"The Values American Live By” by L. Robert Kohls, Ph.D.

First of all I would like to express something about values. I think values are something really important in any culture. Since they made us as we are, values can also judge a country without knowing as it is. I would like to comment this article according to my experience in the United States. I had the opportunity to live and work in the USA, and if I had known about how people are there, I would have taken the things a little bit more relaxing. I shall comment the articles that I like most with examples which I lived there.
Personal Control over the Environment/Responsibility: I do not if I got the main idea of this value but I would like to share this as a part of the culture of USA. I think every person in the United States has an important control over the environment they have, and you can notice that and also you can even change the way you have been used to think. When I arrived in the United States and I see the ideology people have to preserve the environment and with this the responsibly they also get with this. Sometimes I became to think how beautiful can be a country in which people really think about the consequences of throwing away garbage.
Time and its control: it is unbelievable to see how Americans really take care of the time. For Americans it is important to be on time and control it as a part of a good image. When I started to work there was a little bit difficult for me to try to be on time all the time. No because I did not want, but because it is something that you cannot ever control. What I mean is that we are used to do this and most people do not care about it. Of course I had to learn and managers understood me. I would like to say that this is not something just about Costa Rican people, when I was there I met a lot of people from Peru, Chile, Paraguay, Brazil, Argentina and everybody had problem with the time.
Independence: I do not agree with this value in USA. I did of course lotof friends from USA, and most of them did not even want to leave the house but some people see this as a tradition and they told me their parents obliged them to leave the house just because they finished high school. Of course I got friends who really like leaving from house and becoming independent.
Action/ work orientation: this was something really funny, and also weird. I never could understand how Americans can work too much time without getting tired. I still remember that my manager used to say to me “do something, whatever but do something, you can dance but do something” they do not like seeing people just stand there.
Informality is something I really like in USA. I think people do not worry about what to wear. They can use the same pants even one week and they do not care. When you are working they do not care if you got any tattoo or any piercing they just want you to work.