American Roommate Can Ease Your Culture Shock
Since day one I left my home country and came to US, I told myself that I had to learn and experience as much as I could about US culture in my college life. The first thing in my mind was to live with someone I didn’t know of, and knew American culture very much. Living with an American roommate in a dorm was the way to go. If you ask me again, it is still highly recommended.
I know that it sounds tough to some international students as culture shock will make them anxious and confused. When I was still in Ames, Iowa, I knew many of my Chinese friends who would rather live and hangout with other Chinese than American. Just because they couldn’t accept the American culture, food, etc. On the other hand, they were so proud that they had learned enough English in high school. There wasn’t a need for them to get to know more about American culture and the language.
In my opinion, it was such a stupid move as nobody would ever learn enough. If they were too proud of themselves, they would just be a frog in a well. I was glad that I didn’t know enough English in my Chinese high school to communicate with any English speakers back then. I still remembered that my Chinese friends teased my poor English because I flunked the English placement test and had to take ESL class in my first semester. Their innocent acts really motivated myself to study harder. When I lived with my American roommate, I gotta learn a lot of English and American culture from her and the girls on the same floor.
Throughout many years of living with different roommates, I was lucky that 90% of them were good, and they were Americans. If you really want to get over culture shock quicker, find an American roommate and learn from him/her.