Blog Topic # 1: Culture Shock
Hi,
My name is Tofazzal Hossain. I am from Dhaka, Bangladesh. So when I first came to U.S. in March 2004; I found a lot of things different in U.S. then the way they are in Bangladesh. I have experienced it as a whole new world which runs entirely different way than mine native country does.
Let me start off with the schooling system in Bangladesh. Students in Bangladesh graduate high school in tenth grade. They study on their parent’s expense since their pre-k to as long as their parents can afford. They have off on every Friday which basically is their weekend. Then they are back to school from Saturday to Thursday. If you have been following alone, you probably noticed that nothing is matching with U.S. education system.
Secondly, I want to talk about the transportation. In Bangladesh one of the affordable and most convenient transportation is called Riksha (tricycle). These are similar to the one that we have in central park area. People in Bangladesh uses them as we use taxi in U.S. unlike U.S. they don't need license to operate those tricycle in Bangladesh. Mostly the poor working class people do this job whereas in U.S. there is no class distinction for driving taxi. There is no underground subway in Bangladesh nor there any metro card system for buses and trains. In Bangladesh you buy the ticket up front before you get to the bus or train.
Thirdly, I want to talk about the forms of greeting that are most commonly use in U.S; not necessarily are as commonly use in Bangladesh. Such as Excuse me, I am sorry, God bless you etc. people are more polite in U.S. then Bangladesh.
From reading your post, it is evident that Bangladesh and the United States are very different. I can't believe kids only have one day off a week; we really take the weekend for granted. I also thought it was unique that the schooling in Bangladesh is completely independently funded by the parents. Does that mean that families who don't have a lot of money do not send their kids to school? I can't imagine NYC with people riding around on tricycles. It would be chaos! One thing is for sure, we would have a much cleaner environment. I have heard people in the United States are much more friendly and polite then in other countries. Why do you think that is?
ReplyDeleteI can't imagine going to school from Saturday to Thursday, that's just crazy. And graduating high school after the tenth grade is interesting to me. I must agree with Mike's comment about NYC being chaos if people were getting around on tricycles. However, it does sound pretty cool to experience everyone riding around on tricycles.
ReplyDelete