I have mentioned this throughout many of my journal entries already, but just to reiterate, I have only been out of the United States once in all of my 22-years. Call me sheltered or call me fearful of taking on new cultures and to be honest, I do not think I can disagree with either of these criticisms.
When I was given the choice to decide where I wanted to study abroad for the fall of my junior year, hands down I wanted to go to Australia; no questions asked. I am not going to sit here and pretend that the fact that the Australian culture is very similar to that of American culture
had absolutely no influence on my decision; that would just be a lie. Therefore, when it comes to discussing cross-cultural experiences, I would not be a good example to use, and to be honest, I am not okay with that :( .
I would not change my decision of going to Australia for anything, but I do regret not giving Europe a chance. Many of my friends were privileged enough to travel to so many cities and experience so many different cultures and customs and while I still learned a lot from my experience in Australia, I cannot say that I had the opportunity to experience multiple different customs and cultures. Other than the fact that Australians are not as fast-paced as
Americans and that they find it rude to tip at restaurants and that their beer is nearly three times as expensive as ours, their culture is overall very similar to America.
In the future, I would definitely love to travel to Europe if I am ever given the opportunity. I think it is so fascinating to immerse oneself within a culture with which one is unfamiliar; you learn more than you could have ever imagined! I mean let’s be honest, the best way to learn a
language or about another country’s culture is essentially to visit there and experience it for yourself. I mean of course you can always read about these different customs and cultures in a textbook or online, but it is definitely not the same. I think it is fun to learn languages and to learn about how other people live, which is why I can only hope to one day expand my cross-cultural experiences and familiarize myself with different cultures and customs.
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