When thinking of aspects of US culture, one that comes to mind is the importance of individualism. It is through this cultural value that individuals can change their lives and carve out who they are. Individualism taught from an early age can establish follow-through, hard work, and independence. This aspect of American culture establishes values and impacts the actions and beliefs of individuals who participate in the culture.
My perspective on this aspect of American culture is that individualism can encourage both positive and negative qualities in individuals. The positive traits associated with individualism include independence, responsibility, follow-through, and motivation to achieve goals. This aspect allows individuals to view their work as important and helps to motivate those working on independent projects. I believe that during group effort and collaboration, individualism is not as valuable an aspect of American culture. When a person is too individualistic, they may be hesitant to trust others when working on collaborative projects. In seeing themselves as self-made and self-dependent, they may also appear ungrateful and ignorant of the structural advantages that assisted them in getting to where they are today.
Someone viewing this aspect of U.S. culture from the outside in may see individualism as a lack of family values and unwillingness to collaborate with others in professional and personal spaces alike. Americans who value individualism often claim to be self-made; while merit and hard work are important, the idea that an individual is purely self-made is unlikely. Cultural capital and other structural factors impact everyone, and ignoring this may make an individual come off as self-centered or ungrateful when first seen. This individual may conversely view this cultural aspect as valuable due to the emphasis on self-reliance and independence. If individuals who exhibit this aspect of American culture are assigned solo tasks, they might need less direction than others in completing the task.
This task helps to prepare me for my time abroad in several ways. By reflecting on the positive and negative sides of individualism and how an individual outside of the culture may react to it, I better prepare myself for potential interactions with people outside of my own culture. I acknowledge the importance of understanding other cultural aspects that at first may seem new and different. In interacting with those outside my own culture I can also anticipate they may see aspects of my culture or my values as negative just as I may feel the same way about aspects of their culture. I understand that I will be representing not only my school but also Americans in general during my time in London and want to ensure I give those I interact with a positive experience. I hope that in meeting new people and experiencing all of the nuances and differences that come with living in a new culture I will be able to respectfully view cultural aspects that differ from my own and that I will be able to identify the good and bad that comes with them.