Comparing and contrasting American and Taiwanese culture, Elsa Liao

Different countries have their own cultures; they may be similar or different. When I was in Taiwan, I always heard that American is individual and independent. Now I have the chance to visit America, I’ll grab this chance to experience American culture and see what have I heard in Taiwan is true or not.

In Taiwan, people are not as much individual as American. We like to stay with other people in most of the time. For example, we like to eat, play, go shopping and even go to the class together. We are taught to be gregarious just opposite to American. We can’t do anything too strange or too crazy; there are more rules in our society than in the U.S that limit our behavior. We have to wear uniform to school since elementary school to senior high school. We are more conservative than American; if there is someone wear very few clothes, we would think they’re strange. However, American girls often wear sleeveless dress and don’t mind to expose some part of breast. Besides, the cracks between a door and its frame in the bathroom are so wide that I can see whether there is a person inside it or not.

left pic. American; right pic. Taiwanese

The food is also different between Taiwan and America. Our staple food is rice, while Americans eat pizza, fries and potatoes every day. We often have hot soup even in summer, but Americans don't. Besides, all the food I ate in Mississippi is too salty or sweet. They add too much seasoning in their food, so I feel hard to adapt to their food. We don’t eat so much fried food with large amount of seasoning in Taiwan. I think the food in Taiwan is healthier than American food.

left pic. American food; right pic. Taiwanese food

However, there are still some similarities between Taiwanese and American values. One of them is both of us want to earn much money. We all want to be rich, but maybe American like happiness more than money.

All in all, different countries have their own cultures. Some of them are different, but some of them are similar. It’s interesting to learn different cultures, but be careful not to offend people who come from another country.