Culture Shock

In the second cross-cultural conversation, we hope to meet new people from various countries here in Lexington and Kentucky to discuss our home country’s culture and traditions. As we expected, on that day, we were six people from four nations: America, Egypt, India, and Mexico.

The topic chosen on that day was “Cultural shock.” It was an interesting topic because we all experienced cultural shocks when we arrived. However, our experiences were all different. When we talk about those memories, it makes us all laugh. It was such a good memory to remember to know and reflect on how much we have grown without realizing it.

In our conversation, we learned that no human being is complete without a culture, and the best culture cannot exist, as each person has good and bad. Another thing we acknowledge is culture is created by humans, and we humans are imperfect, so we cannot have a perfect culture no matter where we are.

At the end of our discussion, I told the story of Heman Bekele, a 14-year-old named ‘America's Top Young Scientist’ in 2023 for inventing Skin Cancer-Treating Soap. What motivated him was that when he was just four years old, he saw people working in the sun in Ethiopia, which drove him to look for ways to fight skin cancer. We can learn that even though we cannot create a perfect culture, we still have the power to invent to better other people's lives and health.