Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[Thomas]

Hello! I�m interested in values in different cultures. My question is, �what value is particularly important for people from your country?� Personally, as a citizen of the United States, I would choose independence. People are considered adults at 18 in the U.S., and many move out of their parent�s house, either to work or to go to college. In some cases, this independence may be more perceived than real: most college students are financially dependent on their parents, but they still like to consider themselves independent. Perhaps this emphasis on independence has historical roots going back to America�s succession from the British�or maybe it�s a cultural value inherited from the British themselves, I don�t know.

I look forward to hearing what you have to say! Please tell me about your country.

Thomas

[BakaGaijin]

Hmm. My take on American culture is that everything here is based on Money. We have saying like, "I bet..." and everything is money money money. If you don't have money, you're "Trashy". Trashy meaning unworthy of consideration of friendship, so people don't pay attention to you. Independence is actually based on money as well. You can't get out of the parents house without it, you can't go to school without it. It's just sort of mandatory. I'm sorry I couldn't really tell a whole lot more on the subject. I'm too busy trying to find a school that teaches Japanese and has an Education program so i can get my 4 year degree and ESL certified and teach in Japan.
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I'm Kevin Tillman.
Japanese Exchange and Teaching ALT

[wickedwelshwitch]

My sister in law is Amercian and she feels that she has more independence in the UK than she had in Amercia.

Her opinion is that America is insular and that she has learnt far more about other parts of the world since she's been living here.

Take the media for instance. We receive world news and our news agencies can express and report political issues with as much bias as they want. They make it perfectly clear which political party they support. In the USA, they receive very little world news through tv. The channels are mostly about American news. Their newspapers have to report with no bias whatsoever.

Here in the UK we are full adults at 18. In America different states have different laws about drinking etc.

We appear to have more say in what is going on in the country too. Take abortion for example. Bush is now making moves to make abortion illegal. Imagine the outcry if this happened here.

I feel that we in the UK are far more independent and I really value this.

[Diana]

In my culture, it is family that is considered valuable. The Chamorros are raised in an extended family system, and it's the extended family who usually makes certain decisions on such things as family burial. It is also the extended family who always gets together to plan village fiestas, weddings, christenings, etc. When a person or a family is left homeless as a result of a major typhoon or natural disaster a member of the extended family would offer their home to the homeless relative until they are able to get back on their feet. In times of good and bad, it is the family who will always be there.

[Openmind]

Actually, this is a very interesting question that provides ideas for a broad discussion. For example: How do you define culture? What is the difference between culture and mentality? Is there such a thing like 'the American culture' or 'the Japanes culture'? Doesn't any company have its own culture? How does our culture change through the internet? Does any member of a society have the same values? And a lot more...

[Racheal17]

Most of my values developed from watching my family and how we interact. Like most of the people from Nigeria, my family have been Roman Catholic ever since I could remember and their way of life developed partly from their religion. The things that we value lies in the personal decisions that we make. My parents always trust me to make the right decisions, but they always remind me never to forget my traditional and cultural values when i am making those decisions. My tradition also help me to listen to others and understand their point of view, even--no, especially--when I don't agree with them. This erases ignorance and instills a form of responsibility in me.

[Astron]

A very interesting question... and lots of interesting opinions...
Well, if we speak about Russia and our culture than the fact of its diversity should be taken just for granted.
Our country is multinational from the first days of its existence. It was formed by several tribes of Russes and Slavs (or Slavians). So, according to the Bible, the country of Slavians existed from 5000 B.C. And we had our own alphabet certainly before the Christ's Birth... The modern russian ABC has one or two lettes from the ancient alphabet that looked like a sort of cuneifom. Our letters now accpeted a lot of different symbols from other languages: two letters fron the Jewish alphabet, lots from the Ancient Greek and so on...
One of the most important parts of our cultural history is that lots of ancinet manuscripts, buildings and pictures are anonymous. For ancient writes it was quite simple to take an extract from another book and put it into his work. Because eveything was common. Lots of churches and monasteries are really marvellous, but we don't know the name of the architect - the complex was built "by the whole world", as our ancesters used to say answering such a question.
Oh, I glanced at the scrren and realized that there is plenty of text, so it will be difficult to reach the line I'm writing now. Then, I want to answer the question... There is a phrase that belong to one of the European philosophers: "The culture of Europe always touches my heart, but the Russian culture always torment it..."

Do you want to now something else? Let's make a topic... What do you think about that?
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