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Archeologists have approximated that the human capacity for cumulative culture emerged somewhere between 500,000 to 170,000 years ago. Culture is a broad word for social behavior, norms, beliefs, arts, laws, and customs, as well as the knowledge and habits of the individuals in these groups all fall under the larger term culture. This is not a process that is done overnight. Forming cultures can take extremely long, sometimes even taking centuries to fully develop. Humans form culture through learning processes and socializing with people within and outside of their communities. Not only is it a process that is learned throughout time, but different climates and the geographic feature can also affect how groups form culture. This is why people and cultures from different regions are so diverse.
The past few weeks I have had the opportunity to interview two of my friends who came to the United States for school and just a change in their everyday lifestyles. The first interviewee was Alex Rodriguez, who is originally from Puerto Rico. He moved here a little over a year ago and enrolled at Michigan State University. Although I have known Alex for a while, one thing I did notice that I originally overlooked when I first met him, is how communication affects him even when it is a simple conversation. He expressed that it was and still is hard for him to keep up in some conversations, often having to talk slowly or stop to think about the right way to express his feelings. That was one of the biggest points he had stressed just because that was the hardest initial barrier he had to face after being tossed into American culture.
I was surprised when he said life in Puerto Rico was not all that different. The United States infrastructure is better than Puerto Rico which I was not shocked by because it matched one of my comparisons from the website, “Puerto Rico uses 55.96% less electricity. The per capita consumption of electricity in The United States is 12,185kWh while in Puerto Rico it is 5,366kWh. This entry consists of total electricity generated annually plus imports and minus exports, expressed in kilowatt-hours. The discrepancy between the amount of electricity generated and/or imported and the amount consumed and/or exported is accounted for as loss in transmission and distribution” (CIA). The United States is further developed than Puerto Rico, offering more technology and options throughout the country.
Another comparison is the sizes of families and birthrates in Puerto Rico Although he did say that family life is valued more in Puerto Rico than in the United States. More family gatherings and overall more interactions between individuals. This kind of surprised me because their birthrates are lower, “have 18.78% fewer babies. The annual number of births per 1,000 people in Puerto Rico is 10.90 while in The United States, it is 13.42. This entry gives the average annual number of births during a year per 1,000 persons in the population at midyear; also known as the crude birth rate. The birth rate is usually the dominant factor in determining the rate of population growth. It depends on both the level of fertility and the age structure of the population” (CIA). This surprised me because if Puerto Ricans value family more I would expect them to have higher birth rates.
The last comparison I looked into was the average GDP of both countries. GDP is the monetary value of all finished goods and services made within a country during a specific time frame. This comparison follows along with electricity and infrastructure in the sense that the United States is further developed, “Make 69.13% less money. This GDP per capita in Puerto Rico is $16,300 while in The United States, it is $52,800. This entry shows GDP on a purchasing power parity basis divided by population as of 1 July for the same year. A nation’s GDP at purchasing power parity (PPP) exchange rates is the sum value of all goods and services produced in the country valued at prices prevailing in the United States. This is the measure most economists prefer when looking at per-capita welfare and when comparing living conditions or the use of resources across countries. The measure is difficult to compute, as a US dollar value has to be assigned to all goods and services in the country regardless of whether these goods and services have a direct equivalent in the United States (for example, the value of an ox-cart or non-US military equipment); as a result, PPP estimates for some countries are based on a small and sometimes different set of goods and services. In addition, many countries do not formally participate in the World Bank’s PPP project that calculates these measures, so the resulting GDP estimates for these countries may lack precision. For many developing countries, PPP-based GDP measures are multiples of the official exchange rate (OER) measure. The differences between the OER- and PPP-denominated GDP values for most of the wealthy industrialized countries are generally much smaller” (CIA). This difference in GDP shows you that the United States values money and overall country progress more than family. This interaction did change the way I look at other cultures as well as my own when it comes to family and social life.
The second interview was also very interesting because it was such a dramatic change in geography and infrastructure compared to the United States. The second interviewee is from South Korea, his name is David Youm and this is the third year that he has lived in The United States. He came to the States searching for a better education, but that search ended when he got accepted into Michigan State University. I thought it was interesting how he thinks the biggest difference between both countries is the connectivity between individuals. As Alex said earlier, The United States’ social aspect is less inviting than other countries. People here worry more about themselves and their immediate peer group than random people surrounding them.
One of the comparisons I obtained from the website was that the average unemployment rate for South Korea is higher than the average in The United States, “South Korea has an unemployment rate of 3.50% while The United States has 6.20%” (CIA). This did not surprise me too much because The United States GDP is one of the largest in the world. I think this shows the citizens of the U.S. care more about productivity and money than maybe some other values of South Korea or Puerto Rico. Another comparison is the difference in the amount of electricity being used. Like Puerto Rico the United States consumes more electricity than South Korea, “The per capita consumption of electricity in The United States is 12,185kWh while in South Korea it is 9,165kWh. This entry consists of total electricity generated annually plus imports and minus exports, expressed in kilowatt-hours. The discrepancy between the amount of electricity generated and/or imported and the amount consumed and/or exported is accounted for as loss in transmission and distribution” (CIA). The last thing I am going to compare to the U.S. is the annual birth rate of both countries. Just like Puerto Rico, South Korea has a lower birth rate than the U.S., “The annual Number of births per 1,000 people in South Korea is 8.26 while in The United States, it is 13.42” (CIA). Those are just a few of the cultural differences between South Korea and Puerto Rico.
Even though both interviewees said the U.S. is not very far off from their home countries. They still stated there is a significant difference in the type of music, food, arts, and how families interact for their homes and surrounding country’s cultures. Their impressions of the U.S. changed once they lived in the U.S. They both expected way more people to be living in homes and have a way more family-orientated life. Although, there is an insane amount of individual homes they were surprised by the number of people who live in apartments. I was shocked by the number of cultural overlaps they mentioned. They talked about how the music and movie industry helped make that happen. Offering people from other countries to see what life is like in the United States. That is also their reasoning for why they think their home countries are not too far off from ours. I learned that the U.S. is a very capitalistic society compared to other areas of the world. I would definitely say that this assignment has helped me to view other cultures differently, helping me to keep an open mind.
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