AFS-USA Flagship Semester Program

As a nation of immigrants, the U.S. has been described as a “melting pot,” meaning that U.S. culture is a unified combination of the many cultures brought by people who were born in or came to live in the U.S. A later theory is that we are more like a “salad bowl” where parts come together in proximity yet retain their own separate cultural identity. The newest metaphor to describe the U.S. is that we are like a “chili bowl” where individuals and groups are fully encouraged to be a part of the U.S. culture while differences in individual and group identifies are acknowledged and respected, and this balance and “fusion of flavors” is what makes our culture so rich!