Fianl Project

Final Project

The culture difference between USA and China

Zhe Wang

English 191

I am an international student from China, I chose the USA for my overseas study. I found many difference between these two counties. I came here this January, in my first semester I have two orientation classes about the American culture, I got information from these classes and make many friends from all over the world. I have learned more information about the American culture in this year. I would like to compare the two countries culture economic and schooling difference, and find out the reasons lead to the difference.

1. I will introduce my mother country first—China. China located in the East Asian, next to the Korea. Ancient Chinese Culture is older than 5000 years. Chinese cultural history has enormous diversity and variety. The sophisticated Chinese civilization was rich in the Arts and Sciences, elaborate Painting and Printing techniques and delicate pottery and sculpture. Chinese architectural traditions were much respected all over the world.  Chinese language and literature, philosophy and politics are still reckoned as a strong influence. Chinese culture managed to retain its unique identity till the advent of Western culture in the mid-19 the century. I want to introduce the Chinese language first, Chinese language has almost 5000 year’s history, and the Chinese character had change many times. The Chinese character become easier than before, now we have two kinds of character, one is traditional character another is simplified characters. In mainland China we have to use the simple characters when we study in school, in the same way the Hong Kong and Taiwan always use the traditional Chinese characters right now. To communicate in written Chinese, thousands of Chinese characters must be memorized. Since the establishment of the PRC in 1949, reform of the written language has been a major priority. A simplified system of writing, reducing the number of strokes per character, has been adopted, and the language restructured so that anyone familiar with the basic 2,000–3,000 characters is functionally literate. So this is why now we have simplified and traditional characters.
2. Second, spoken Chinese falls into two major groups, separated roughly by a northeast-southwest line running from the mouth of the Yangtze River to the border of Vietnam. In China, the spoken language has regional phonetic differences. North and west of this line are the so-called Mandarin dialects, based on the Beijing dialect and known as putonghua ("common language"). The most important dialect south of the linguistic divide is that of Shanghai, the Wu dialect spoken in the Yangtze River Delta. The people who speak the Wu dialect almost live in the Zhejiang and Jiangsu province. Actually, the Yue dialect spoken in southern China is the language of the majority of Chinese emigrants, like the people who live in the Guamgdong province and Hong Kong, all of them speak Yue dialect. Others include the Minbei or Fuzhou dialect, the Xiang, and Gan dialects. Mandarin Chinese was adopted as the official language of China in 1955.
3. Third, I would like to introduce the Chinese food. Chinese food is best food I never taste before. Chinese culture food can be roughly divided into the Northern and Southern styles of cooking. In general, Northern Chinese cooking dishes are oily without being cloying, and the flavors of vinegar and garlic tend to be more pronounced. Pasta plays an important role in Northern Chinese cooking; noodles, ravioli-like dumplings, steamed stuffed buns, fried meat dumplings, and steamed bread are favored flour-based treats. The cooking of Peking, Tientsin, and Shantung are perhaps the best known area styles of Northern Chinese cuisine. I like rice best in the Chinese food, rice and rice products such as rice noodles, rice cakes, and rice congee, are the usual accompaniments to Southern style cooking. Normally, any one entree will combine three to five selected from ingredients that are light green, dark green, red, yellow, white, black, or caramel-colored. Actually, we have a lot of sauces like soy sauce, sugar, vinegar, and other seasonings add richness to a dish without covering up the natural flavor of the ingredients. In traditional Chinese food, a well-prepared dish will be rich to those who like strong flavors, not over spiced to those who like a blander taste, sweet to those who like a sweet flavor, and hot to those who like a piquant flavor.
4. Fourth, the educational system in China today is more Socialist-oriented. Chinese classrooms are typically packed with up to 50 students, and learning is often done in groups to emphasize teamwork and cooperation, basic tenets of Socialism. But Chinese schooling is also increasingly competitive, and students sit for entrance exams even at the grade school level. Because of the competitive we have to work hard every day in the school. Most of the high school students have to work 16 hours a day. However, 12%of the graduation has the opportunity to take the high level education. The other students just go in to the technology school in the China. Children - especially only children - are under a lot of pressure to excel in school. There is also an unspoken code of conformity, and there is a lot of pressure to fit in, causing students to "lose face" in front of their peers. This is also given us a lot of motivation to study hard. In addition to academics, parents also try and enroll their children in a wide variety of after-school activities to enhance their overall development. I was a high school students, I experience the tough time when I studied in the high school. We have no time to do what we want. Just do a lot of homework in order to finish. In the evening, we usually need spent 5 hours in order to guarantee finish my homework. We need to learn the science, nature science and economic in school. In the current society in China, the reality today is both parents usually work, and they want to cultivate a friendlier, supportive relationship with their child. This reflects most parents' attitudes towards discipline as well. Because the strong competitive lead to the tough situation in the middle school and high school.
5. Fifth, transportation is developing very fast in recent years, as we all know China is a country which is the largest number to use the bicycles. Bicycles, the real traffic jams in major cities in China are caused by the number of bicycles. Subway systems exist only in the major cities. Now I am living in Shanghai, Shanghai is a good example, where traffic congestion, air pollution from factories and a growing number of motorized vehicles is already a problem. This is the Chinese situation in the current society. We have changed a lot but it is not enough, in the same way now we have met the new problems already. In general, these things I mentioned above are Chinese culture.

Now I would like to introduce the American culture.

1. In the first, I want to talk about the American history. I am not a citizen of American, but I remember the lessons what my chinese teacher tought us of American History. Beginning with the American Revolution, all of the hard work and sacrifice it has taken for forefathers and ancestors to establish and keep this country will be required to keep it into the future. The revolution is the past are the foundation for American future. I am interested in American history because of that only 200 years history can make the America became the strongest country in the world. How to develop the economic from a poor country to a rich country after the World War 2. I want to emphasize that The Declaration of Independence; this is done in recognition of the important principles that are the basis for the establishment of our free society. For American, this declaration make the country come into a new age.
2. Second, the education is my main point to show us. Much of the formal educational system in the United States is rooted in the European or Western belief system. In the past, the upper classes were allowed to pursue an education beyond the basics and oftentimes attended Latin grammar or secondary schools where they learned Greek and Latin and studied the classics in preparation for a college education. Religion played an important rule in developing an educational system in the United States. I believed that education was necessary in order to read the Bible to receive salvation. In their schools this is no distinction between religious and secular life and were also used to inspire children to endure the hardships of a life in the New World through religious devotion. Expect for the education about the religion, the first compulsory education laws were passed in Massachusetts from 1642-1648. This is means that the beginning with the modern education. A standard curriculum was difficult to achieve in a country as large and sparsely populated as the new United States of America. Because of this reason, the different curriculum appears in the different region, the different way to teach students appear as well. For example, the university and community university, actually this is no essential distinction between them, but the community university adjusts to the rare population region. The United States experienced rapid growth during the period from 1865-1920. During that period, the high level education in America experienced rapid growth as well. Many famous universities were appeared in that moment, so we have to admit America had passed in a new age from 1920s. For American students, most of them have opportunity to enter in the university take high level education. For today is state a fact that is American which is a power country have perfect mechanism on education system.

Actually, whatever where we study we have to study hard everyday. I have a lot experienced which I studied in China, in the class we listen to teacher carefully and take some notes only. We have no opportunities to talk each other about the teacher talks about in the class. Sometimes we will misunderstand what the teachers teach us but I cannot ask teacher immediately in the class because this behavior was counted not respect teacher in the Chinese classroom. Eventually I have to ask questions after class but we just have 10 minutes to take break, in case of that I went to restroom I have no time to ask question this is why I always forget what I want to ask, because of these reasons I mentioned above I scrape up many questions when I reviewed my courses in the end of semester. In China we have take the entrance exam when we finish the high school, face strong competitive in this exam. Only 12% have opportunity to take high level education. However, in USA every high school students have opportunity to enter in the university. I like American way to study in the classroom, particularly modes of instruction. Teachers will give enough time to discuses during the class period, if students have any questions they can ask teachers immediately. Other point I like very much is that group study, the students were divided into different groups, and they are free to show their own opinions in the group. This way can inspire the learning initiative and make students feel relaxed in the class. Last but not least most American professor are friendly to answer student’s qusetions and have patience to sovlve problems for students. I feel students have good relationship with professor.This is the main difference in education area. 

Comparing the culture difference between USA and China, I sums up a point is that in different system have different way to make the country richer and beautiful. In my conclusion, I would like to introduce in the Chinese and American culture, at the same time compare the education difference. As I overseas study student, I experience two different study ways in two different system. I support the American way to learn the knowledge in the school, they are more free than Chinese students, this is why they have open minded and advanced technology. I am sure advanced technology is bound to triumph over declining culture. Now many people go back for their education to acquire another degree or diploma to impress the society, so I think education is most important for every person. Chinese education is not far behind by American, we can catch up by revolution. I really learn more information from researching American education system, which is how I got interested in American culture.

Reference List

1.  http://www.chinatownconnection.com/chinese_style_cooking.htm
2. http://www.nationsencyclopedia.com/Asia-and-Oceania/China-GOVERNMENT.html
3. http://oregonstate.edu/instruct/ed416/ae1.html
4. http://www.johmann.net/essays/american-culture.html
5. http://www.emeraldinsight.com/search.htm?ct=jnl&st1=Learning+styles&fd1=kwd&mm1=all&PHPSESSID=gbf7ao593h36slokg1okmqoc43
6. http://mandarin.about.com/
7. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chinese_cuisine
8. http://www.transparent.com/chinese/the-chinese-classroom/
9. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_in_the_People%27s_Republic_of_China
10. http://www.index-china.com/index-english/education-s.htm