Cindee

I was recently invited to respond to a few questions about American life and culture so I will just post a few responses here. By way of introduction, my name is Cindee, I am twenty-four and I graduated last year from the University of Utah in Salt Lake City. About five years ago, I spent a school year in France doing the same thing that Professor Wood is now doing in China.

Having taught English in France, I ran into a lot of the same questions posted on this blog from my students and found that there were many misconceptions about what life is like in the United States. Among my high school students, it was the popular belief that my life, as an American, must largely resemble that which they saw in the movies. While there are many ways that Hollywood does reflect life in America, much of the subject matter presented in American films is highly exaggerated and often beyond belief or "far-fetched". I would say that, in general, most Americans view Hollywood as an industry that relies heavily on entertaining through the use of artificial and unrealistic ideas and/or images. In other words, most Americans would likely disagree that their lives were like what they see in the movies. For example, contrary to what is often portrayed in these films, very few Americans own a gun (or have ever held one); not all Americans abuse drugs (and many have never done drugs at all); and violence, while it exists, isn't as prevalent in American schools and on American streets as is often shown in Hollywood films.

Many of my students in France imagined that America was a dangerous place where everyone owed a gun and it wasn't safe to go outside at night. In my own personal experience, both in the state where I live and in other states I have visited, I have never seen anyone besides a police officer carry a handgun and there are many places that are safe to be out at night. Obviously there are differences between life in the big cities versus the more rural areas, but in general there are many cities in the United States that have a very active nightlife that is neither threatening, nor unsafe. Many times the nightlife of a city includes what many people call "clubbing" or going to clubs to dance. Popular dance clubs will usually have multiple types of dancing from hip-hop and techno to Latin and sometimes even line dancing. Clubbing for many Americans also is a used as a venue to meet people for dating relationships.

In American dating culture, it is still predominantly the male that is responsible for taking the initiative of asking a girl on a date. Generally speaking, it is the guy who makes the plans, picks the girl up from her house, and pays for the date. However, it is becoming more and more common (and certainly acceptable by today's standards) for a girl to ask a guy out. Yet even with the modernization of societal expectations for dating in America, this is still less common. Many girls I know have at one time or another asked for a guy’s number. However, there are still other girls I know who take a firm position that it is always the man’s responsibility to do this. It is typical for a couple to date for a year or longer before getting engaged to be married, although it is not unheard of for couples to date for less time.

Weddings in America are often elaborate events that are sometimes planned up to a year in advance. Wedding ceremonies are normally conducted in front of a large audience of family and friends, usually by a religious figure. By contrast, many couples choose to be married by a judge in a courthouse where few, if any, family and/or friends are present. In traditional weddings, the bride and groom choose close family or friends to assist in what is called the "wedding party". This usually consists of a Maid of Honor, bridesmaids, a Best Man and groomsmen. These individuals are often pivotal in the planning of wedding details and their main role is to aid, advise and support the bride and groom with anything they need help with before and on the wedding day. It is common to have a reception after the wedding ceremony where the bride and groom stand and accept well-wishes from invited guests who wait in a line for their turn to congratulate a newly married couple. It is traditional in American culture to have a wedding cake with two or more tiers, which the bride and groom cut together and feed to each other. The top tier of this cake is traditionally stored and eaten on the couple's first wedding anniversary.

Many Americans have cars, especially in the Western United States where cities are farther apart or in areas that are more rural. While public transportation is heavily relied upon on the East Coast, there are fewer train systems in the West for long distance travel and buses are used for local transport, but less frequently as the majority of people own cars. There are seven people in my immediate family and everyone has their own car. This is important because almost all of us drive twenty minutes or longer to get to work. Where I live, it is common for people to drive most places they go, including work, school and to run errands or shop. In fact, many high school students also drive cars to school when they get their driver’s licenses at age sixteen. For this reason, in the Western United States most stores and places of employment have parking lots to accommodate customers/employees’ cars. Parking garages with several floors due to the lack of space or public transportation for those who don’t have cars are more frequently utilized in larger cities and more densely populated regions.

My first two years of college I chose to live at my parent's home (forty-five minutes away from the University) and commute into school five days a week. Many of my friends also lived off campus and commuted. It is not uncommon for students to arrange their schedules so they can go to work in between their classes. The last two years of school, I also worked thirty hours a week in addition to going to school full-time. This usually meant that my days were very full with classes in the mornings, work from about 11:00 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., and homework once I got home. Because I was an English Major, focusing on literature and writing, all of my grades for these last two years were based on thesis-styled papers which were anywhere between three and fourteen pages in length, each. College life varies extremely for American students, but the traditional college student in America takes classes full-time, gets involved in activities and events on campus, and doesn't get a job until after graduation.

好久不见

Ok students, I apologize for not posting much on here in such a long time. I was doing really good posting new material for a while. And then I got sick. But after I recovered I got lazy. And then I kept putting it off. But now you will be done with TEM4 soon which is good news for you and me! So I plan to update this blog consistently and frequently for the last two months we have together.

There are three things I am going to put up on this blog:

1. Words and concepts from class so you can have a resource outside of class.

2. Pictures and sources and links for your own benefit of learning western culture

3. Thoughts from Cindee

About that last one--Cindee is a friend of mine from Utah. She taught English in France for a few months. When I told her to read my blog she decided to respond to many of the questions from her own experience of teaching English and culture to French students. I am really excited about this part and I hope you enjoy reading her comments.

Help me with the pictures!

I am trying to remember everyone's name so I need everyone's help! If you could leave a comment for your class picture and tell me the names of everyone in pinyin in order from front row to back and from left and right that would be very helpful to me! I hope you like the pictures!

Classes 5 & 7

Classes 6, 8, and 9

Classes 1, 2, 3, and 4

College Life

Because right now all of you are in college I wanted to tell you a little bit about the differences between college in the United States and college in China. I might add more to my list later about this.

1. Strict schedule vs. free time
After talking to students here it seems that there is not a lot of free time for college students. This is quite the opposite for western students. We still have to spend a lot of time studying but when we do this studying is really up to us. The only times we have to be anywhere really is when we have class. We decide the rest of our schedule. A lot of the differences between college in China and college in western countries stems from how we spend our time.

2. Choosing classes
I chose all of my classes. Every semester I decided what classes I would take and I could choose from the classes available. At my university, and at many universities, there are two types of classes: Monday/Wednesday/Friday classes and Tuesday/Thursday classes. This means that I would take a class at 8:00-8:50AM on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. I had a couple of semesters where I went to school just three days a week. One semester I had classes only on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

3. Education Methods
It seems to me that college has a different aim in the west. In China it seems that you have strict schedules and that you focus on exams. While it is true that exams are important in classes in the west, we also write a lot of papers. Instead of focusing on memorizing, we focus on learning concepts and analyzing information. Every major is different. In my major, I did not take a single exam for the last two years of my college. I did, however, write many papers. One semester I wrote 164 pages. So even though I had more free time than you, I spent a lot of that free time researching and writing.

4. The College Experience
In addition to the “education” side of college, there is another side of college in western cultures. I call it “The College Experience”. Many students get involved in clubs. At more traditional schools there are fraternities and sororities. At my school there were political clubs, environmental clubs, ethnic clubs, religious clubs, and many others. There are always activities going on at campus such as focus weeks and fun activities. Also, college sports is a huge part of the college experience.