After watching "Culture Shock" I realized that most of the international students face the problems that I have encountered after coming to the US. I could relate to almost all of the problems the students were talking about in the video. In Bangladesh, I had studied in a school where all the classes were taught in English from Kindergarten to Grade 12, I had always thought that I was quite fluent in that language and would not have any problem of communication in English.
However, after coming here I realized that the English that I was taught in school was British which sometimes made a lot difference in spoken English. I noticed there are many many words which are pronounced differently in US than what I was familiar with. During first few months of my freshmen year, I would participate less in class because I was never sure whether I would be pronouncing words properly.
I could also relate to the difficulty people faced due to the different system of education. Class discussions and participation grades were novel to me. Moreover, my First Year Seminar paper was the first paper that I had written in my life.
I also had a difficult time making friends. I felt that I had no idea what the American students were talking about most of the time. Firstly, most of the expressions they used in conversations were absolutely new to me. In addition, I was not familiar with the entertainment industry in the US. Thus I would be totally lost when people would discuss their favorite shows, movies or songs. However, I never let myself dwell on my struggles too much and would try to be busy all the time. This probably prevented me from falling into depression and feeling homesick.
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