My Blog...How original.

Essay I wrote for my intercultural class...


To me, America is like kimchi. Kimchi is a traditional Korean dishes made of vegetables that have been spiced and fermented. There are various types of kimchi made from different vegetables such as napa cabbage, green onion, radish, or cucumber. What most people think of kimchi though is the napa cabbage. Although there various other ingredients the brunt of the dish is the cabbage.

The reason why I think America is like kimchi is because while America is made up of mostly white/anglo people (cabbage) what makes America so different from a lot of other countries is how there are a mix of other cultures (the spices). Without these other cultures and races, America would be nothing but another country that only hosts a certain race of people. This is similar to kimchi in that without all the spices and other ingredients, kimchi would just be plain cabbage. Another similarity is that kimchi only gets better the longer it ferments. Obviously, Americans do not ferment but the relationships between the different cultures have had time to adjust to each other. One-hundred years ago it would have been a rare sight to see cultural diversities we see today and take for granted. It has only been through time that we have gradually blended together and which makes us the diversity we are today. The final thing that makes America similar to kimchi is the different types of kimchi there are. The similarity here is the way each city in America not the same in its diversity. The group of people in the Bay Area is different from the group of people in New York or in Los Angles. While there are some commonalities, there are obvious differences.

Needless to say, America is not exactly like kimchi. The most obvious flaw to this metaphor is that while there are many cities with a lot of cultural diversity and intermixing, especially around the coast, there are still more that are not. This not a bad thing in anyway though. As long there is not prejudice, having a single culture is fine. After all, sometimes it’s nice to have just plain cabbage.