Paper Example: American Culture

What Business in the Country Is Like?

Americans are believed to have long working hours than most industrialized nations. That means long working hours, the feeling that you are always "on-call" and a few holidays. Unlike other countries, U.S. business culture is typically less formal and less hierarchical. For instance, Americans have a strong belief in equality; an employee can address one another by their first name and have greater access to superiors.

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Popular entertainment in the country.

Americans have varying forms of entertainment. Some prefer television, sports, movies as well as arguing on the internet. Others also read magazines and books, repair cars, play games, train animals, sculpts, painting, make clothes and quilts, program computers. A few prefer hunting, boxing, target shooting, collecting stamps and coins, doing amateur carpentry and woodworking and making model trains

Changes occurring in the culture

American culture has been undergoing gradual changes over the decades. For example, American women used to serve as housewives in homes. Nowadays, that is no longer the case as currently, we have about 60 per cent in the workforce (Cardon, 2014). All major corporations now have women executives, for example in 500 Forbes companies, half of the executive officers are women. In the U.S currently, nearly half of union members are government employees such as doctors and teachers

Challenges one could have in adapting to the food.

In the U.S, we have got different people from a diverse cultural background; therefore, one can quickly adapt to American food. Furthermore, in the U.S, we do not have specific food culture as compared to other countries. In countries such as Mexico, Italy and India do have their culinary traditions. New students, for example, do have a challenge because after arriving in the U.S they found out that food in the U.S is a bit different, but with time, they cope up easily.

Challenges one could have in adapting to housing.

Houses in America are designed for nuclear families. If you are single, it becomes costly as you have to get such kind of a home. Prices for a house are too high for visitors some resort to live in exurbs. For example, a cost for one-bedroom was $1,216 as of June 2019. From last year to June, there was an increase of 1.5% (Cardon, 2014).

Challenges one could have in adapting to transportation.

The biggest challenge in the U.S is congestion. It is difficult to cross the roads in the United States due to many vehicles. The second challenge could be longer commuting from one's residence and workplace. Furthermore, public transport is inadequate, during peak hours there is crowdedness which creates discomfort.

Experiences Making friendship with American

No matter where you come from, fitting in u.s can be difficult. International students struggle to bond with American. Research by a Journal of international and intercultural communication shows 40% of international students had no friends. Being shy and the language barrier are among the reasons students find it challenging to make cross-cultural friendship.

Experiences working in teams with American students

American students do work in teams apart from MBA students who do not like teamwork. Research by Graduate Management Admission Council, only 13 per cent of American student prefer teamwork. Unlike in Africa and Middle East students who had 25 and 20 per cent respectively. American student preferred a mix of discussion and lectures as their favourite

Experiences working with American professors

The U.S professors are very friendly to students. They do come to class on time and teach with passion. They treat students with great respect. Additionally, they do not discriminate their students. In essence, the professor is just welcoming and do not control the class by intimidations.

The observation about American culture

People in the U.S are from different homelands (Cardon, 2014). Therefore, they have varied traditions, customs and food. The U.S citizens are more concerned with individual freedom, equality and fairness. Leisure activities in U.S are a true reflection of the influence of other cultures. Finally, 70% of Americans are members of religious groups.

Reference

Cardon, P. W. (2014). Business Communication: Developing Leaders for a Networked World (3e). McGraw-Hill.