Before taking this class, I often thought that American society was the standard in which to measure all other societies from, but after reviewing the material in this course, it is impossible to make such a comparison. Many of the people in a culture similar to the American would probably find most of the cultures we have studied to be "slow", strange, or undesirable. In fact, it seems that many of the societies actually prefer to live the way they do and accept it as normal. "Normal" is a relative term, and it is difficult to establish evidence to label a culture or its characteristics abnormal. What may seem to work here often would be disastrous to other cultures. American society stresses individuality and competition, to be the best you can be for yourself first. This works well for the structure of life that has developed in this country. .
Being five years in the United States I decided to talk about American culture. The reason why I choose this culture is because this is like my second home. To tell you the truth I had a culture-shock when I first got here but now I value my independence and privacy, something that has stemmed from living in this society. My informant, Cheryl Samuelu, was born and raised in the United States. The reason why I choose this informant is because her son, Talalotu Samuelu, is my roommate and Mrs. Cheryl is like my second mother. They invited me more than one hundred times for the meals at their house. Next to the Samuelu family I learned a lot of things about the American culture which I am going to talk about in this paper. First of all I am going to talk about family life in the United States, followed by discussing the educational system within high schools, colleges and universities, after which I am going to cover government and technology, concluding this paper with a discussion on religion. I am going to finish this paper with an overview of what I have learned.
