Culture shock
I first experienced a cultural shock when I was studying at the United World College in Mostar, Bosnia and Herzegovina. Even though I was still in my own country and only 6 hours away from my home, I experienced a cultural shock because I was living and studying with students from 30 different countries and everything was so new for me. I remember my first days at UWC very well, I was so overwhelmingly positive and excited about being a part of this high school that I did not even think I would go through a cultural shock phase. However, after the “honeymoon phase” I started experiencing a cultural shock. I realized that i had to speak in English all the time, and at that time I barely spoke English. This was extremely hard for me so at the beginning I would just hang out only with Bosnians because I was comfortable speaking in my language rather than trying to speak in English. Then, another problem I encountered was related to academics. Writing papers and delivering presentations was something absolutely new for me. For example in my previous school we would never write papers, or even less likely give presentations. We heard in the video from several students at the University of Richmond that they had similar experience as me. They were so lost when they had to write papers because they had not done it before. It was especially hard for me to understand what the professors really wanted from us. I was constantly asking myself if it was the right decision that I had chosen to came there and expose myself to all that stress.
My real cultural shock actually happened when I came to the United States to attend the University of Richmond. This was something completely different. I was not 6 hours away from home anymore, I was living on another continent. My first days at the University of Richmond were not as they were at UWC. I spent first days of my time in the US sitting in my room and crying my eyes out. I just wanted to go home. I did not feel this was what I was expecting and hoping for. People were just... different. Even though I already had experience living and studying with students from different countries, this was much more intense. I did not have my people there, I did not hear my language spoken anywhere I would go and any friendship I tried to make with Americans would just fail. At that time I started hanging out with other international students, and even today I mostly hang out with internationals.
Another problem for non-native speakers is speaking up in class. I believe that any international student who comes to study in the US has at least some trouble participating in class discussions. Just as shown in the video, the international student at the U of R was not comfortable participating in discussion, neither was I. This might be because we are initially afraid that we are going to make so many mistakes in grammar and pronunciation that we rather remain silent. Also, we might be afraid that we speak so slowly when speaking in English and that other students just get so bored listening to our slow/broken English.
I really liked the part of the video where an Asian guy talks about “What’s up?” Every time I heard it from anyone in the US, I did not know how to respond. I was wondering if they only wanted to hear me say “Not much, how are you?” At first, I would literally translate “What’s up” to my language which means “tell me what is new?” At first I thought that those students who asked me this question really wanted to hear what is new in my life, and wanted me to tell them how I like U of R. Honestly, I did not even have time to respond back to their question because they would already pass by me. It was really awkward for me at the beginning but as the time passed by, I understood that it is just a common saying such as telling someone “Hello.”
Experiencing a cultural shock is nothing to worry too much about. It just happens when you change your well known environment. It might be hard in the beginning, but people get used to it after a while. Speaking from my own experience, it was extremely hard for me in the beginning, I found myself in an unknown place, I felt like an alien and did not know what to do. However, when you start exploring the culture, you get to understand why certain things are the way they are, and eventually you start appreciating them. What is more interesting, you get surprised when you yourself start using something that seemed so weird and awkward to you in the beginning (in my case What’s up?) I believe that international students should explore the culture to which they are exposed and try to make friends with native speakers. Thus, not only will international students learn English better by communicating with them, but also understand the culture better and faster.
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