Cultural Differences

I can't take a picture like this at home

Whenever you travel to a new place, you will find a different culture, and most of the time people don't understand your culture and you don't understand their culture. It's really difficult for anyone to understand a new culture immediately. They will ultimately make some mistakes, some things people might find weird or not that ordinary, because of the difference in culture. I am so happy that in AT&T they understand that issue and they have employees from everywhere. This makes it easy for us to handle our staying in the U.S. and understand the differences.

In AT&T I met Ali, a very nice gentleman from Pakistan. He came from the same culture that I have, so he understands the differences in culture and can help us with culture shocks and explain the things that we don't understand. Whenever I have a question or want to do something, I just "Q" him (its a program we use to chat) ask him my question, and he explains to me what to do. Sometimes it's the same thing I want to do, only in a different way, but it makes a huge difference.

One of the greatest advice I got from him is when I explain to him a problem I have, he smiles and tells me that the problem is in our culture. It is considered rude to ask about that, so he can understand why I am not asking for it. The problem is in the U.S. you must ask because it's considered your right to ask, so if you don't ask for it, no one will give it to you, because they don't know that you want it. He put it simply: " [In Iraq] You wait for them to give it to you, and [in the U.S.] they wait for you to ask them".