Навели вы меня, друзья, на мысль выложить тут статью что написала про культурные сходства и различия студенческого сообщества. Хотя давала себе слово, что не буду своими творениями загромождать дневник...
Предупреждаю сразу, стиль не совсем мой, т.к. я постебалась бы поконкретнее, но пришлось следовать четко очерченным правилам, но и здесь мы вывернулись:))
А еще я не умею статью под кат засовывать (стыд и позор мне)! Если кто научит, буду век благодарна!

THE WORLD IN MINIATURE

some observations that might push you to think about people near you in a quite different ways

- We always leave things to the last minute. Our favorite expression is “I will do it tomorrow”. Then, at the moment we become worried: What? Tomorrow has already come? And we rush to do business”.

- We like to gather together with friends and go for a picnic or barbecue when, of course, we have petrol in our country. But if there is any chance to go we don’t miss it, we take guitars, sing and relax.
- When you walk along the streets you can see people reading comic books everywhere: in cafes, at the bus stops, in trains… we are really obsessed with them.

- If, in my country, you meet a girl dressed in a provocative manner you can be 99% sure that she is a prostitute. So, when I see here a girl dressed the same way I always think twice about her character!

- When we invite guests to our house we usually serve at least a four course meal, and here I’ve found that offering two plates with snacks is enough.


I wrote down all these quotations without authorship purposely. Try to guess! From which country is the person that every statement belongs to? Pretty confusing task, isn’t it? But how are you going to reach your conclusions? Our ideas about other cultures are often based on what we have read in books, seen in movies or heard in news but, it seems to me, people are the best source for such kind of information. Here, in Cardiff, in a multicultural environment you begin to understand it quickly. Forget about everything you knew before you had come here and learn again!

Of course, we are all different. We prefer to eat different food at different times and in different amounts; we are dressed in different ways and have different hairdos; some of us use to read a lot, others – hate reading but go in for sports much… I could continue this enumeration endlessly but the main point is that all these differences are on the surface only, and the main distinction between people from different cultures is likely to have a psychological nature. John Maher argues: “I used to freely express my thoughts whether they are about music or politics but I’ve noticed that people especially from Asian countries can’t do the same”. Things that you take for granted, a person from another country might find them surprising or embarrassing.

“I feel like I came to another world,” Christiana Koutsoully says. “The way life goes here differs very much from that in Cyprus.” Many people might share this opinion because when you get used to live in a homogeneous society, multicultural environment stuns for the first time. All cultural differences are so evident, and every similarity is so surprising.

Lucky those who were prepared well: “Greek island Rodos is very popular especially among young British people who have gained notoriety for having no sense of respect and causing troubles,” says Mary Andreadi. Others were not so ready: “I was a little bit shocked because in Greece even if we are drunk we don’t get crazy, don’t jump on each other or break things. We just say silly jokes and laugh a lot,” continues Georgios Chatzilidis. I think, Christine Oduogi from Kenya precisely summed up a general opinion of international students about the way the British relax: “For us, going out is a way of socializing, not a way of causing troubles: we drink our cocktails and leave a pub peacefully.” Let the English have a word. “Yes, I know our reputation,” Sara Baker is laughing. “We use to drink a lot, it’s true but we are not alcoholics. I think, it is in our culture when every day after work we go to a pub to spend time with our friends. We don’t intend to offend anyone but, unfortunately, sometimes it happens.”

But time works for you, every next day you notice these differences a bit less. It’s also true that adaptation takes different people different time and even different ways of settling in. Some people prefer to change themselves a lot in order to be accepted, others - force people to reckon with them. For instance, I have never met in Cardiff a Chinese girl or a guy who had not changed their names. “I did it because all Chinese do it,” says Xiaohua Pang whose English name is Echo. Yes, it makes sense, it is really difficult to pronounce Chinese names but, maybe, some people want to try?

Finally, I think you are bursting with impatience to know the answers. Well, the first statement belongs to Penny Apostolou from Greece, the second to Tendesai Bakasa from Zimbabwe, the third one to Hiroko Minami from Japan, the fourth to Christine Oduogi from Kenya, and the last one to Elena Asanova from Russia with love.