I enjoyed home stay last weekend. My host family members are the father, mother and two boys. These two boys are younger than me. They are 13 and 17. I have two younger brothers, so I am kind of familiar with the structure of this kind of family. During home stay, I noticed a big cultural difference between my host brothers and my own brothers.
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| Super fun homestay! |
On the first day of the home stay, we went to a church with one of host brothers and the host mother. When we entered the church, my host brother ran towards the door and opened the door for all of MFWI students and his mother. I was impressed with his action. My brothers never do such a gentle action when we go inside of the building. As time went by, I noticed he kept opening the door for women naturally. I thought it is sort of custom for him, or for American men. I saw other American men do this action downtown. Also, this brother was funny, so we were not bored. And he always asks us if we are having fun. He always tried to play games or to chat with us and to think about fun things to do with us. I really enjoyed playing with my host brothers. When we left them, they gave us a ride to our dormitory. When we got out of the car, one of the students started to carry the heavy luggage to the dorm. Then the host brother quickly came to her and carried it to our dormitory door. His mother told him to do it. They gave us a big hug when saying good-bye. It made me happy.
Impressed about how kind all of them were, I realized how American men are educated by their mothers to let ladies go first. This boy was educated well by his mother, I think. In Japan, there are few people doing this action and they are more selfish. Sometimes Japanese do let ladies go first but I think it is only when they are dating. It is not a common custom in Japan. So I hope it become common in Japan.