Although I am not an international student, I experienced a culture shock when my family and I first immigrated to the United States from South Korea. The biggest culture shock for me was getting used to a new language and food. Even though my parents cooked a lot of Korean food at home, in school, I had to get used to new "American" foods like traditional American breakfast and strange dishes like mozzarella sticks. Food is a huge part of any culture and getting used to American food was not easy in the beginning.
Before coming to the US, I did not know a lot of English. I took English in an academy my parents put me through but nothing stuck with me when I immigrated to the states. I had to learn a whole new language just by going through the motions in elementary school and every day life. Thankfully, the elementary school I attended had a great ESL program and there were a lot of Korean-Americans who helped me get to the place I am now.
Comments