"You're going to the United States to live ? How wonderful ! You are really lucky! " I still remember my friends said that to me when I left China. But it maybe not seemed true all the time. First, it seemed my life in this new country was wonderful and exciting.
I tasted different kind of food, took a lot of photos wherever I visit. I felt pleased because everything is new and exciting when I first arrived at here. I could learn and acquire new perspectives through the new culture, and it could also make me have a better understanding of myself and developed my creativity.But the problems arised just after few weeks. Even if I tried hard to absoarb everything in the new culture, but I still had difficulties.
I felt a deep sense of " cultural stress" and was worn out from having to pay attention to so many new expressions and ways of dealing with things. I felt the full impact of " culture shock. " The language trouble. Language is the principal symbol system of communication.
I realized my language skills aren't good enough, I missed jokes and colloquial phrases.I couldn't count how many times I had just repeated the same again and again and hoped to understand the answer eventually. And I had no idea about TV shows, pop songs or other internal culture information. I became more and more afraid of communicating and making mistakes. This problem was quite enough to cause frustration and anxiety. The weather was unpleasant.
It was extremely cold in winter. I was really afraid of cold. It took me long time to adapt the weather. I began to tired of eating such kind of food, sandwiches, pizza, hamburger.I missed the familiar smells of the food I am accustomed to in my country. It took time to figure out the public service systems such as gas station, post office and bank at the first time.
I felt uncomfortable. I felt that everyone was watching me because I was a foreigner, I don't look similar to the natives. I felt I was an outsider. I was really self- conscious at that time. With a new context comes new ways of doing things, I found I was uninitiated and unsure of what to do or how to do things, what was appropriate or inappropriate.Sometimes I felt people were insensitive and unsympathetic to me and my worries because they can't understand your great concern, so I became aggressive,"I don't like them.
" I just stayed at home or banded together with my countrymen and started to criticize the host country, its ways and its people. It seemed funny now. I felt lonely, uneasy, vulnerable, powerless and became irritable, I wanted to go back home and felt more and more like a stranger here. In a word, it is not easy to adjust to life in new culture .But like most ailments,it has its own cure. I think lots of newcomers will take a "this is my cross and I have to bear it" attitude.
The first thing we should do is to built the self-confident. It help avoiding worried, anxious emotion. Second, keepa sense of humor. Because the ability to laugh off things will help guard against despair. Third,make new friends and go for short walks to familiarize yourself with your area, and set yourself a task each time.
I have learn how to " read" the new context so far.I become aware of the new cues, the new expectations, the new ways of communicating. With some trial and error, I almost succeed in overcoming culture shock and learn to enjoy the life more. Someone said "Changing the environment is a little bit like changing the water in a fish tank. We were supposed to keep one third of the old water and replace two thirds with fresh water.
That way, the fish don't completely freak out. Their new environment is diluted with some water from their old environment. "
