EPCOT

Some of my friends and I went to Orlando over the summer vacation in 2010. We have been to the two Universal parks, four parks of Disney world, and Wet and Wild aqua park. One of Disney world’s parks that we have been to is EPCOT, which was fantastic and I am not exaggerating since it gathers thirteen countries’ cultures at least. I think that visiting EPCOT has lots of things to do with expanding knowledge about many different cultures and traditions.

When first we entered the park, we entered the big white ball; thus, we played an amazing technological game. My feelings at that time were ineffable. Thereafter, we entered the countries’ side; there are thirteen areas at least that contain a variety of cultures from all over the planet. My friends and I were surprised and happy, for it is rare to see different cultures at the same time and the same place. Every country has its own ways of showing the traditions. For example, Moroccans were producing their traditions by doing concerts, providing Moroccans food, and selling Moroccan traditional stuff. Moreover, every area contains some traditional buildings that are designed in a way that makes you feel like you are entering their real country.

In a nutshell, it was amazing and the main reason that made us all impressed is the idea of gathering many countries from all over the world in one place. Seeing all those different flags and buildings makes the visitor impressed. Not only do those countries areas gather some cultures and traditions but also they gather workers from those countries. As a result, the visitors are able experience totally effective experiences. In my opinion, talking to people about their native countries provides a big percentage of these countries’ reflections.

"Let's Keep in Touch"

“Let’s keep in touch.” I have heard the previous saying many times in my life; HOWEVER, not all of my friends that I met have applied this quotation in the real life. In the United States, I have been meeting new friends from different countries around the world, YET the American ones are the most likely to keep their words and contact me constantly. It does not mean that people from other countries do not contact or keep in touch with their friends since friendship is a very huge word that contains lots of meanings.

ACTUALLY, I cannot count how many friends I have made since I got here, but there are a lot. One of my American friends that I met accidentally is Chris. He knew my Saudi friends at first; THEREAFTER, I met him in my dormitory’s cafeteria. I can clearly recall that he said, “let’s keep in touch”, and he literally has kept in touch with my friends and me. We have been doing lots of activities recently. LIKE Chris, there are many other Americans who I met and I try to be in touch with them in different ways, such as meeting them, and contacting them via Facebook.

In Saudi Arabia, people are friendly, BUT they do not make friends easily SINCE most Saudis have fears of enrolling in random friendships. IN FACT, Islam does obligate Muslims to make new friends and gain variety of knowledge from all over the world.

Concept of Stereotyping

When I first got to the United States, I did not have any deep experience about the U.S. and about Americans. However, now I feel like I have gotten much more knowledge than I expected to have. Everyday when I walk in the streets heading my English school, I get new images and thoughts about people and what kinds of people they are. Even though sometimes I keep seeing the same behaviors, I cannot judge all people according to some sights. Actually, if I wanted to judge, I would judge the exact person which means without generalization. Judging a big number of people is unfair; for example, when I judge an Asian person as a math lover, I judge 3.7 billion persons as math lovers. This is quite wrong because this is a very big number of people and all those people do not necessarily love math.

The concept of stereotyping in a small number of Americans sometimes is exaggerating and generalizing since these people’s minds are controlled by many ideas that they might be right, but they must be restricted in a small group of people, not necessarily all people. However, others understand the right definition of stereotyping and deal with it in the right way.

During our first semester here in the U.S., some of my friends and I have rarely faced some challenges in defending ourselves as Saudi students from many wrong ideas, such as being wealthy, living in tents, riding camels, and being a terrorist. This stereotype gathers 30 million persons under one definition; therefore, it is definitely a wrong stereotyping. In fact, all these previous ideas are not real except for richness, for we can observe rich people in every country. In my opinion, those people who stereotype others according to news, talks, or movies should realize that they might be stereotyped as people with simple controllable minds. The only guaranteed way to judge people is to know about them more than us.

Hello

Hello everyone,

This is Rayan. I am from Saudi Arabia and I am studying now in the U.S. as my first time.

I am to post some passages as an assignment for my writing class. In fact, I like these types of writing, which are describing and reacting. I am going to write about cultural shocks that I have had since I got here. I am not going to focus in one cultural shock; I am planning to write about many American deep cultural shocks that I have been observing. Thus, I will post my opinions about them. The cultural shocks interest me the most, for I like experiencing new things then declaring my opinions and feelings about them.