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Before I came to the United States for college,I often thought of the United States as a single entity② and American people as a whole. To make it specific,I never actually paid attention to where my foreign teachers in high school were from in the United States. Moreover,Los Angeles and New York City do not mean different things to me. They are both somewhere in the far away land called the United States. This is why when I applied to an American college,I did not care much about locations―the culture in different areas,the weather,the people and so on in the areas of the school did not matter much in my college selection process. The fact that I am now studying in Ithaca,where Cornell University is,a place with horrible weather is a very obvious example of my generalized③ view on the United States as a whole.
This changed as I got here. My first impression of the differentiations among regions came from people asking each other this simple question “where are you from” during orientation④ week. I started to learn that the people from New Jersey and Long Island in New York State really like Cornell because half of the people I met during orientation week were from these two places. I learned that people from California miss their home a lot through their constant complaints of the weather in Ithaca. I also realized that it was generally believed that it is hard to meet people from Wyoming,North Dakota,and Alaska. Areas within the United States start to look different for me after a while.
The real differences among the areas surfaced as I travelled around. For example,last winter,I went to California―west coast of the United States. It was shocking to me how distinctly and naturally different Californians and people from the East coast are. Compared to the people I met in Northeastern United States,here are some things I observed during my stay in California: there are more over?鄄sized people; Californians are generally more relaxed;Californians despise the Northeasterners,say,the New Yorker,for being pretentious⑤. In terms of clothing,Californians throw on whatever they think look nice on them. I remember the way one of my Californian friends described how people from East coast dresses:“they are always like‘hey look,I am wearing this brand!’”
My New Yorker friends fought back:“Californians are laid back.”
I guess the reason why I was slightly shocked by the differences among people from different areas was my ignorance. I probably should have done more researches on the geography of the United States before I came here. However,I know that there is something that I could not research on when I was in China,far away from the United States. My personal contacts with West coast and East coast people,Northerners and Southerners in the United States are marked with different traits and it is very interesting to see how people from similar backgrounds share some similar qualities even though they might not know each other at all. One of the things I learned through this that I wish I was told before I came to the States would be: instead of assuming that people I do not know yet can be easily categorized⑥,I should keep in mind that individuals,coming from their specific backgrounds,differentiate⑦ from each other so much,and generalizations⑧ as well as stereotypes⑨ of peoples are always not sufficient⑩.
(By Kaiwen Zhong on Dec.20,2012 in Ithaca,NY)
① amateur n. 业余爱好者,外行,生手 adj. 业余的,非职业的,外行的
differentiation n. 区别,区分,分辨
② entity n. 实体,实际存在物,本质
③ generalized adj. 广泛的,一般性的,普遍的,非具体的,整体的
④ orientation n. 迎新,方向,定位,取向,排列方向,任职培训
⑤ pretentious adj. 狂妄的,自命不凡的,自负的,虚伪的,矫饰的,做作的
⑥ Categorize v. 把……归类,把……列作
⑦ differentiate vt.& vi. 区分,区别,辨别
⑧ generalization n. 一般化,普通化,归纳,概论
⑨ stereotype n. 陈规旧习,旧规矩,固定的形式
⑩ sufficient adj. 足够的,充足的