Apparently, cosmopolitan is not a noun unless it is talking about the drink or magazine; cosmopolitan is an adjective meant to describe the word I have chosen for this essay—cosmopolite. This essay focuses on what being a cosmopolite entails, as well as how it plays a role in someone a liberally-educated person, as William Cronon explains in his article, Only Connect . . .. It is probably too ambitious of me to describe myself as a cosmopolite, because it infers a certain sophistication I do not have, but I believe there are certain aspects of my life that makes it worthy of this term.
With the Oxford English Dictionary as my prime source, the valid definition and etymology of the word cosmopolite is defined. On the definition of the word…show more content… Ever since I can remember, my life is a mixture of American and Chinese culture. My mom came to America from Taiwan when she was in her early twenties, and so brought a lot of her own culture with her. Growing up, my home was, and continues to be, bilingual in both English and Mandarin. When I was little, I never gave much thought to this and it was only later, in more recent years that I realized how much Chinese culture has influenced my home, for example: my family eats rice approximately three times a week, never wears shoes in the house, and several other inherently Chinese things. To some people this way of doing things is unusual, but being open to and accepting certain aspects of other cultures is part of being a…show more content… Just recently, thanks again to my dad’s Army career; my family and I were able to live in Taiwan for ten months. While I was there, I attended the Fu Jen University’s Chinese Language Center’s intense higher level Chinese course for three semesters. Not only was I able to improve my Chinese, but it was an amazing opportunity because I was able to meet a very diverse group of people. There were so many different cultures represented: France, Japan, Korea, Indonesia, Burkina Faso, Sudan, Dominican Republic, Italy, Thailand, Vietnam, America, just to list a few. At sixteen, I was the youngest person there and it was really interesting to see all these people in different walks of life learning Chinese: some people were Catholic religious who were learning Chinese to better communicate with the local Taiwanese people, others had parents back home who were pressuring them to learn Chinese, but most people were learning Chinese because they thought it was interesting. Being exposed to the local Taiwanese culture and the students at the Language Center solidified this realization that what Cronon writes about is really true. “Without such encounters, we cannot learn how much people differ—and how much they have in common.” (Only Connect) Each culture is interesting and different, but in the end we do share some common ideas, and we are all
