Culture as shared learning experience.
The college attracts students from all over the world to learn from one another and expand their worldviews. This offers students opportunities to make meaningful, lifelong friendships and connections that extend beyond borders. In the college, I live with roommates from countries other than my own. Therefore, I can talk to them about how my culture differs from their own. Intercultural communication makes me get to know myself, to know other people better and learn from other cultures.
Social activities are very common in western societies. At the beginning of my college life, I have been invited to a freshman party. There were many incoming Chinese students who have also attended it. In the party, many American were friendly to talk with me. Although I also tried to talk them, I still worried about talking English to Americans because I usually not able to express my ideas clearly to them. The problem in speaking English makes me lost many opportunities to communicate with people from other cultures, which make me difficult to integrate myself into American society and the adaptation of intercultural communication.
American culture tends to be open and friendly, but many Chinese students are shy and quiet. It seems like they don't go to the party because they think these chances are pretty low to find common topics with other people they met. Even though in the university more than six months, I still consider myself for local cultural awareness lifestyle are unfamiliar. I have often preferred to choose to meet other people from the same country because of common living habits and communication convenience in an unfamiliar condition. This can make me more quickly to have a sense of belonging and have common topics of communication with them. As an example, every day in the campus dining hall, I am always having a meal with my friends from the same country together and I barely need to speak English. Eventually, this causes I don't have more chance to communicate with those Americans students and still hard to improve my English conversation skills.
As a student comes from other countries, I can not fully integrate into American society quickly, but I still remind myself to try to join the activities team and make new foreign friends because these are the best ways to learn and adapt foreign cultures. Cultural differences can create more communication to each other. If do not try to communicate with foreigners, what's the point of study in America? Actually, besides knowledge, I know I should make the best of My experience to study in America and more understand everyone around me, understand others behavior and ways of thinking, learn how to appreciate each other's differences and across the language barriers, even complex cultures. If so, in the process of contact with foreign cultures, I will have more opportunities to deeper understanding of ourselves and breaking own "small circles" for better integration in both campus and local communities. Meanwhile, my college life will become more colorful and meaningful.
If you are paying attention to intercultural communication details, you will discover many differences during your stay abroad. For those students who are from foreign countries like me, we were required to face many difficulties and challenges in the United States because we need to adapt to a new life and different cultural conventions in the new environment.
The United States has always been a friendly country. The first year in the United States, I have ever been lost in the downtown of Los Angeles. Although I know my English speaking is weak at that time, I still stop and try to ask a passerby for directions. She is a middle-aged foreign lady. I talked to her for a long time, she knew I was lost. Then, this lady not only gives me the walking directions from downtown to Chinatown, but also walked with me a long way. On the way, this lady shared stories about her life in America. She told me when I came to a strange country. It was normal if I don't understand many things. But I shouldn't shy because I need to ask someone for help, so that can help me to understand and be familiar with American life. This event gives me the confidence try to communicate with foreigners and make me know I need to learn more knowledge about American culture because I was living in the United States now.
Learning about other cultures is an invaluable experience. Communication is key. We cannot ignore the importance of intercultural communication in our daily life. In the college, I have always been experiencing intercultural communication. When I communicate and cooperate with other students from diverse cultural backgrounds in class, intercultural communication increases the likelihood of misunderstanding. But this is normal because we all hold different cultural backgrounds and have different ideas. As the world gets smaller, intercultural communication offers the ability to across diverse cultures. This means that I should have more and more contact and talking with people who from culturally diverse. At this moment, I get to know the importance of communication. I realized that as long as I was able to communicate with people from different cultural backgrounds efficiently, I will understand and know each other better, thereafter further get to know more about the American culture, even though communicate with them will make me nervous. Through effective conversation, I can resolve the difficulties in intercultural communication between two different cultures and build a good relationship with others.
Intercultural communication means people understand another different culture and communicate with others effectively. Learning about other cultures can let me understand how different people live, and see my own culture from the modern viewpoint. With the development of the globalization process, intercultural communication is attracting more and more people's attention and being ever more important. Making friends with people from different cultures always good because I can gain knowledge about their culture and it is a good way to get more understanding. In college, intercultural is mainly reflected from getting along with professors and students from different countries, cultural background and languages. I can get contact of a large diversity of people from all over the world. But it does not mean simple greetings through English. I need try to communicate to resolve differences, seek common ground while reserving differences and express my personal opinions to other people through English. This can continue to encourage and support the smooth progress of intercultural communication in the future.
