American Values and Assumptions                                   -Gary Althen


In your journal, write for ten to fifteen minutes about one or two cultural differences you have noticed while living in a foreign country or in a place that is culturally different from where you grew up. Then share your thought with several classmates.

Ans: last year I happened to go to south India. I stayed in a dharmashala. It also served meals. It was very hot there. People liked to wear very light clothes.
I was invited have a meal. There were fifteen person sitting on the ground for the meal. First, they brought banana leaves, and placed in front of the dinners. Then another person brought a pickle, and placed it on the leaves. Then came another one with rice and distributed it. After this, dal and vegetables were served. After everything was distributed, we were asked to start our meal. I found the taste of the food quite different. The pickle was sweet. The whey was salty and pungent. The pickle and the vegetable were made of coconut. The food had a strange taste, but I liked it.
In the afternoon, I would drink the juice from coconut. The smell of the place was quite different. I did not understand their language. They spoke neither Nepali nor Hindi. I would rarely get the one who would speak English. I faced the difficulty of passing time without communicating properly.