Culture Differences/Adjustment by Katelynn Lindsey

klindse6 — 2025-04-10 14:11:40 UTC

The community is very good at helping others. Whether it be staying behind at an event to help clean up/take things down or just taking plates of food to the table, helping is very important. A little surprising as I haven't typically seen guests stay behind events or parties to help clean up

klindse6 — 2025-04-11 17:06:12 UTC

Majority of the community members I have met here are religious. Often mentioning God when giving advice, which to me is surprising. You wouldn't hear this unless you and the other person were both extremely religious

klindse6 — 2025-04-11 17:08:28 UTC

I've learned that where I'm from, my culture doesn't really care about events or parties as they are often seen as chores instead of fun. But here, people love having the opportunity to see each other and have fun

klindse6 — 2025-04-11 17:26:35 UTC

People take a lot of pride in being from their community. As well as the community members being prideful when a fellow person is recognized for something good. The community has a lot of support for each other. This is a painting from artists Lothar Cames (German) and Enar Cruz (Costa Rican-San Ramon)

klindse6 — 2025-04-11 17:30:39 UTC

Having fun is definitely something that is prioritized in the community. Regardless of how good you are at dancing, games, or sports, people like to just have fun

klindse6 — 2025-04-11 17:34:33 UTC

While my culture tends to focus on being perfect at everything. Meaning people won't dance at parties if they're not good. Here it doesn't matter. People constantly urge you to just have fun and live

klindse6 — 2025-04-11 17:36:39 UTC

Family is very important in this culture. People find it weird when I tell them I rarely talk to my parents, especially with being so far from them. If people don't live with their parents, they frequently visit or call them

klindse6 — 2025-04-16 17:00:18 UTC

As an outsider I can also see how important religion is to people. Almost everyone I've met has been Christian or Catholic and lots have an active role in the church. Religion seems to be viewed differently here compared to the United States. I do find it interesting how people celebrate Semana Santa

klindse6 — 2025-04-16 17:05:02 UTC

I think culture drives how we respond and see social problems/solutions. I think it also impacts our actions and how we interact with each other. I believe it's one of the first things we learn, so it makes sense that it would control how we think

klindse6 — 2025-04-16 17:22:08 UTC

Like everywhere I think people here have very strong values and morals. I think when asked about them people are more forward and willing to talk about them. I think people in the U.S. wouldn't give or really explain why they think what they think. As an outsider it appears like a lot of people have very similar values and morals, compared to the U.S. where it could be a bit more polarizing

klindse6 — 2025-04-16 17:25:52 UTC

I've learned that in my culture we don't really check in on people or talk to each other a lot. I think this relates to the importance of family here. People in the U.S. can be very individualistic, which contributes to this. If you mention once that you or someone in your family is sick you'll frequently have people asking and checking in to make sure they're doing okay. I think this is pretty uncommon in my culture