America is full of diversity. Many come here for families, education or to start a new life. Freshman Jieun Shin moved from South Korea and has lived in America for more than two years now.

“My family and I moved to Korea because of education since there are more opportunities here,” Jieun said. “It’s less fun in America because there aren’t that many places I can go to without a car unlike Korea. Academic wise, school is easier here so I can relax more. The lifestyle in Korea and America is different to me because in Korea, I could easily walk to the mall or go to far away places with a bus. In America, unless I can drive, I feel limited in the places I can go to.”

According to Jieun’s mom, the environment in America is different from Korea.

“America is more relaxed and comfortable,” Jieun’s mom said. “She thinks Korea is really busy and the time goes really quick.

In South Korea, students attend class for 12 hours a day while in the United States, students attend school for 7 hours.

“The first difference I noticed was that school here is much easier. In Korea, studying was really stressful upon students,” Jieun said. “Academics are highly stressed in Korea. In America, I feel like the teachers are more understanding and patient because my Korean teachers always expected me to know certain things and were more quick paced. If I were still in Korea, I would be at school until night and then still have extra classes called hakwons to go to.’

The differences between Texas and Korea extend well beyond education.

“In some restaurants in Korea, we sometimes have to take off our shoes, sit, eat and have quiet conversations, but in America we can wear whatever we want and talk as loud as we want,” Jieun said. “Restaurants in Korea only have Korean foods, but in America, there are a lot of foods from different places.”

Person to person communication might seem like it would be the same everywhere, but for Jieun it’s anything but that.

“In Korea, we always had to respect our elders,” Jieun said. “America is different from Korea since politeness and manners in general were very important. And rather than shocked, I had a few times where I was surprised because of America’s culture. For example, one time these random strangers started to talk to me in the elevator. I was confused and just nodded. Now I know that they were just being polite and making small talk. Although there aren’t that many places I can easily go to to play in America, the amount of people I got to make friends with and less stress on academics makes it enjoyable.”

The difference in communication extends to social media. Jieun uses Korean based apps rather than the more common apps used by American teens.

“I don’t have an Instagram or Twitter because I don’t know what that is and I’m not really interested,” Jieun said. “I only use Kakaotalk and Kakaostory.”