Hello, my readers,

how are you all doing? I hope MMXI is off to a good start and you still keep those of your resolutions to start eating healthy, exercise more, read more, etc. ;)

Anyway, today's post will be about cultural shock, that thing you experience when you're in a different country for a prolonged amount of time. It happens to be so important that, for example, US Custom Service and Foreign Affairs even designed a booklet to help those experiencing it.

In my case, culture shock was something that I initially wasn't aware of. Of course, I was coming to a different country and a very different culture, values and traditions, but I assumed that the universal human values and ethics as well as things portrayed in Hollywood movies and other American media export will help me to easily navigate the intricacies of American life. How wrong was I.

Luckily, the stereotypes portrayed in Hollywood movies were not completely true. Of course, there is some degree of truth in that Americans do enjoy fast foods (let's be honest, we all crave McDonald's once in a while no matter how disgusting it is), maybe a bit self-centered and not very aware of the outside world; however, most of them are surprisingly modest and very eager to learn and explore. Many of them are aware of what non-Americans think about the US, and they are not pleased with that image, to say the least, and realize that it's mostly Bush government's fault.

Anyway, we wandered off a bit from our main topic. So, my point I was trying to convey here is that you will experience culture shock no matter what, but it will be to a different extent in different cases. If so, then how do you deal with culture shock???

Well, one thing I found to be extremely helpful in this case is making new friends. But not just some friends, but rather a few, or many (completely up to you), really close American friends. I tend to notice that a lot of international students tend to stick with people from their own country or of the same racial background, and to be fair, I probably would've done the same thing when I came to the US. However, thankfully and not at the same time, there were no Kazakhs and only few Russians on campus, so there was no other way for me but to make friends with Americans. By being friends with Americans, I was introduced more intimately to their culture and had an insider prospective on many things that helped me understand its values, traditions and other cultural aspects. This also helped me to feel connected and be a part of American community, and therefore I didn't feel as lonely as I would've without my American friends.

So yes, my advice to those who are experiencing or yet to experience culture shock, go and make some friends who live in the country of your study. Of course, it will probably be awkward and kinda annoying that you don't know many things that your friends talk about, refer to and laugh at among themselves at first, but with time and by asking them to explain those things you don't get, you'll get the hang of it in no time and feel in that country as in your second home.

Peace and Love,

MK.