Yuko

American family

I went to our host family’s house this weekend with my roommate, Ayumi. We did many activities such as going bowling and going shopping. I don’t go out of the MFWI campus so often, so I was happy to get the chance to go to some places in Spokane.

American people think conversation among family is so important. They don’t turn on the TV while they eat meals because they would like to talk with other family members while they are having meals. When I was in Japan and lived with my family, we always turned on the TV while we were having meals. If there weren’t any TV sounds while we were having meals, there would be lots of silence during the time we had meals. We might rely on the TV as a role of makeing our room a little bit noisy. When we were eating meals, there wasn’t so much conversation between our family members. We just watched TV, laughed on watching what was happening on the TV show, and ate meals. However, our host family kept talking while they had meals. They talked about how the host mother made meals, their neighborhood, or what they’ve learned by watching the news. They didn’t forget to say something humorous during their conversation, too. Sometimes I couldn’t understand the humorous things they were saying, but I knew they were trying to make me laugh. They sometimes asked me whether I was fine because especially in morning, my face looks so sleepy and tired. They seemed to care about us as real family members.

My host family communicated not only by means of the words, but also by body language, so I think American families try to know what is happening with their family members or what they’re thinking by various communication ways such as funny voice or just greeting each other.