Michelle Tran Cultural Engagement Reflection I learned many things from interacting with my friend from Korea.

The first thing that shocked was that their school regulations were completely different from ours. Also, I was surprised that they were required to wear uniforms. It was very different than most public Western schools. They averaged 10 hours a day for school while we only suffer through seven hours of grueling lectures. They also have classroom clean up duties. That was a culture shock. I thought that most schools in developed countries had janitors to clean after them. In a way I envied them because they were already learning the responsibility to follow tasks and respect buildings. Their classrooms were moved by teachers and not them. Also, they ate lunch in their classrooms. That was very different. I was used to leaving the school or eating my lunch in the mess hall, interacting with other students from different grades. It was fun getting to know my Korean friends. I liked their sense of humor, although this depends on the person, and how they could relate to my slightly bias humor. Initially, I thought all of the students would be excellent kids and sit stick straight in class. However, I was mistaken. The students were just like us, and fell asleep in class. They were also sweet and energetic. It had been a while since I felt so much vibrant energy in a school setting. It was surprising that they didnt have SBOs or cheerleaders. I thought that was a normal part of high school life, but I realized it may had just been part of Western culture. Overall, I enjoyed spending all that time with my Korean friend. They were humorous, and exciting to be with. Their school life completely differed from my own, but it was nice to see how different it was. Not only that, even though they had a different culture, there were still some references that we could both relate to. We had preferences that allowed us to cross the

culture/language barrier.