The Eating Customs

I had lunch at the Jhonson Commons with my group mates to find out cultural differences while we are eating. I investigated the differences of table settings, table manners, appropriate dress and dinner conversation topics. I found some interesting differences from my country.
Table settings are very different depending on countries. In America, People eat at a table. The table can be square and circle. In Japan and Chile, the tables are usually square. We sometimes eat on the floor with short length table in Japan. People use only knives, spoons and forks but in Japan, We use chopsticks as well as those. In America, the main food is chicken but it depends. For instance the main food in Texas is beef. In Chile, the main food is pork and beef. In Japan, the main food is fish. The eating amount is also different depending on countries. People usually eat for casual dishes two or three courses but for a big event, for instance, Thanksgiving Day they eat a lot. In my culture, the eating amount is depending on families. My mother cooks a lot so I usually eat five or six courses for a meal but like in America we also eat a lot for a big event, New Year etc…
The customs of table manners are also different depending on countries. We have the same custom for leaving food. In our countries, we cannot leave food on the plates. We cannot leave especially rice in Japan because it insults our ancestors. Whenever I left even a piece of rice when I was a kid, my mother got angry at me. In America, they have to keep the hand which doesn’t have anything on their lap and put a piece of napkin on their lap. People cannot talk with full of mouth while we are eating in Japan, America and Chile. When they want to talk they have to cover their mouths or talk after swallowing the food. In America and Chile, they pray for god before eating. In Japan, we say “Itadakimasu” before eating and “Gochisousamadesita” after eating to appreciate the food. When we are invited by a host and once we take food on our plate, we have to eat it even if it is not tasty. This is in common in three of those countries. In Japan, we have to wait for other people get ready to eat. If it is a formal situation people have to wait in America and Chile, too. Depending on a situation, children are sometimes not allowed to sit at the same table with adults in America. In the case, Children sit at a table which is for children away from adults.
For appropriate dress, we can wear anything we want in a casual situation but if it’s a formal situation we have to wear a suit in Japan, America and Chile. When we eat, we have to take off our jackets even though it’s not formal situation and relating to business.
We in Japan, America and Chile usually have conversation a lot when we are in a restaurant. We can usually have conversation a lot because it takes for a long time until food comes and check comes at a table. We don’t talk about politics and religion and grotesque topics.
It was very interesting to see the eating customs of the other cultures.

Thanksgiving Day

I am planning to have a party for Thanksgiving Day. In America, Thanksgiving party is held on the forth of Thursday in November. The origin of Thanksgiving Dayis that long long time ago, people in America suffered from cold weather in a winter. They managed to survive cooperating with each other. They harvested a lot in the following autumn so they had a party with a lot of food to appreciate the god. It is the origin of Thanksgiving. Americans think that Thanksgiving is one of the biggest holidays in an year. All family gather and have big lunch or dinner together. It's usually difficult to meet altogether except for the holiday because some of them live in away from their family. The traffic is usually very busy on the day because everybody goes back to their homes. People eat turkey for Thanksgiving dishes. Because many turkeys are killed on the day, president of the United States do "Turkey Pardon" in the morning. I'm going to have the pary in the Elizabeth's house which is in Oxford on November 25th Thursday at 12:00 p.m. I'm planning to watch a football game with everybody in her house after the lunch. People in America usually watch football game after lunch on Thanksgiving day because it's end of the season and the game is very important for Super Ball. I'm going to invite Wladimir, Evan, Nelson who is a organizer in the Intensive English Program, Gabliera, Ruis, Edo, Marge, Karo and Loleto who are friends of Wladimir from Chile.I'm going to also invite Lee and Minji who are my friends from South Korea. I'm going to also invite Jill who is Elizabeth's best friend and Aaron who is her husband. I'm going to also invite Blake, Jorgea who are teachers in the Intensive English Proglam and Josh who is Evan's best friend. I'm going to invite the guests by an e-mail which says "Hey. We will have a Thanksgiving party in Elizabeth's house which is located at 114CR 434. The party bigines at 12:00 p.m. Thanksgiving dish may be served but everybody please bring a dish. We will watch a football game after the party." We will have Turkey, Dressing, Cranbery, Gravy, Apple Pie, Salad, Pampkin Pie, Sweet Poteto Pie, Beer, Wine, Sweet Tea and water. We will use plastic knives and dishes because those are very easy to clean up. We also bring some chairs, tables and couches to eat the dishes and watch the football game for everybody. Why I chose this party is that this is one of the most important holidays in America and I have enjoyed Thanksgiving Day last year. We don't usually have a party but when we have a party this is almost same as a party in Japan but we don't watch football game after a party and we don't eat the same food. A Thanksgiving party is almost the same as the New Year's party in Japan. All family gather on the day to eat dinner and watch TV.

Breaking a Social Norm

　　　　I have broken a social norm recently with my group mates. There are one Japanese and two Americans in our group. What we have done was that we investigated people's reaction. First, we went to the computer area on the 1 st floor in the library and I sat on the floor with reading a textbook although there is a chair next to me. There are few people on the area but no one cared because they might have thought sitting on the floor with reading a textbook is my cultute. I am oviously not from America. Next, we tried to shake hands with left hand with people we don't now and we saw their reaction. Why we chose this topic was because we wanted to see the diffrences between people's reaction when I, Japanese, do and Americans do. It was certainly different. First, an American man went to a coffee shop and ordered a cup of black coffee and shook hands with the shoper. The shoper a little bit hesitated to do it and talked about it with another shoper after he left. Next, I shook hands after borrowing a book with a receptionist. She didn't care and hegitate to do that. She even smailed for me. She thought shaking hands with left hand is my culture. Next, an American woman tried to shake hands after borrowing a book. The receptionist reacted with the same way as the coffee shoper. The coffee shoper and the receptionist seemed that they thought it was weird because they are Americands. Americans usually shake hands with their right hands. We shook hands again each but the result was the same. It was quite interestiong investigation because people's reactions were different although we did the same thing.

Our History

I've interviewed my interview partner who have been living in different places. They are Elizabeth, Evan, Wladimir. Elizabeth is from Oxford. She is 33 years old. She lives in her house with her husband and one daughter. Her patents who live in south Mississippi have a firm She has a great career . She has taought in a high school which had many refugee students from New Orleans due to a hurricane Katorina. She has been to Austria for dancing long time a go. German and English are spoken in Austria. She has stayed there for couple of weeks. She told me " It was very stressful because they didn't speak English although they can speak." She also felt distance between people. She likes Chocolate, seafood especially Susi, gray color and listening classic music from radio. She also likes sosccer because her 5 years old daughter plays it. She likes British Litelature. She has read Harry Poter series from 1 to 7 for only two month. Her favorite movie is Ting Tington. In her future, she wants to go abroad to teach or teach in high school in the United States. Evan is from Pontotoq, Mississippi. It's about 20 minutes from Oxford by a car. He has been living in Oxford for 2 years to commute to Ole Miss. He is 24 years old. He lents appartment here. He has quite big family. In his family, there are his parents, married old sister, his husband and two yanger brothers. His father has great abilities to paint and take photo. Evan has been to Spain to study Spanish for about 1 month. He also has been to Turkey to teach English for 9 weeks. He was surprised that Spanish drink a lot even though it is in the morning. He was also surprised that some of Tuekish don't eat pork because they are Muslim. He likes shrimp, friedchiken, coan bread, macaroni cheese and blue color. He also likes to play basketball, watch football and listen lock and pop musics whatever on the radio. His favorite movie is Badman. He doesn't have any dreams yet. He told me, " because life is changing." but he wants to teach overseas. Wladimir is from Tamuko, southern city in Chile. He lives in his aunt's house to commute his university because his house is far away from his university. He likes writing and Psychology. He has mother, younger brother and younger sister in his family. This is his first travel to foreign country. He feels that understranding people and beeing understood by people are difficult. For example, kissing cheek when they greet. He likes blue and green color, watching car race, rock music and vesitable. He doesn't like junck food. His favorite movie is Superman. In his futute, he wants to go abroad to teach people who need help like in Africa.