Coming to a differnt country can really change your life. It can make you miserable at times, and at others, immensely thrilled to be immersed in a totally new way of living. But for me, there is more than just being happy or sad at times. I came to Argentina with my own view of the world, life, and my own set of personal values. Being here, in a new culture, has changed these in a way that I will never forget.
When I first entered Argentina, I found myself thinking I was still in the U.S.. I arrived in Buenos Aires, the federal capital and home to 11 million people in the greater city area. The city is very similar to any in the U.S., with thousands of cars, tall buildings, stores, and plenty of noise.
That night we ate dinner downtown, in a McDonalds. It was inside, in a place very similar to a U.S. shopping mall. As I ate my hamburger and drank my coke, it felt like I was still at home. American music was playing, I was eating American food, and I was at a place that some would call the heart of American culture: a shopping center.
It’s really made me think. I’d never realized how big of an influence our country has on others. I’ve had to completley change my point of view on the world. Before coming to Argentina, it hadn’t ever occured to me to take interest in what’s happening in other countries. Why should I care about people that I don’t even know, who’s decisions don’t affect me? If they don’t have an effect on my life, they don’t matter to me. This was my general outlook on world events, before I came to this country.
Now, I’ve been forced to see differently. I see now where I was wrong, what I failed to see before. As the most powerful country in the world, the United States of America has a huge influence over the lives of billions of others. Our country retains the power to turn any other country into a radiated wasteland. It also has an unsurpassed economy that is continuously growing.
Millions of people rely on us for financial aid, mediation in regional conflicts, millitary intervention, and for general leadership. A lot of technological items come from us, such as computers, medical equipment, electronics, agricultural machinery, and more. Other things, too, such as music, movies, clothing fashions, name-brand foods and drinks, and most of all, language.
Most people here don’t speak English as an everyday form of communication, but the majority know at least some. It’s practically a necessity. Almost every electronic gadget I have seen here has English instructions on it. Every stereo has the buttons labeled in English. Every computer starts up reporting in English. Clothing too: about three quarters of the brand names I’ve seen here are American. Most T-shirts have English lettering on them, and even advertising posters are in our language.
Everything that I have seen here has made me change my point of view. I see now that I was looking the wrong way. I thought that if people in another country didn’t affect my life, then I had nothing to do with them. What I failed to see is that we are the ones who affect them.
We, the 285 million people of the USA, have the (rather unfair) power to affect the rest of the world. Every time we vote, that vote probably will affect someone in another country, in some way. Right now, almost 10,000 miles away from my home country, I still get excellent news coverage over the presidential election. The people here care about it because it will affect them.
I’ve had to think a lot about all this. I really don’t think it’s fair that our country has so much money and power. It’s really kind of sad, the way I see it now. We complain about high gas prices when it goes over a buck fifty a gallon, but down here, it is close to five. That’s considered cheap. It just isn’t fair that some people don’t even have access to clean water, while us Americans use an average of 100 or so gallons a day.
There are so many things that we take for granted that others can only dream of. The Internet, for example. Unlike in the U.S., where almost everybody has at least one computer and access to the Net is practically free, it’s very different for people in some other countries. Here, less than a quarter of the people in this city have computers. Last month, our Internet bill was $120. On top of that, there were connection fees, but I don’t know how much it came to. The point is that many people don’t have all the luxuries we do.
I’ve learned a lot about cultural diferences in the last three months. As an exchange student in Argentina, I feel that I’ve gained a greater understanding about the way the world works, how people interact, and just life in general. Now, I can see how amazingly similar people from completely diferent continents are, and at the same time be shockingly different. I believe that if everyone could see the world from a different point of view, they would find out the same things that I have. They would find that their country is not the only country, that their culture isn’t only one. And hopefully, they would also come to realize that even though we live in different places and live differently, that, regardless of their economic status or cultural background, all people are created equal.