1. My international experience to date is:
I have been fortunate enough to have a family who loves to travel. I have been all around America, as well as our close neighbor, Canada. I have also been to France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, and Bermuda.
2. I want to go to China because:
I want to go to China because I feel as if the countries that I have been to have all been similar. Amost all of them have European roots, but China is in a league of its own. It has been populated for so much longer, and has a very rich history.
3. I think the main professional work differences I will experience will be:
I think that the main professional work differences will be the fact that the work ethic in the workplace will be higher than in America. I've also heard that Chinese companies are very big into teamwork. Not that America isn't, but I feel as though Chinese countries really have their act together.
4. I think the main cultural differences I will experience will be:
I think the main cultural difference I will experience will be the pace and manner in which things are done. When I think of China as a country nowadays, I think of efficiency. Also, there is that big language barrier, and because it's not even based on the alphabet, there won't even be any cognates I can rely on.
5. I think the main political differences I will experience will be:
I might be generalizing here, but I think that in China, people will at least have respect for their leader, even if they don't agree with him. In America, people don't even have respect for the president, which I think is wrong because you can still disagree with someone without loosing respect for them.
6. I think the students in China will be:
I think students in China will be overall harder workers than us American students. There are some kids in some of my classes who decided to leave China to come to America for college, and they have such a better work ethic than us. They always do so much better in our classes, and I think its because they were raised to get the job done right, not just do enough to get by.
7. I predict I will be surprised to find:
I think I will be surprised to find that Chinese food in China tastes a lot different than Chinese food in America. I am excited to see how real Chinese food tastes, although I would like to know what I'm eating before I eat it. (Chicken and pork only, please. No surprise animals.)
8. I think the major differences in living conditions will be:
I've already heard that the college dorms only get hot water a few hours a day, which I can't imagine. I feel like all of the living spaces will be smaller, simply because there are more people who have to live there. I think that there will be more elevators because of stacked living.
9. Anything else you want to say:
I would like to say that I am very excited to go to China and I think that I will be learning a lot while I am there. I know I will learn not only about businesses, but also about the cultural differences that separate China and America. I don't think that I will ever forget this experience.