Jason Rickel

February 5, 2019
Mrs. McFadden
A New Perspective

A New Perspective

An open mind can bring one many wonderful things within a lifetime. I learned a lot of
new things while at dinner with the Song family. In korean culture family is very important and
everyone is a tight knit group. There was lots a discussion and laughter at the dinner table. The
most popular topic that was brought up was either success in school or on the tennis court with
a sprinkle of jokes here and there. They were particularly interested in my life and interests,
most likely because I was a guest. I was very impressed by the way that they treated guests in
their household. The experience that I had at dinner was quite lovely and the cultural aspect that
I witnessed was just as lovely.
Schooling was one of the most prominent aspects of discussion at the dinner table. Mr.
Song was very interested when I mentioned that I was part of the middle college program at
levine. In a personal interview with him he said “I was not aware that such a program existed, I
think it is a great opportunity to get a head start on gen ed classes going into a four year
university”. I completely agree with him with the fact that getting gen ed classes out of the way
will pay off down the road. Mr. Song graduated from the university of Army and served in the
military. He know works as a software business analyst. Multiple times he reiterated the
importance of school to myself along with his daughters. School is an important part of the Song
family.
Food is a very important part of Korean culture. Mr. Song mentioned in a personal
interview that “food is what brings the family together in the evenings and lets us share our day
with each other”. In Korean culture, dinner is almost like a feast in the fact that there is a lot of
food being served. There was a total of 3 courses of food while I was there. The food was a mix
of American and Korean food. It was truly a delicious feast.
Religion was a very big part of the Song family’s culture. The Song family are
Episcopalian Christians. Mr. Song mentioned that the religion plays a big role in him and his
families life styles. “Religion is a part of my everyday life, whether that's going to church on
sundays or just being a good person in general”. As you can see Mr. Song takes great pride in
his religion. Religion is Korea is quite simple. Mr. Song mentioned that in Korea, there are
mostly Christians or Buddhists that live there. Like America culture, religion plays a big role in
Korean culture.

Works cited

Song, Bill. ​Personal Interview​. 03 February, 2019.

Rationale

This might have been one of my favorite projects that we did during the course of the

class. Our unit focused on diversity and finding a new perspective. I was able to contact my

friend April and her family and discuss our culture’s similarities and differences over dinner at

her house. I really enjoyed learning about the Korean culture and their food was just as rich as

their culture. This project helped me to know april even better than I did before and to enlighten

me on how our cultures really are not that different if you look close enough. Overall, I was very

happy on how this product turned out and I look forward to researching more cultures like it

going forward in the future.