Ideal Society

         I'm an international student who is from Hong Kong, a city that is located in the south part of China. Although Hong Kong used to belong to the United Kingdom, the western culture doesn’t influence us a lot. Studying in the western countries is still very hard for most of the Hong Kong students because we have to spend time to adopt the different style of culture. Of course, I do not have any trouble living in the US; however, I've spent such a long time to adopt the western culture. Meanwhile, I did have some hard times and those moments made me almost give up.

        Back to the day I was twelve, I was sent to England to study. Remembering the first day I arrived in the Heathrow Airport in London, I had such a hard time communicating with the Custom. The language problem made me so embarrassing. However, that was the first part of my challenge. After I settled sown, I had found that there were so many things that difference to the place I grew up, such as the living style and school. I was very lost that time. I really did not know how I could continue to study there. Different people, different class structure, different living style, different foods…etc. At first, I attended some classes that helped us to get used to the western culture. Even though the classes gave us some senses about the class structure in the western countries, it was helpless for our daily life. Therefore, I really wanted to give up and go back to Hong Kong. Three months later, I was able to use some simple words to communicate to others and I just figured out that there was a group in our school helping students that have hard time adopting the western culture. Actually, I was kind of amazing because the group was organized by the British students. In fact, I was very afraid of communicating with them, but they patiently helped me. Under their help, I felt much better. At least, I did not feel lost anymore since I knew they could help me. Also, I was able to meet some new friends after I could communicate with English. The feeling of giving up is totally gone.

        During the time I was in language school in England, I learnt a word called “Multiculturalism”. In dictionary, this word means “the preservation of different cultures or cultural identities within a unified society, as a state or nation.” (dictionary.com) In fact, universities, colleges and some high schools in the United States have many students that come from different countries. Culture and the language differences must be the hardest part for a foreign student. As an international student like me, we really need people to help us to get used to the different culture. However, I’ve hear some case that about the discrimination occurred in some campus. The foreign students are discriminated by the native students. A society that can achieve harmony must have no discrimination because discrimination can cause a lot of problems, such as violence. Foreigners are likely to make some misunderstanding at the beginning because of the cultural different. Sometimes, this can also cause problems. Back to the day of Qing dynasty in China, the society was close. When the foreigners invaded China, there were many missionaries coming to China. However, people in China did not accept the doctrines of the foreign religious. It made many misunderstandings. Because of the misunderstanding, violence appeared. People even burned the Churches and killed the missionaries. In this example, we should know that misunderstanding is very dangerous. To avoid the misunderstanding, foreigners should also try their best to express their meaning. My ideal society is a society with harmony and no discrimination.