Similarities With My Classmates From Different Nationalities example essay topic

710 words
! ^0 Birds of a feather flock together.! +/- Most everyone knows this cliche. Animals are inclined to be with other animals based on commonality, and tend to exclude animals that have different appearances. This principle is also applied to people. In the United States, a country with a highly diverse population, a perfect unity is impossible. But, finding similarities regardless of skin color and language would narrow the racism gap.

It is true that one ethnic group is different from another ethnic group in and physical appearance, language and culture. For instance, most Asians have yellow skin, while Caucasian people have white skin, and the Spanish language is different from the English language. Indians do not eat beef because they regard cows as divine animals, while beef is popular food in America. The ethnic groupings can even be divided into smaller specifications.

For example, within the Asian culture, the Chinese people are different from the Japanese people. If further steps continue, even Chinese siblings from the same parents are different in characteristics. Although difference is evident, racial prejudice is not applied to the same race because empathy binds them together tightly, which comes from the thought that they have the same nationality. Finding similarities exerts sympathy between ethnic groups as if the common nationality works like ties, which bring the same ethnic group together. I have been in America for almost one year, and I still remember the first day of school. The two-floored building was really spacious compared to the school where I used to go in Korea.

Jumbled noise coming from the students in the cafeteria struck me as a sharp blast, which blew out my dream of fitting in the new society without difficulty. I could not stand thinking that I had to hear and speak English, which I could barely understand. As days passed, I wanted to make friends, but associating with other students was twice as hard as it was in Korea. That was one of the reasons that I could not adapt to the new culture easily. Although every classmate was polite to me, I felt that I could not have any close friends because every conversation I had was limited to superficial subjects. For example, if I asked one of my classmates whether any homework was assigned, she answered my questions and that was all.

There was no further conversation. I realized that one way to get closer to my classmates was to start conversation about topics that my classmate and I might have in common- from broad subjects like school policy to more personal subjects like school life, favorite sports. I tried to keep the conversation flowing without any interruption, which would be followed by an awkward silence. As time passed I found that I had many similarities with my classmates like favorite hobbies such as playing a musical instrument, favorite foods such as macaroni and cheese and favorite sports such as swimming and skiing. One of my friends is a member of the swim team, and she loves swimming as much as I do. Whenever we get together swimming is the main topic of our conversation.

Finding similarities with my classmates from different nationalities gave me the opportunity to think upon my own culture. It also enabled me to break the wall of prejudice, which has barred students of my class from viewing Koreans as we really are. One day my friend asked me whether Koreans still have to marry the man or woman whom their parents decide. With little surprise, I explained her that marriage is decided mainly between the bride and groom like in America. As time passed, my classmates were giving me a much broader opening into their culture than I had expected.

I do not necessarily have stronger ability to bare the hurtful feelings of racism, nor do other ethnic people. To diminish the racism by finding any kind of likeness will not only cure the victims emotionally and physically afflicted by racism but also prevent our descendants from suffering from racism.