Comparing Yeon Yi Min and Me Essay -- comparison compare contrast essa

Yeon Yi Min and Me             I could easily recognize the differences between Yeon Yi Min and myself as soon as I met her and recalled all of the factual information I knew about Koreans, but I did not discover our similarities until after I had opened my eyes to her individual, yet universal, nature. I saw her as a drone of her culture, held in by rigid structure and lacking of any independent, individualistic thought beyond rules of society; I was ready to share my culture with her and to learn of her culture, but I never believed that I would discover a connection between us because of what she said, or did not say. However, while I sat and communicated with Yeon Yi, I felt many of the learned stereotypes drain out of me in order to be replaced by understanding, awe, and respect. We discussed families and friends, basic beliefs, our daily lives, and ourselves; and we discovered that we, human beings, are not so drastically different as we would like to believe. In fact, Korean and American individ uals are relatively the same; however, differences in attitude and action arise from the extent of cultural independence that the respective citizens enjoy.    Even with Yeon Yi's broken English and my American colloquialisms, we understood each other perfectly; we made unconscious affirmations as to our similarities, yet we spoke of our differences. As she discussed the duties of children in Korea, I thought of my parents and their futures; while her brother would completely support her parents in exchange for his college education, I might visit my parents on their farm for Thanksgiving and Christmas. She outlined her complete devotion to her parents and described how she w... ...dependence, that I have so that she can be the individual she was born to be, yet she adheres to her traditions because she has spent all of her life supported by a foundation with which she certainly defines herself. I found that our connection with each other did not come from our certain respect for each other's distinct culture but from our interests in discovering our individual potentials and also our mutual understanding of current trends. As I now recognize that Yeon Yi Min and I are both in the same struggle to find individual definition within our cultures, she taught me that everyone is an individual with a unique, and universal, personality but that some people have greater opportunity to be themselves than others. She awakened me to her culture and absorbed some of mine while she discovered herself and while I discovered her.