Culture Reflection
Culture shock is a feeling one experiences when living in a social environment which is different from familiar home culture. It is usually associated with going from a country to another country. It was the second time I watched the “culture shock” movie and it is quite interesting to watch it again. The first time I watched it was at the beginning of my first semester, and during these three years I experienced almost everything mentioned in the movie. I found lots of resonance when watch this movie and as an international student, I know exactly how culture shock feels like.
When I first came to America, I felt very exciting and fresh during the first couple weeks. However, not long after the semester began, I became to feel overwhelming. The language issue, the food, tons of homework and the way people made friend here, all of these made me feel homesick and isolated. Many people said that international students tend to group together. It is quite understandable because we usually feel more comfortable with international students since we share a lot of common ground. It was a kind of the comfort zone for us.
It was very interesting when a Chinese student mentioned the “what’s up” greeting, because I had experienced the same situation and it took me a while to realize that there is no need to actually answer it, it is just a common greeting. Every country has its own way of greeting, so does China; in both mainland China and Hong Kong, we ask “Have you eaten yet?” instead of “How are you?” in here. However, what is different in mainland China is that, we do care about the answers, and the phrase is usually what we use to start a conversation. In China, people like to chat while eating, thus, if your answer is “No, I have not eaten yet”, we may invite you to have a lunch together, then we can have a talk!
The movie also talked about the “role of silence” which Americans usually feel very uncomfortable with. Professor Grove told us that in Turkey silence is a way to indicate “yes”. What a coincidence, in China, silence is agreement. For example, when you are buying coffee and the café assistant asks if you would like to add sugar? If you do not say anything, that will be considered “yes” and she will add sugar for your coffee. Chinese people are usually very comfortable with silence and many people actually enjoy it very much.
Another interesting difference I have found between the US and China is the way people eat, including shape of dining table. Most of Chinese restaurants only have round table which allowing everyone engage equally in a conversation. Chinese people like to talk and share food while eating together. All the food dishes are placed in the center of the table and everyone can get as much as they want of each. In China, individuals do not order entrees for themselves; usually the host orders all the entrees and pay for them. Only in fast food restaurant such as McDonald’s individual orders and pays by him or herself. Food is a good reflection of Chinese culture, and it can be divided into eight different cuisines by areas. Each cuisine well represents its area and is quite different with other areas. I lived in China for 18 years and was not very used to food other than Chinese food. So, during the first year my experience was opposite of “freshmen fifteen” which I dropped 15 pounds.
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