American Values

United States of America. Coming here as an exchange student for me meant really much: new experience, new life, new people around. By coming to the US I got a great possibility to explore the new culture, and to compare it to my own, Ukrainian. And as any other one, American culture is based on the values its people have. So, what do Americans value in their lives, and how does it influence their lives?

Among the main American values are: personal achievement, individualism and independence, personal responsibility, democracy and equality, morality and humanity, work-discipline, freedom and others. And they all are an important part in the process of formation of the national mentality. So American people - they are very self-responsible, which means that if You fail they are totally sure that this is fully Your own fault. From this point they also show their attitude to the individualism: Americans tend to be very independent people. For example, You can see it at school - students always prefer doing everything on their own, whether in the home- or the classwork. Trust me, as an exchange student I can say that You would feel ashamed if found cheating. Moreover, You may have problems, as far as teachers do not tolerate any kind of "team-work" or plagiarism - they may just put an "F", which means fail. One of the other extremely important values in the American society is being punctual. Once our History teacher even said: "USA is just all about being on time everywhere." This way, people expect to see You at the meeting, at school, at work, on the bus(when the field trips take place, for instance) right on time, with no tardiness, or even better 5 minutes earlier. You are late - You are rude and show Your disrespect. There are a lot of other examples of how the value system influences the society, and You are able to see it in the daily routine.

All things considered, know and respect the values of the community You live in. As the saying goes: "When in Rome, do as Romans do." This will definitely make Your life in the other society much easier. Remember: the values we hold form our principles; the principles we hold form our actions.