Learning / Culture Shock I

It’s a hundred and fifteen students from around the globe sitting here in this room. Sixty percent of you are international. You come the thirty three nations represented in this room. And this kind of mix cultures create this very exhilarating fascinating environment, but also very very challenging for all of you!
And I’m gonna discuss about the PERSONAL SOCIAL ACADEMIC aspects of being international student in here. Starting with the personal…
So… I came from Israel here a few years ago to start this dual degree in journalism and business. And, back home, I was a journalist, a senior editor at the second largest newspaper. And when I came here sitting in your seats just like in a different building, I remember that I was like in a state of mind that is called SHOCK. Now I was in a total and complete shock. I was sitting right here and I knew my name, I knew where I live, I knew what I have to do today and tomorrow but everything was kind of FOGGY. I was like walking in a cloud. I didn’t see. It didn’t feel like my life. Now, in retrospect, I realized that this is called CULTURE SHOCK. And while culture shock is… is differently experienced by different kind of people some things are still common like: sadness and loneliness and frustration and anxiety and trouble concentrating at the beginning. And if that’s not enough I was also feeling left out and misunderstood and eventually I started to really hate Americans. For a good couple of moths I really hated Americans. And when that… during that month you know I was like I couldn’t deal with American students, I could deal only with seeing the company of various students because they were the ones I could relate to. They were the ones I could understand. And eventually I developed like this extreme home sickness. I really really wanted to go back home. To mammy. It felt like this entire experience was a mistake. Now… I wasn’t alone. Err.. thirty eight percent of the international students who are now in the second year say that they encounter symptoms of culture shock. Now we asked this question after a year of school. So, in my opinion, this figure is at least double. Because people tend to undermine the difficulties as time goes by. Especially people with big EGOs like us, right? So I’m sure that they are like some international students sitting here in a crowd and, you know, didn’t attend to national orientation, saying “Culture shock? Me? No way. I just arrived on Sunday and I’m completely in love with everything!”
And that might be true maybe because those people are in Phase 1 of culture shock, which is called THE HONEYMOON. I came to the US and, during the first weeks, I was in love with EVERYTHING that I’ve seen. EVERYTHING! I mean seriously. Take a look at that. The view from the Empire state. Nice, huh? Impressive! Or… or the Central Park. Love is in the air! Or… or my favorite place – the Brooklyn Bridge. Kind of a nice bridge, huh? So that was… that was the HONEYMOON. I came to the US… you know I worked for years on my application. There was nothing more that I wanted them to come here and sit here, in Columbia Business School. And when I was like… it was… when I was seeing all the skyscrapers, walking like in Central Park and everything. All the city beauties are beautiful. I felt like I have made it, I’m in the center of the world. It was a great feeling. But every good thing must come to an end.
And when the honeymoon is over, starts Phase2. Which is “what am I doing here” face. And during that phase me and Miss America kind of had a big fight. And when I was walking down the street, I wasn’t in love any more. I was actually feeling like this guy. This is… well… Borat! You know everything became so hard! The hardest part for me was that I couldn’t speak. I didn’t have the vocabulary. And, you know, back in Israel, when I was a journalist, I was making a living out of words! And coming here I have lost my biggest Q. The ability to express myself the way I wanted. And if you cannot express yourself the way you want, you cannot sound smart, you cannot sound intelligent, you cannot sound funny, you cannot sound anything.
But that was kind of the big thing. But there’re lots of little things that were kind of annoying. For example, the Subway. You know, what is uptown, what is downtown? How do you read the subway map? So many I find myself in the wrong station, sometimes in the wrong borrow… more than once…
Down things like grocery shopping. You know, I couldn’t find the food that I like. And when I finally did, it tasted really really bad!
Measurement. I mean who invented the inches??? Right? And how heavy is one pound??? And… and thirty degrees Fahrenheit. Is it really hot or really cold? Right?
Coins. I mean what is the dime? What is the nickel? What is the penny??? And how come the dime is smaller than the nickel??? And how come they don’t have numbers on them? The only country in the world with no numbers on the coins!
But what bothered me above everything beyond comparison was… the… the Americans. Not the president. I found the Americans to be err… so positive all the time. Always happy, even there’s no reason to be. You know? I felt this… this kind of plastic that I could not communicate with them, because they… would not get the real answer from them. So, for example, if you got to the second year student in here, at Columbia, and you would ask them how was your summer internship. Seriously, do it. Everybody would tell you AMAZING summer internship, even if they really hated it! And so many times people said to me I dear let’s have lunch sometime. And I would never hear again. Ever! Which eventually led me to the conclusion that all Americans are fake. And when I thought that all Americans are fake, there was this kind of dishallow effect. I was also sure that they are distant, and insincere and hypocritical and superficial, because they are fake. And if they are superficial and distant and insincere, they’re probably artificial and over flexible and naïve in love, you know…they’re tasting clothing, which is true…
Now, you’re laughing now but for me that period of time was very very bad! I really really wanted to go home! This entire experience was entire mistake. You know. One of the strongest memories that I have from that period of time is that… I’m lying in my bed just before going to sleep and suddenly I feel the bed is kind of shaking and then kind of it’s floating in the air and leaves my room through the open window and then flies east crossing the ocean, crossing the Mediterranean and lands in my old apartment in Tel Aviv. Now, that was a sweet dream.
Now, around that time you can see those little groups for me here in Columbia. The Mexican with Mexicans, French with a French, the Dutch with a Dutch and it doesn’t really make culture shock disappear faster.