Hello! I’m Kelly and I’m finding out overseas at Denmark Technical College (DTU) in Copenhagen. I examine Supplies Science and Engineering and I’m taking courses in renewable power and sustainability.
Over the course of my examine overseas, I’ve met so many various individuals from many various cultures. Touring earlier than and through my research additionally uncovered me to numerous alternative ways of life as effectively. By this, I’ve gained invaluable perception into different cultures and I’ve been in a position to higher mirror upon my very own cultural norms due to it.
Simply being in Denmark for a number of days uncovered me to prevalence of biking. Most individuals, particularly within the metropolis, use biking as their strategy to commute to work on a regular basis. Within the metropolis, it wasn’t unusual to see girls biking in kitten heels, skirts, or fancy boots. Particularly at my college, the place most college students don’t personal automobiles, biking was ever current, variety of bikes parked outdoors courses every day have been astounding! I shortly realized that this was probably the most environment friendly approach of touring and relied on solely biking and public transit as my most important modes of transportation.
It’s extensively identified that biking in Philadelphia just isn’t protected, as numerous cyclists have been killed from collisions with automobiles in Philadelphia alone. Going from that norm, the place biking isn’t essentially protected nor protected, to a society the place biking is so protected that folks don’t really feel the necessity to put on helmets was a shock to me. As an alternative of counting on my automobile, as I had at residence, I reframed my thoughts within the scope of a motorcycle. I requested myself questions corresponding to: “What number of groceries can I slot in my basket?” or: “How lengthy will it take me to bike someplace if there are hills?” Biking in all places gave me an appreciation for my journey to class on a regular basis, as I used to be in a position to cycle via nature and be current, as an alternative of hearken to music in my automobile as I normally would on my commute within the metropolis. I additionally ended up shopping for much less groceries, and deliberate my meals solely an evening or two forward. This coupled with the standard of meals gadgets, as I discovered the produce and bread that I bought would go unhealthy a lot faster than I used to be used to, so I couldn’t purchase gadgets in bulk and plan many nights forward. I actually loved biking in all places, and infrequently most well-liked it to taking the bus simply due to how enjoyable it was to have the ability to bike via neighborhoods and benefit from the greenness of spring.
Along with my very own experiences, I additionally discovered rather a lot about cultures from simply talking to my buddies, as our conversations usually blossomed from curiosity about variations to our personal norms. For instance, I would share an anecdote about faculty rising up, and I clarify the circumstances round it, and one other one among my buddies would possibly acknowledge an entire distinction to what she was used to rising up. That is evident in my buddy’s life in then Netherlands. Rising up, she went to high school, and infrequently took standardized checks. These checks ended up having nice significance, as when she was 12, youngsters have been separated based mostly on how they carried out on the checks. They have been despatched to totally different center and excessive faculties, relying on the job observe and stage of college they seemed to be on. Then, as a result of she carried out effectively and accomplished the 6 years of “highschool”, she was mechanically admitted to her technical college. This fully shocked me. I used to be by no means conscious of this education system and was intrigued as to how they separated youngsters based mostly on intelligence from an early age. After a dialogue, I extra so understood the system and was impressed by how the system labored. It was fully totally different to the education system I grew up with, however I gave me a special perspective of how individuals gained their training, as the best way I do know won’t be the common expertise.
There are numerous examples of how small variations to what I’m used to within the US, which made me modify the best way I thought of issues. As an alternative of simply assuming that what I knew to be true about how issues labored, I spotted that there are lots of alternative ways of doing one thing as small as a each day process, or as giant as operating a county and designing its academic system. Earlier than finding out overseas, all that I knew was from rising up in Maryland and going to college in Philadelphia. Clearly, there are regional variations inside the US, however there are extra stark variations to the norms of different nations. It’s attention-grabbing to be taught the numerous totally different and profitable methods of doing one thing, and it jogs my memory that there’s a a lot bigger world outdoors my direct interactions and life at Drexel.
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