Realizations

So, we are in Ann Arbor. It has been very fun. For the last two weeks, I have been going to “math camp”, which has been not very fun. Unfortunately, I am not very smart as far as math goes, and I am very unprepared as far as the courses I have taken. Hopefully, it will be alright. However, while in the course, I have been able to meet many very interesting and intelligent people.

In meeting all these people, I have come to a realization that I never really thought of. I feel ashamed for not really thinking about it more. It sounds silly to say, but, I will say it. I never really thought about the fact that different countries have different parts. In the cubes around mine, there is someone from North China, and someone from South China, and they not only look slightly different, but they sound and act different. In asking, some of the difference is due to where they are from. China, interestingly, has been a unified country with one language for many, many years (thousands, I think).

Indians are even more different. It has only been recently that India was one country, and they still do not have one language that everyone speaks. (I asked one of my Indian friends what language he would speak to someone from India he saw to know they would understand, and he said “English.” There is a guy from India in my program I was talking to about this, and he said he speaks 3 languages, but right now, speaks English better than any of them.)

This recent unification means that people who are from different parts of India are even more different. I can already tell the different between someone from Northern India and someone from Southern India. It is very interesting to me.Like I said, I am kind of ashamed for not thinking about this earlier. In the US, we really don’t think much about other countries, and it is a little sad. Coming from the richest and most powerful country has the effect of making one not think about other, extremely important and larger (population-wise) countries. Being here and interacting with people from literally dozens of countries on a daily basis has helped me in that. Anyways, that is that.