A good friend of mine went on erasmus to the United States, Seattle. So at the end of her stay she has a number of American friends. She was very close with one girl, Amanda Parker. So it was hard for her to leave for Belgium but they decided to meet each other again. Amanda Parker came to Belgium during the holiday season. Like this I had the opportunity to meet an American girl. My friend, Amanada and I went on a daytrip to the sea. It wasn't only a very pleasant day but I also learned a lot about the culture of the North Americans.
First of all, I noticed she expresses clearly what is on her mind. So as already mentionned in the lessons, the United States language and culture are examples of low-context communication. During our trip we talked about the surroundings and I asked Amanda for popular places of interest in the United States. One day I would like to go to the U.S. Topics we discussed later include the educational system, television programmes and hobbies. I also asked if she is a religious person, but she didn't answer. She just said people in the United States often belong to different religions. So it's obvious religion is a conversation taboo in the U.S.
As I stated in the previous paragraph, we talked about the educational system. We concluded that one of the differences between the two systems is about competitiveness. At postsecondary level the U.S. educational system is competitive. This is not the case in Belguim. Amanda decided at the beginning of her final year at secondary school to study economics. Her parents learned her to think for herself so she's rather individualistic as most of the inhabitants of the U.S. She graduated this year form university and now she is working as a junior manager. She told us she wanted to hold a high position in the future. From this it follows that men and women have the same rights in the United States.
Of course, we also had a lot of fun and enjoyed the nice weather!
