The Differences Between American and Indonesian Norm

A detailed Summary of The Differences Between American and Indonesian Norm

Imagine this: You are on your way walking to school and having both your friends and strangers saying hello to you or asking you are doing. It's normal for American to do this but being a foreigner, it's a totally a new experience to have people greeting me so often. I fell so different, it's like having a lot of people care about me.

Basically there are tons of different kinds of social in this world, from something you never think off to something that really astonishes you. Some norms are rules of conduct that specify what should and should not be done. They are also guidelines for people to regulate their own behavior. Hence it's also a set of behavior that governs the way we interact with one another.

According to William Graham Summer, norms are the standard or guides for behavior. Norms specify behavioral expectations by defining what are correct and incorrect ways of responding to situations. He classified norms into 3 major types; folkways which have relatively weak norms which are only mildly enforced in a society. An example would be correct manners, appropriate dress, and proper eating behavior. The second one is more; the strong and important norms of a society. Violation of mores will evoke severe punishment. Bre

I have been shaped by my Indonesian norms, so when I see people kissing on the street or when I hand something over to someone using my lest hand, I feel weird and perhaps other people will think that my mother wasn't teaching me well, but that's the reality in my society.

aking the law, bigamy, incest and cannibalism are the instances of mores. The last one is laws; norms which are designed, maintained and enforced by political authority of a society. Examples are speeding, cheating on income tax, and murder.

There are some norms in my society that differ with America's. In my society, we have to obey the elders. It's acceptable for us to use our hands when we are eating,, we have to greet the elders when we want to eat and also you can't call the elder by their first name, this is incredibly impolite. The last example perhaps is one that differs the most. Here in the States, people call the elder with their first name. If that happens in my society, one will be deemed uncivilized and will en up being ignored. But this kind of norms (calling the elder with their first name) perhaps only applies for the elder that you really know. It really depends on the situation and condition. Some cases like in workplace doesn't applies this kind of norm. For example when one manager is younger than another, you should call the manager with a title, like sir or madam.

The other thing that I noticed is about the American classrooms. In the States, American students participate in class vigorously, they asks question, make some comment towards their instructor's lecture and sometimes make some criticisms if they don't like or disagree with their professor's ideas. Back home in Indonesia, students tend to be passive in class. They don't seem to give any response toward their instructor. It is very rare to encounter making comments, perhaps that is what makes them look very passive at class. An American instructor of mine once told the class that he thought; most Asian students were mute. They just came to the class, and left when the cl

Some common words found in the essay are:
Indonesian Chinese, Graham Summer, , Social Norms, Southeast Asian, Indonesian Malay, Malay It's, social norms, norms norms, home indonesia, elder name, home indonesia people, weird people, mine told, qtd interview, people care, violating norms, call elder, call elder name,

Approximate Word count = 1377
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)

Category: English