Daily life
Christine
introduction
My name is Christine, I am thirteen years old and I study at St. Junipero Serra Catholic School. Cultural diversity in the U.S. makes it a more interesting place to live, and there are opportunities for me to learn different ways of thinking, that is why I came to America. I have many hobbies. I play softball and joined the local league, and I am a member of the Black Belt Club in Taekwondo. Aside from sports, I also enjoy painting, piano, and solving Rubik’s Cubes. One of my accomplishments that I am most proud of is the Academic Decathlon. The Academic Decathlon is a competition that includes a logic test, and individual tests based on eight subjects: English, Literature, Math, Science, History, etc. After 6 months of hard work, we took second place overall in the Orange County Diocese.
During the Covid-19 pandemic, experts reminded everyone to wear masks and self-quarantine. In America, many people refused to stay at home. Meanwhile in China, almost no one went outside. I think the main difference between Chinese culture and American culture is that Americans value freedom while Chinese think obedience is more important.
Carrie
introduction
Figure 1 Our dance club performance
Figure 2 My talent show photo
Hi guys, this is Carrie here. I just turned 18 this June and it is my second year studying at Mater Dei Catholic High School.
One of the reasons why I choose to study in the U.S. is I desire exploring more interests and digging out my potential besides just learning. Recalling back these two years in the past, the most challenging part is to overcome the language barrier and have the courage to talk with native students. Initially I was really nervous, but it is very nice that my school’s teachers always give me lots of opportunities to speak up in the class and thus I quickly adapt into the new environment.
Founding dance club, attending student council, doing voluntary works get me engaged in schools’ activities and help me better get along with teachers and students. I challenge myself to take honor and AP classes and successfully get into National Honor Society, which are the parts I take pride in. During my spare time, I play the piano and cello, and I also enjoy singing along with my guitar. Another thing I feel proud of is that I took first place this year in school’s talent show.
One thing I would point out about cultural differences academically is that students in China tend to accept knowledge taught by teachers more passively while U.S. students are more inclined to think actively because teachers leave enough space for students to work out problems by themselves and thus, they have strong critical thinking on different issues. As U.S. students have more freedom of speech, they are bold and creative to express their opinions.
Now I’m a rising senior and I’m super looking forward to getting back to campus this fall!
introduction
My name is Robin Wang, currently 13 years old and I'm in 8th grade. I like playing the violin and I've been playing it for seven years. My middle school and high school is going to be St. Margret, I came to the USA because of their education system, their price of commodities.
The USA and China have lots of differences, Americans are more quiet and calm, but chinese are more abustle, more boisterous. Comparing noises and quiet, I like quiet more and it makes me feel good. One accomplishment I am proud of is I won second place in a robot competition for the whole California. One meaningful thing I did was that I won a ruby ring for my mom in a writing competition. It was when I was 11 years old.
Robin
Hi, my name is Serina Wang. I’m currently a rising senior studying at a Catholic High School in Seattle, Washington, and my hobbies are painting and playing piano. During the past year, I not only donated about 2000 masks myself, but also organized a successful donation of tens of thousands of masks. In terms of the most meaningful thing that I’ve done, it wasn’t even my decision in the first place. It was my dad’s. Because of his choice to immigrate, I get to fully experience and learn diverse cultures, look to the wider world, and meet new people in a foreign place. Moving to the U.S. was full of all sorts of surprises. I was shocked to see the population density of the U.S. when I first came here. As we all know, China is one of the largest countries in the world by population. And perhaps this difference in the population density is one of the reasons for the phenomenon of Seattle freeze, which is a belief that it is hard to make friends in Seattle.
Serina
introduction
introduction
Robin
My name is Robin Wang, currently 13 years old and I'm in 8th grade. I like playing the violin and I've been playing it for seven years. My middle school and high school is going to be St. Margret, I came to the USA because of their education system, their price of commodities.
The USA and China have lots of differences, Americans are more quiet and calm, but chinese are more abustle, more boisterous. Comparing noises and quiet, I like quiet more and it makes me feel good. One accomplishment I am proud of is I won second place in a robot competition for the whole California. One meaningful thing I did was that I won a ruby ring for my mom in a writing competition. It was when I was 11 years old.
introduction
Luke
My name is Luke Xu. I am 17 years old , a junior in High school. In my spare time, I usually like to play tennis, chat with friends, and do some online research on my own about the topics that I am interested in. Currently I am a student in University High School. There are a lot of different reasons that made me want to move to America, the weather, culture, environment, etc, but the most important factor that solidified my decision to move is for me to be less stressful about school, and enjoy the life that a teenager is supposed to have.
Obviously there are a lot of achievements that I have accomplished after moving to America. One of the most important ones is me overcoming my language barrier, being able to communicate with others without the nervousness of not knowing what to say. From shaking my legs because of the nervousness when I speak in front of my class, to participating in speech and debate tournaments and expressing myself freely in front of the judges and other participants, and getting awards from those tournaments. One of the most meaningful things I have ever done was to volunteer at a Chinese school where either American born Chinese people, or just any kids who are interested to learn Chinese can learn this beautiful language. I think it was important for me to help those kids because as an immigrant from China, the responsibility of spreading Chinese culture is in my hands.
I also learned a lot from talking to the parents when I am volunteering. One of the biggest differences that I learned from talking to those parents is that in China, grade is the only thing that matters, specifically the final exam, whereas in America, not only is grade an important factor, other things such as extracurricular activities are also important. America wants us to be students who are involved in life experiences, whereas in China, schools are a lot more lopsided towards academic involvement and achievements.