Cultural Differences In America

From what I have heard from my friend, the stereotypes I have of this culture includes being overly religious and very strict about a lot of things. It seems like everything has to be perfect and if it’s not then that would be very bad. To study this culture, I went over to my friend AK’s house. He is Syrian and has told me about his family life, so I also interviewed him. The reason I studied this co-culture is because AK is my friend and from what he had already told me, it seemed like his family life was a lot different than mine. When I went to his house, that proved to be true. The only reason I was able to go over in the first place was by telling his parents that it was for “educational reasons”. He warned me that if that wasn’t the reason for coming over, then his parents would not allow it. When we were eating dinner, I was not allowed to sit next to him. He later informed me that in his culture the same gender never sits next to one another unless they are immediate family. We also did not
When I asked if growing up was different than growing up in the American culture, he just laughed and said it was much different. He was never able to bring any girls around, and he never was allowed to go to any high school dances (i.e homecoming, prom, etc.). He even told me that in the Syrian culture it is the “norm” for people to court, and two of his siblings courted. As a little kid he told me that things could be very different because of his mixed languages. “I remember in kindergarten we were talking about watermelon and I had no idea what everybody was talking about because in my family we always called it by its Arabic name, batikh.” He told me. Syria is also a very religious-dominated country. It is mostly Muslim, and you do not mix with the opposite sex. He even said that weddings are very different. In weddings in Syria you still do not mix with the opposite sex, men are on one side and women are on the