Culture shock is precipitated by the frustration that results from losing all familiar clues. When an individual enters a totally different culture, she or he loses the comfort zone. As for almost all of international student study abroad, inadequate knowledge before opening the way to a new culture causes an individual inadaptable. Language difficulties, building friendship, distinctive dining habits, and nostalgia are all obstacles that international students have to overcome.
Coming from other parts of the world, international students are hard to change the way of learning, and experience the overwhelmed academic life. As for me, I got used to the passive lecturing style, which professors stood in front and just talk. All students needed to do is to take notes, but never expected to ask questions. This passive way of learning is totally opposite to the liberal art college learning style. At University of Richmond, students have to actively participate in the class discussion and have to show their personal ideas. Even some classes would have participation grade to encourage students to share ideas in classes. At my first year of college life, I was so worried about speaking poor English during the class. Moreover, writing a college paper is the most demanding task for international students who have never learnt writing a paper in my entire high school. Like me, I suffered a lot during my first year seminars. Since I did not write any papers in high school, it was a great challenge to write an English paper, which requires the proper MLA or Chicago citation style. To address those academic problems, when they are facing a new academic environment, I would advise them to talk with their professors and to get help from the Writing center. Professors can understand what students who English as their second language are going through. Getting help from your professors and writing consultants, international students will do better in class as well as writing papers.
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