I was born 29 year ago in Santiago, capital of Chile. I have lived all my life there: I went to high school and to University in that city, and I have worked for four years there too. Thanks to my job I have had the opportunity to travel enough, but I’ve never been in United States before. Now I found myself there, close to start a master degree program. And, although I have been here for barely a week, I will dare to dedicate next lines to compare some aspects about life between Americans and Chileans.
There is one aspect that foreign people use to say about us: we are good workers. It is known that Chile has one of the longest working weeks in the world (or so it is said in Chile). We use to work 5 days a week and 9 hours for day, but if necessary, extra hours are also worked in Chile. From what I could see during my working years I could say that it’s not only the long working day what make us so workers, but also the stressful of it. There is seldom time to take a while, breathe and think, because everything must be done immediately and efficiently. Although the stressful of their works, Chileans, pursuing achievement (or at least the sense of it), seem to be 
accustomed to it. Now, as far as I know, being a hard worker and thriving through hard work are remarkable features of Americans or so Gary Althen would say: “…there is a strong belief that the ideal person is a hard worker” and “…Americans think that is a good thing to achieve, to work hard, acquire more material badges of their success…”. According to these evidences I would say that working hard is a common characteristic between both people.
As I said earlier, I’ve been here for barely a week, but I have been surprised for American’s informality. It is shown on the way they dress and talk and it seems that they also boast about it. I have seen this not only here in Ole Miss, where, if you only focus on clothes, it’s hard to tell the difference between students and professors, but also in my working years, where almost every American I met used to wear casual clothes and speak in a very 
informal way. This is a big contrast between both countries, due to Chileans tend to be more traditional and show it in the way they speak and dress. I think in my country, language is used to show distance between people, because informal language could be used among relatives and friends, but formal language must be used in work or to address to an unknown person. Formality should be present in dressing as well. It is important to dress properly according to the occasion, which could be seen on schools’ uniforms, formal clothing on work, and sometimes in universities.
There are more similarities and contrast between both cultures, but so far I would say: having a strong sense of responsibility for working is a similarity between both people and Chilean formality contrasts with American informality.
There is one aspect that foreign people use to say about us: we are good workers. It is known that Chile has one of the longest working weeks in the world (or so it is said in Chile). We use to work 5 days a week and 9 hours for day, but if necessary, extra hours are also worked in Chile. From what I could see during my working years I could say that it’s not only the long working day what make us so workers, but also the stressful of it. There is seldom time to take a while, breathe and think, because everything must be done immediately and efficiently. Although the stressful of their works, Chileans, pursuing achievement (or at least the sense of it), seem to be 
accustomed to it. Now, as far as I know, being a hard worker and thriving through hard work are remarkable features of Americans or so Gary Althen would say: “…there is a strong belief that the ideal person is a hard worker” and “…Americans think that is a good thing to achieve, to work hard, acquire more material badges of their success…”. According to these evidences I would say that working hard is a common characteristic between both people.
As I said earlier, I’ve been here for barely a week, but I have been surprised for American’s informality. It is shown on the way they dress and talk and it seems that they also boast about it. I have seen this not only here in Ole Miss, where, if you only focus on clothes, it’s hard to tell the difference between students and professors, but also in my working years, where almost every American I met used to wear casual clothes and speak in a very 
informal way. This is a big contrast between both countries, due to Chileans tend to be more traditional and show it in the way they speak and dress. I think in my country, language is used to show distance between people, because informal language could be used among relatives and friends, but formal language must be used in work or to address to an unknown person. Formality should be present in dressing as well. It is important to dress properly according to the occasion, which could be seen on schools’ uniforms, formal clothing on work, and sometimes in universities.There are more similarities and contrast between both cultures, but so far I would say: having a strong sense of responsibility for working is a similarity between both people and Chilean formality contrasts with American informality.
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