Esther Kwon
SDLAP
105 Learning Journal #5
After watching Culture Shock, I gained a better understanding of how difficult and overwhelming it is for international students to adjust to the American culture while also needing to function by speaking, reading, and writing in a second language. I also related to the students at some points in the video, because even though I am American, I too experienced quite a bit of culture shock moving from the west to the east coast of the U.S. Prior to coming to the University of Richmond, I had already expected to feel overwhelmed since I was moving far away from home. I certainly did not expect however, to feel so alienated during the first month or so of school. The primary reason for my culture shock was the overwhelming majority of white and black people on campus and the seemingly small minority of Asians. Although I do realize the school pushes for diversity on our campus, I felt that our school was mostly fulfilling the Asian population of our school through Chinese international students, and hardly any other Asian ethnicities. It took me a month or so to find and meet other Korean or Korean-American students on campus, but before then I had felt very uncomfortable being surrounded mostly by caucasians and feeling like I was the only Asian or Asian-American person. This is actually quite true when it comes to my classes interestingly enough, since I have noticed that I am usually the only Asian or Asian-American in my class with the exception of a few Chinese international students. While feeling isolated ethnically, I also experienced another type of culture shock due to the difference between west and east coast cultures. During orientation, I was amazed to see a bizarre uniformity in clothing, shoes, and accessories, and I quickly learned about the various “it” brands of the east coast such as Vineyard Vines, Lily Pulitzer, and Longchamp. Furthermore, I noticed a general difference in manner and speech in the east coast, as it seemed generally more brief and to-the-point. But despite these two culture shocks I experienced, I have become accustomed to them by finding the Korean community at our school while also realizing and accepting the differences of the west and east coast.
Comments