Cultural Exchange Discussion

The cultural exchange with the students from China was very interesting because the answers from both groups had some pretty surprising answers. One thing that surprised me was that the UIBE students didn’t know as much about American culture as I thought they would, especially about music. Generation Y has grown up in a time where information is available with one click. The world is actually becoming smaller with MTV showing songs from all around the world. Each culture has its own specific type of folk music, but popular music is becoming cross cultural.

That leads me to the other part of the discussion that surprised me; how little the American culture knew about the Chinese culture. We did talk about some of our folk music, but then we started talking about popular music that the Chinese have known about since they became a major economic power. I don’t think our students realized how similar the UIBE students are. We may be a world apart, but our interests and tastes are actually beginning to mesh.

I actually wanted to speak up, but a select few people from our class really wanted their opinions to be heard. They even began to have a discussion within our group while leaving the UIBE students to watch and chuckle. Even so, it was a very enlightening discussion. I just think that people should do a little research prior to a discussion if they plan on speaking. It’s a little unwise to go into a discussion without some understanding of the other party.