It was very interesting to hear international students and other professors share their experiences with culture shock, in the Culture Shock video. The students were describing their first culture shock experience, which was when they first arrived on campus for college, which allowed me to compare and contrast my experiences to theirs. One student mentioned that they were very overwhelmed with orientation because they had to learn in a short period of time everything that people who lived in America learned over the course of their whole life. This provided a new way of visualizing things because as someone who is Korean, but born in the United States, I can definitely say that I felt comfortable with orientation because they just reinforced what I already knew, but I can see how that is different for someone who is new to the whole scene.
As a Korean individual, who grew up in the United States and not in South Korea, I did not experience culture shock by moving to another country. As a result, my first experience of culture shock was similar to the students in the video because it was when I moved to University of Richmond for my college experience. I’d like to admit that this move is not even a huge change because I am originally from northern Virginia (NOVA), which is only about 2 hours away. Although I cannot speak for everyone, I think the tiny details of culture shock that I experienced is how the people in Richmond are so much friendlier than those in NOVA. It may be because people are coming from all different states and countries, but I definitely realized that people tend to be nicer and more encouraging in Richmond. Although I have not experienced a huge culture shock, I think ways that we can cope with culture shock can include having a good community, joining clubs, and having opportunities to explore and not being stuck in the “UR bubble.”
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