Actually reading all this reminded me of Asperger's syndrome, which is on the high-functioning end of the autism spectrum, but still can involve some social awkwardness and disconnect because those affected generally are less able to comprehend the normalities of conversation, so they might not understand when it is their turn to speak, or to look at the other person when speaking, or be able to figure out the other person's moods or facial expressions. In general, though, most of us can interpret these signals more or less accurately, so conversation generally is not impeded significantly.
I found the video about culture shock really interesting. I only experienced a mild degree of that when I went abroad to Scotland and Jordan. The first was because the UK university was English-speaking, (if with an accent :D ) and also because English society is not all *that* different from American society, compared to other regions of the world. The second was because when I was in Jordan (and also in Egypt and Jerusalem for a few days), I was only there for six weeks, and we were twelve Americans all in a programme together, so we stayed clumped together instead of fully integrating. While we did make some Jordanian friends there, and there were plenty of cultural differences in the way life was run (and most difficult for me, the expectations of woman there), we weren't really deeply affected by the cultural divides because we had each other, and we got closer for it. I can imagine how hard it would be to start over completely in a different country. To be honest, from what the video was describing, I experienced more of that in my freshman year than I ever did when I went abroad. I was still pretty introverted my first year, and it was hard to get to know people and make friends and feel integrated into the school. It must have been even harder to do all that in a different country where your language wasn't even the one predominantly spoken... :-O
Comments