Looking Into Another Person's Culture

Have you ever gotten a deep look into another person’s culture?   Until my high school, Kennedy Kenrick Catholic, began hosting a foreign exchange program, I never did.   Seeing the way other cultures go about their life is interesting because many people think that the way others live is strange.   Once you learn about other ways of life, you begin to realize that the other should not be called strange, but instead could be described as different.    
My high school sponsored a four-day, religious retreat for seniors called Kairos.   On the retreat, my fellow classmates and I got to know each other on a whole new level then ever before.   Three Korean girls attended the retreat along with about thirty-five other students.   The retreat was all about getting to know one another on a very personal level and being able to open up to people whom you normally would not even talk to.   That is how I learned what I know about the Korean lifestyle today.  
I, as well as many of the American students in my class, usually never talked to the Koreans.   We thought that they were strange and that we would have nothing to relate with them, so we just stayed away.   This is far from the truth.   Yes, Koreans have very many traditions and habits that differ from ours, but looking at the big picture, they are people just like the rest of us.   It was very interesting to hear about some of the ways their culture differs from that of Americans.   Some of the differences include their schooling.   Students at my school always wondered why all of the Koreans were so well educated.   This came to no surprise after learning that Koreans go to school for eleven hours a day year round.   Differences such as this are what seem to separate us from them.  
Another significant difference between American and Korean culture is our living situations.   Koreans more often then not live with the whole extended family as well as their immediate family.   In a typical house of a Korean, one would expect to...