outside, you can see many people around you.  On the other hand, it is hard to see people on the road in America. Instead, I can see many cars go  by me. Maybe it is because I live in the countryside here. But even in the city, I can still feel the big difference of the population.

I think the people in my hometown like going out. We like to go out together with our friends or families to enjoy ourselves. Especially after dinner at night, you can see many people come out of their homes to have a walk. Actually I like this time very much because at this time, I can talk with my parents and share things with them. They can give me advice. But in America here, I feel that people seldom go outside. I don't know why. I tried hard and found a reason for them which is maybe because it is more fun to play inside their house than outside, since they have few people to play with outside.

Our country is a very big country, but with too many people. America is also a very big country, but with a small number of population. We always say that Americans are so happy that they can have a large garden for themselves to decorate, but we often have to grow crops on them. I like the gardens very much, so I always feel that Americans are happy in their own country.

The second big difference is about food.

It seems that Americans prefer more uncooked food, while we prefer more cooked food. We always ask the question that how can the Americans eat the beef with blood on it. At the very beginning, I couldn't adapt to the uncooked things here. I remember the first time I ate the uncooked vegetables and trapped myself in collywobbles for two days. But now I can eat some. Every time when I miss our food, I will find some cooked food or rice and mix them with the Chinese tasting sauces, which make them taste a little like the Chinese food. Especially in my home province, we like eating spicy food very much. To tell the truth, I really don't like the sweet food, but Americans do. So I find the ice cream here is so sweet that they can eat before and the sauces for some stuff are so sweet that I don't think I can challenge myself. And I also found that some other sauces have very strange tastes. They make me feel poisoned. Except for these, there are still many foods that I like.

I sometimes feel that it may be a little flat to just put the stuff in the bowl without any work.  In our recipe, for example, the simple tofu can be cooked into more than 30 dishes. We sometimes also have the feeling that what Americans eat seems like our snacks.

The third big difference is about school.

Now the most popular word we say to our friends in China is "busy". In China,  we are more relaxing in the university. We only have one final exam every semester. In America, however, there are has four exams and many quizzes. The homework, attendance, participation in class and some other things will also be taken as a part of the final grade. But in the middle school and in high school, we have more hardships than in America.

In China, even in the university, we still have classes. Students in the same class have the same main courses. In America here, there is no fixed class; different students have different courses. Students can even decide their own courses. But in China, we don't have such choice. For the different courses, I think they are stronger in practice in America. We have many different majors in one school. There are many professors for one major but only one teacher who we call Counselor for each major who leads all kinds of work of each major. We do not have advisor like here. For me, I would prefer to have an advisor, because if you have some questions, you can go to see your advisor and he or she will give you advices. The professors here all have their office hours. This is very good for students to talk with their professors about their questions. But in China, you can't find any professors after the class. It seems that they all disappeared after the class. Some professors are afraid of students to ask them questions. I think they are a little lazy and think that every student is genius as they want to go to do their own things as soon as possible. In contrast, I love all my professors here. They are all very nice and helpful. Students are always welcome to talk with them and ask them questions.

The fourth difference is about the dorm.

I think the dorm here in America is more convenient. In China, we always have at least six people in one room. You can always think of the liveliness inside of it. But here, there are only two students in one room. If you have a good roommate, it will be very good. Here in America, it is more convenient for us to use the Internet to help you study and with the convenient shower and washing and dryer machine, we can concentrate more on our study.

In China, students are often encouraged to live on campus. This is convenient for school to manage students' work. It is also cheap to live on campus. In America, maybe more students are not encouraged to live on campus and during the vacation, students can't stay on campus. When I first heard of this information, I felt so strange and wondered how can some students handle their life if the vacation is short for them to go home.

Also in our university in China, boys and girls live in different buildings. Without special purposes, boys cannot go into girls' buildings and girls cannot go into boys' buildings. It seems so incomprehensible for me that in schools here in America, girls can even sleep together with their boyfriends in one small bed with their roommates in.

The fifth difference is about the work in the university. The students here can work in the university to earn money to support their study. They can even have more than one job. It also seems that many of the jobs on campus are done by these students. But in our universities in China, we don't have such jobs on campus. Students can only find some kinds of jobs of campus. Also students seldom work for the money. Instead, they work for the experience which they gain through the work.

The sixth difference is about the politeness.

I love the drivers in America. Every time when I want to go across the street, the drivers always slow down and even stop to let me go across first. It is very different in China. It seems like the drivers on the road are competing with each other. Without the traffic lights, I think there will be confusion on the road. I always think that one can't go across a street with bravery. I think this may have something to do with the different characteristics of the people. Especially for the reason that the people in my hometown like eating the very spicy food a lot. They maybe are on fire every day!

Maybe it is because there are too many people in our country and the people do not like to wait for so many people. They usually do not like to be in line. I still remember the very impressive days in my middle school and high school when it was hard to get a meal by getting through a large crowd of people in and out. I did not get angry of this; I always comforted myself that this is really a good exercise before meal. But I feel here in America that almost all people stand in line spontaneously for each small thing.  For some really very small things, they will say "sorry" or "thank you" a lot. It seems that they all wish you will have a nice day every day by saying to you " Have a nice day!" every time they see you. Maybe it's not true, but they are really very nice and polite!

I always think that different doesn't mean bad. But it is interesting to know and have an experience of the differences among people.