During my communication with Indonesian students, I found that they have more in common with Americans than I had previously thought. It may be perceived as a testimony to the scope of globalization in their home country. However, naturally, this similarity has its limits, and it was fascinating to observe how different elements of the lifestyle and worldview, which are common for us, are either mixed with the elements of traditional Indonesian cultures or are simply distinctive because of different living conditions. My general impression was that young Indonesians were easygoing, friendly and had a good sense of humor. It was not hard to find common ground with them. Most of them spoke fluent English. Their fashion sense was quite similar to ours, although in many cases, they resembled rather stereotypical excessively bright Japanese adolescents. Some girls wore hijabs, but many did not, and I was given to understand it was mostly up to their choice and traditions in their families. They loved to hang out with their friends, spent hours on social media, and went to clubs, although many of them did not drink alcohol. It is worth remembering that most of them belonged to the middle and upper classes and came from cities, especially Jakarta. Therefore, it is more than likely that in some remote rural areas, the lifestyle and worldview are quite different. Nevertheless, in many accounts, Indonesian young adults are very similar to American youth. This similarity includes their attitude toward relationships, sex, and marriage; it was an interesting discovery for me. I admit I had a preconception that, although being modern, the Muslim youth would be a bit more reserved regarding these topics. Students, with whom I communicated, readily agreed that for the older generation, the topic of sex, for example, was still taboo. However, they noted that young adults in Indonesia dated and had sex. It is noteworthy that Indonesians used few words from English in their speech when it came to discussing relationships. For example, even when speaking Indonesian, it was common for them to use “ML” (making love) to describe an intercourse. Another notable trait in the everyday speech patterns is that Indonesians noted that their informal language was quite different from the Bahasa Indonesia used in formal settings and spoken by the older generation in some regions. I found this peculiarity quite fascinating. One of the trends is extensive borrowing from English: for example, they used “sorry” (although pronounced a bit differently) even when speaking Indonesian. Another thing I learned about the language from the Indonesians was that almost all of them knew and spoke some other language, except for Bahasa Indonesia. This peculiarity is specific to their ethnicity. It reminds me of the linguistic situation in India, where Hindi is used as a lingua franca for the people inside the country, who have their regional languages, as well. It is quite unlike anything we have in the US, and it is interesting to think that in fact, except for learning English, all Indonesians are bilingual from their childhood and operate both their regional language and Bahasa Indonesia. Nowadays, Indonesian popular culture is a mix of the Western worldview and native elements. I communicated with many people, and many of them loved Indian movies. I even met a girl who tried to learn Hindi just because of them. Indonesians also claimed that their music was quite similar to that of India, although most of them also liked American stars, as well as K-Pop. Their TV is also similar to the Western one. They even have many reality-shows, for example, Indonesian Idol, the concepts of some of which were borrowed from the UK or the US. They also have their own TV-series, and the students claimed that comedies were quite good. However, many young adults love YouTube. The independent shows there and video blogs are quite popular. Most of the girls are into beauty blogs. Unlike many young Americans, Indonesians are not interested in politics that much. I felt like they follow American politics more than their own. It is also not that common to be sports fans, and as far as I understood, they did not have any national sports games such as baseball or football. One of the most interesting things for me that I would like to explore in detail is how religion, in Indonesia’s case, Islam, are transforming in order to co-exist with the modern technologies, Westernized lifestyle preferred by the youth, as well as other elements of the Western culture, which inevitably come along with the globalization process. From Indonesian students, with whom I communicated, I have learned that there are conservative Islam groups, which are not very pleased with the globalization that they consider the imposition of the Western values. I have read about these groups a bit and come to the conclusion that they are rather similar to conservative Christians in the US, with their concern over the morals of the youth and opposition to female emancipation and the LGBT community. However, religious opposition to globalization and modernization is rather straightforward and easy to understand. What interests me more is how modernized religion transforms and adjusts its values to accommodate liberal values. This topic is vital for understanding Indonesia and the realities of multiculturalism in both the US and in European countries. I do not feel that young Indonesians, in general, are too concerned with preserving their traditional cultures. When asked about globalization, most of them claimed that it was for the best, as it gives more opportunities for learning the foreign culture, communicating with others, and traveling. Most of the students were also not very religious, and even some of the girls wearing hijabs admitted that it was more because of the pressure from their parents than from genuine faith. However, I would not generalize; in fact, I find Indonesians to be still more religious than most Americans: they are simply better in combining their faith with being open-minded. Meeting Indonesian students and talking about their lifestyles and worldview was an interesting experience. They turned out to be much more similar to Americans culturally than I would have thought. However, despite this similarity, there were many glimpses that suggested the difference of their country, living conditions, and the way of life there. Perhaps, the most interesting thing was catching these glimpses and being reminded of the differences between us; however, in the course of time, I ceased to pay attention to the fact that these differences existed. If the article was cognitive for you, proceed to order the quality custom essay https://qualityessay.com/ from professional writers on our web. Most of the articles are written by Natalie Dalton, a professional writer.