Ay, Ay, Ay, Ay, In China, they never eat Chile

I'm constantly being fascinated by new discoveries about other cultures. Especially those of other teens worldwide. Here's an amalgamation of my most recent discoveries (with names excluded for the sake of privacy and liability reasons):

1.A sophmore who just moved from France two years ago...I overheard her on the bus today, saying, "You know that in France, college is free for everyone." I asked if this is really true and she said yes. You could choose any college you want. Free education starting from 1st grade to college. No worrying about thousands of dollars in loans, no worrying about additional rent to pay. Goodbye America, Hello France.

2.My best friend's boyfriend who recently moved from Korea...He went to his first homecoming dance last week and admitted to me how fasinated he was by the way teens dance in America. "They rub against each other!" He said, amazed. "It's so sexual. In Korea, people don't grind at parties. We do kareoke. We don't even have school dances."

Apparently, Korea isn't the only country that doesn't think grinding is so great.

3.A new foreign exchange friend of mine from Mexico, was also fascinated by how teens dance in America. Last Saturday, at our homecoming dance, she asked me with round eyes, "Look at that girl! What do you call that kind of dancing here? In Mexico, guys don't dance behind the girl like that. We dance facing each other. Wouldn't you want to see each other's faces?"

4.My British buggy asked for my "jumper" yesterday morning, except she pronounced it "jumpuhh" not "jumperrr" like we do. What in the world is a "jumper?" Apparently, it's British for "sweatshirt." She also pronounces "Adidas," the sports company, as "Adidas" where most Americans would pronounce it, "Adidas."

More on pronounciations.

5. A German forgein exhange student asked in Biology today, "Vay, iz ze ahtomm zoing zat?" translated, "Why is the atom doing that?" I understand how you feel kid, cause I have pronounciation problems of my own.

6. My friends made fun of me today in Creative Writing because I pronounced "brow," as "braow." It's been 10 years since I moved to America and STILL I have pronounciation difficulties~! I also get reminded by my friends that the color "white" is not pronounced, "huwhite." It's habit.

It's super hard to move to a new country. Not only do you not know anybody, or speak the language, but worst of all, there are cultures clashes. Sticking your middle finger in the air in America is well...bad. But in another country, it may mean hello, or good job. Even without you knowing, the culture that you are accustomed to out of habit, can work against you in another country.

But I guess this is what makes traveling and meeting new people so fun.

~H