Who are these people rushing by you on the street’? More than 200 million now call America "home," but most of them can trace their families back to other parts of the world. If you look at the names on shop windows,you will see that Americans come from many different lands. The idea that these people, who once were strangers to the United States, have lost the customs and cultures of their original countries and have become "American" is not really true.

In fact. what exists in America is more often a kind of "side-by-side’ living in which groups of people from other countries often have kept many of their customs and habits.They join the general American society only in certain areas of their lives such as in schools,businesses,and sports but they keep many of their own native customs and manners socially and at home. This living "side-by-side" has both advanrages and disadvantages. Sometimes it may cause disagreements between groups whose ways of life are very different from one another. However, there are also great advantages that come from different kinds of cultures brought by settlers from other lands. There is great freedom of choice among ideas, dresses, food, and social customs in America. Everyone can find some part of his or her familiar world in the United States.