尚絅学院大学

When I was asked to write about America, I was honestly at a loss. What should I write about? There are so many different topics: how the government works, pastimes, the different climates of the US, holidays. In the end I chose to write about an aspect of US culture called “rugged individualism”. According to the Merriam Webster dictionary, it means “the practice or advocacy of individualism in social and economic relations emphasizing personal liberty and independence, self-reliance, resourcefulness, self-direction of the individual, and free competition in enterprise.” Basically, you could say that “rugged individualism” is the DIY (do it yourself) spirit.

In rural places in the United States like my hometown in northern New York state, many people do things around their homes by themselves. It’s not uncommon for regular people to make a concrete parking space, build a storage shed, or even remodel their home. When I was a child I worked together with my family to build our home. There were some things we couldn’t do, like using a bulldozer to dig the hole for the house, but the rest we did by ourselves. This way we could save money, and we could have a house that fit our needs well. We cut down trees to make a building space, built the block walls for the basement, and built the rest of the house. We worked on our house in the afternoons and on weekends. It took us about two years to finish building it.

Another place that you can see this DIY spirit is when teenagers learn how to drive a car. It is true that we often have driver education classes in high school. However, they are very popular and not every student can join the class. Instead, many students learn how to drive from their family. In New York (each state has its own rules) you first take an easy written test about driving rules and safety. If you pass that test, you can drive on regular roads if an adult with a driver’s license is with you. My father and I practiced driving and parking for several weeks after school in a big parking lot. Taking the test was also on the regular roads. I passed my test on my first try, but some of my friends needed two or three chances to pass their test. Besides learning how to drive, many of us learn about car maintenance from our family. Most of my friends knew how to change their car’s oil and tires. Some of them even learned how to change the brakes on their cars.

In my area of the US many people like to do things by themselves, but there are some areas of Japanese life where people seem more independent than New Yorkers. One of those is at school. In Japanese schools, children regularly clean their own schools. Students also often serve lunch in their classrooms. When my friends and family back in New York see this, they are invariably impressed. In New York, we rely on cleaning and cooking staff, and children don’t have those responsibilities. Americans are proud of their rugged individualism, but there’s still a lot we can learn about the DIY spirit from Japan.