Chinese Friend - Essay Example

Day 1 - I was invited to the birthday party of my Chinese friend today. She invited me to join her, her family, and their friends at a local Chinese restaurant where they had reserved a function room for the occasion. I was surprised by what I saw. The function room showed off its cultural diversity with its authentic Chinese decorations. I was also surprised by the fact that my friend was receiving red money enveloped with good luck words written on it. Even more surprising and exciting for me was that there was a mix of English and Chinese languages being spoken in the room which to me, marked true cultural diversity. Later that day, I attended a senior citizen bowling game where I cheered on my grandfather and his team. This was before I headed off to the local library to do my part as the storyteller for the day. All of these activities portray the cultural diversity of our nation. Day 2 - I visited my mother at work and observed the corporate diversity that existed in her business world. The office itself had a modular design and required formal office attire for its employees. This was their attire for the week except for Fridays when they were allowed to wear casual wear. An employee was retiring the day I came to visit and the department manager showed a caring attitude by surprising the employee with a cake that all the department members shared. I think that is what impressed me the most. That my mother's supervisor considered himself equal to his subordinates. This creates an excellent corporate environment for them to work in. Day 3 - Today I spent the afternoon with some classmates. We headed to the mall to catch the latest flicks. But we argued about what movie to see. This was an example of the diverse interests of a group of friends. Eventually, we settled on Mr. Peabody and Sherman but then debated about what food to have after the movie. Pizza and soda won. Eventually, I realized that the most interesting part of pop culture that also made it diverse was the way we used language to express our differences.

Part 2: To violate this social norm, I decided I would sit in the library and choose a person whom I would stare at for half an hour. After picking my target to stare at, I found out that I may not be able to complete a 30-minute stare session. The object of my staring began to notice me after 5 minutes and moved to another table to study after 10. The next one I did it to move to another table after about 20 minutes. This went on for quite a while until I believe the 10th person I stared at came up to me and asked me to stop because I was making her uncomfortable.