Cultural Differences Between Bangladesh And The United States

I am an Asian, Bangladeshi. Racial and ethnic identities are critical matter of individual in the United States because from the early history of the United States there was black-white division. People often categorize different groups under the name of racial identity based on skin color. In that sense, I am a brown skin person. There are many cultural differences between Bangladesh and the United States. In a sense what is restricted in Bangladesh here it is permitted. In the paper I will discuss the cultural differences like food, lifestyle, religion, believe and my personal experience after coming in United States, which in some cases are bitter.

I grew up in Bangladesh, most of the people of my country belong to

Muslim though I belong to Hindhu. For example, in Bangladesh if some one has kids before they get married the society does not take it positively, even it is considered as sin. But it is a normal phenomenon in the United States. Here people are more open in any kind of discussion to each other both men and women, in back home women are very conservative in their dress and attitude. Also, I noticed one big cultural difference out of many is people in the United States can choose their religion, where as in Bangladeshi culture people have to receive the religion what their families have they can’t choose their religion.

There are many differences in American and Bangladeshi culture.

The American culture is a mixture of different peoples’ cultures; the Bangladeshi culture is unique and has only its own values. The Bangladeshi people are very family oriented the Americans are individually oriented. In Bangladeshi culture the family values get more importance than the individual values, people respect their family values. On the other hand, in American culture the individual values get more importance than the family values. People in Bangladesh are more committed to their family where as the Americans are more committed to themselves only. In American culture women and teenagers think to be self-reliance and independent, on the other hand Bangladeshis are more dependent on their family. Some big difference in culture seemed as a cultural shock to me, such in America someone can marry that he or she wish, here religion, race does not matter. In Bangladesh, the family chooses the life partner for their child; the person might be killed if he or she gets married to someone of other religion. Here people live together years after years before they get married, it is very rare in Bangladeshi culture. I went to a marriage of my friend’s mother with him in U.S, which someone can’t even imagine in

Bangladesh.
In America most of the marriages are love marriage on the other hand most of the marriages are arranged marriage. Also, couples do not get divorce many as American couples. In America “about 2.4 million marriages a year and 1.2 million divorces a year. 50 percent of married couples divorce.” (http://www.divorcesource.com/ds/main/u-s-divorce-rates-and-statistics-1037.shtml) on the other hand “ From January 2012 to December 2012, a total of 16,453 divorce cases were filed out of 154.7 million population”(http://www.dhakamirror.com/other-headlines/divorce-rate-rises-as-violence-against-women-continues). In Bangladesh most number of people believe in one marriage, here few number of people believe one marriage. Almost every Bangladeshis like to eat spicy food like rice, rooti, dal, curry, fish, especial sweets and so on, where Americans like food with less spicy like boiled vegetable, pizza, burger, sandwich, etc.
In Bangladesh people don’t categorize each other in different kinds race like black, white, Asian etc. In the United States people of colour, Hispanic are being oppressed, in Bangladesh minority people such Hindu, Christian are being oppressed. I noticed in U.S people are being oppressed for race on the other hand in Bangladesh people are being oppressed for religion. People can practice their own religion more openly in American democratic culture, but in Bangladesh minorities people face different kinds of obstacles to practice their religion. In Bangladeshi culture it is easy to recognize someone’s religious identity like Hindu, Muslim, and Christian from the name but it is difficult to recognize someone’s religious identity in U.S whether someone is Catholic or Protestant.
In Bangladesh for the traditional culture women have less freedom to chose their dress, they only wear sharis, maxies, borkas, and three pieces, where in the United States women wear Jeans, skirts, shorts etc. In American culture women have more freedom to choose their life decision. Wearing jeans for women cannot imagine on streets in rural areas of Bangladesh.
It has been one and half years that I am in New York. The biggest problem I face here almost everyday is the language problem; people often get difficulties to understand my language. Some people react, which seem to me as an insult. Some people express their negative reaction, because they do not understand my pronouncing. Sometime those incidents made me feel that I would not be able to do something good in U.S, which I did not feel in Bangladesh. That attitude made me feel that I can’t be as progressive as them. Because my understanding capability is so slow than other student here. It is a big challenge to me studying in City College from a rural college in Bangladesh. When I first started my school in City College, I realized how severe language problem could be. I did not understand most of the professors’ lecture. Most of my professors were really amiable who could perceive my problem and tried their best to help me; some of them did not want to understand my problem. Due to language problem I was unable to understand the course material, which impacted on my grade. Ultimately the bad grade on those particular classes made me feel that I would not be able to make a good GPA, which would impact on my carrier and finally on my life. If I would have understood their words and if they could give me more encourage or support than I might be more positive to learn. Therefore, those problems created because English is not my second language. I was born in Bangladesh and moved to the United States.
My experience about cultural heritage and racial identity is mixed with good and bad in the United States. One negative experience still I remember. When I first came in the country I used to work in Dunkin Dounts. My English was not that good, one day a customer was so mean to me. He asked me why only most of Bengali people work in Dunkin Dounts and most of the people don’t speak English who work in Dunkin Dounts. I noticed he was not comfortable to talk to me, one of my colleagues who were Black American many customers including that particular customer used to give their order. While my working experience I perceived some people criticized my culture, because my culture is different than the culture of the United States.
It is true that I could be a part of the U.S culture I also lost some of my cultural heritage. As an Asian I realize a sense of discrimination in many places of the country, particularly in job places. I perceived big cultural gap between Bangladesh and America. My personal experience made me think both positive and negative experience due to my language problem.