I am from Japan. I was studying in the U.S. I have experienced many things in the U.S. The biggest thing is culture difference between the U.S and Japan. I like the U.S, and I also like Japan, but they are very different. Culture difference is making many prejudices, stereotypes and discriminations.
Last year I came to the U.S, I was very afraid of all of Americans because they have different skin colors because there are not much people who have different skin colors, and they are much taller than Japanese people. However, everyone American is not taller than Japanese people even though they are American. My thought is called stereotype. I have many stereotypes to American people. I had a roommate in Cushing Academy which is in Massachusetts, and he is from Connecticut. When I saw him in my dormitory first time, I was afraid of him because I thought he has a gun in his pocket. In that night, I asked him about the gun. He said ”Are you serious??” to me. I apologized to him about it.
My roommate also thought about Japanese people. When I said “I like to play baseball” to him, he asked “Can you play baseball?” to me. I got mad at him because I like to play baseball. When he had known I am the best player in my school’s Freshman, he said “I am very sorry about it”. I was very happy because he recognized I can play baseball well. He also thought I am good at studying like other Asians. In Japan, we do not have any homework during regular days. However, every U.S school has much homework. Actually, Japanese are good at math, but we have never had homework in the most of school. I think Japanese people are very different from other Asian country. I thought American people are having a lot of stereotype to Asian. I am kind of sad about it because Asian is not like a smart and sissy.

In fact, Japanese people are not good at English very well, but we can do something that other Asian cannot do. I think many people have some prejudice to Japanese people, but if recognize that we are not like that, I feel so happy about it. Actually, I have a lot of prejudice to American people, so I cannot say any bad things to them because it is not going to be fair. For example, I thought American people are fat. Sometimes it is true, but not everyone because my roommate is much skinner than me. I thought American people are always eating junk food, but many people are vegetarian. I think it is very bad things to have a prejudice because it makes other people sad. It is also make antagonistic between American people and Asian people.


I think it is very hard to change prejudice or stereotype because it is sometimes true. Sometimes are wrong, but most of them are correct. However, you should know there someone who is good at sports or someone who does not like to play video games. The U.S has too much prejudice or stereotype because there are many international people in the U.S. However, if I go to some other place, there are those stereotypes because they do not know any kind of people who are from other countries. If do not like them and you make fun of them. I think it is not going to be fair, but I hope international people are going to be fair as American people without prejudice or stereotype.