Monday, November 23, 2009

American Family II

It says that, in American society, the adults are usually the spectators who are watching the children. But from my observation, I think that American parents not differ from which in my country. They take care of children when they need to. They carry their hand in the supermarket but don’t often look at them. They talk by their own and let the children to play everywhere in the restaurant. However, they have much more body contact with the kids to show their emotion or their love, which is not very common in China. Sometime we do kiss babies and rub their faces by our faces, but not very often to those who are already elementary schools students.


In the survey about life after retirement, some Americans want to live in the big cities, some want to live in suburb area, but most of them want to find a warmer place to live in and live away from their children. One said that he wants to live in a house nearby the street alone, and sit in a rocking chair towards the street everyday in a bathrobe with a shot gun in hand, shout at the passing by kids. That’s funny, but from these I find that most Americans are independent, not only children but also their parents. It’s not like in my home country where a big family often live together or nearby each other. Family is a big part of an American’s life, but on another aspect, the concept of family seems not very strong for many Americans.

Monday, November 16, 2009

American Family

During my observance and research, I found that there are a lot of interesting things about American families. First is quantity of children. Due to the Birth Control Policy, most of the Chinese families have an only child while most American families have the number of 2 or 3. But in the old time they are like the same. Children today in both China and America may have lots of aunts and uncles, but kids in the next generation in China probably may not have any cousins.




Second is the family role. It’s about the same here and in China even the changes. In old times women are usually house wives and men are the bread makers. Now most of the women have their jobs and both men and women earn money and do house things. But children in American are more independent. In China, many teenagers who are above 18 live with their parents. But here, kids just want to go out and live along.



Third is about the olds. In America, many parents live far away from their kids when their kids are independent and have their own house. Their children don’t visit them frequently though the olds want so. As a result, nowadays, grandparents don’t often take care of their grandkids, which is not like the situation in China. Many families live in the same city as their former generation does, so they go to see their parents more frequently. There are a lot of American movies about the children sickness of old parents. However, because China is a developing country, families are getting richer and richer, so older people many times are poorer and need care. Olds in American have the ability to live in a nicer and quitter place – which means higher life quality and less family love.

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

What are the advantages and disadvantages to having a multicultural society in the twenty-first century?

In 21th century, since worldwide connection is getting deeper and deeper, it is more and more important for people to be familiar with multicultural society. If a person wants to be successful in worldwide, he/she has to learn much about the culture differences because he/she will definitely meet people from many different cultures—especially if he/she is a businessman/~an. Based on this, I think, if a person is from a society of multicultural, he/she will has the advantage of knowing much about the culture diversity, and this will make it easier for him/her to succeed abroad. Another advantage of having a multicultural society is that the culture diversity can make the society more colorful and interesting, which in some way means more money can be made on the tourism. What’s more, culture diversity can also help people to know the world better and deeper.


The disadvantages are more obvious. It will bring many inconvenient to people’s lives. It cause the so called “culture gape”, which always brings misunderstandings and prevents people from getting along with each other. Culture differences or non-identity sometimes can even result in conflicts. It is harder for the government to control such a society.

Nevertheless, we should make the best of the advantages of the multicultural society and live a harmony life together.