Intercultural Communications Essay

My stepmother was born in Masan, the countryside of Korea, to a family of four daughters. My step-grandfather was a toilsome working man. He had a atomic taxi and truck business. My mothers youth was during the recovering of the contend. My florists chrysanthemum has told me stories about growing up. She rarely got nice things unlike how a tie of Korean children now get today. However, she says growing up was non as hard as most kids during the time.Korean kids have to learn how to evaluate their elders, my mother states. For example at the dinner table you do not take down eating until the elders start. She says that hitting kids was a joint thing and teachers in timeing hit their students who failed to do assignments and do their responsibilities. It is also part of Korean close for the eldest son to take care of the parents. Back then the parents would even lie with with the eldest son even after he has married. Today, it has changed a lot and most parents would rathe r live alone. Children are supposed to live at home with their parents until marriage. In the United States, it was not as inexorable. It was super acid for men to move out of their parents home at eighteen and start working or go to college.These days not all Koreans up to now follow the culture but still, many do. Back then, Korea was recovering from war and a lot of parents were focused on their childrens education. They would do anything for their education. So, kids would do nothing but study. I would go to school at seven in the morning and not finish until ten at night. I ate breakfast, lunch, and dinner at school, my mom says. She studied a lot. Generally, Koreas students study a lot much and harder than the average American. It was not until more or less high school years when her father made more cash and became successful. My stepmom even paid for most of her college and travel expenses. She traveled to Australia to learn English and did a lot of missionary work a ll over the arena years later. I think all of those years of studying hard paid off for her.I learned that my mom is very strict about certain things pertaining to me because of how she was raised. For Christmas, she received an orange. In todays world, it is common for kids to go out to the mall and hang out with their friends and buy a few things. At least, that is how it is in America. My mom did not have that. In her view, kids are not real supposed to receive much funds from their parents.The money should stay with the parents. I learned that the United States and Korea today assign some culture similarities and some drastic differences. I feel that by learning more about cultures outside of your own one really opens up new ideas and different ways of thinking. By learning more about Korean culture over the years, I feel that I have become an a lot more open disposed(p) individual and it has made me a stronger today.Works CitedKim, Tara. Personal Interview. 1 Nov. 2011