Culture Shock: School on a Different Continent

With September coming and going in a flash, it is now time for students to nestle into their classes and form a rhythm. For many, the daily life is vastly different from what they had become accustomed to the prior three months. The change in scenery is sometimes an obstacle to dodge in assuring a successful semester. But for Vivi, a 20 year old academic junior from the large Southern Chinese city of Hechi (pronounced Huh Cha) , the leap spans continents.

Vivi, a participant of the "2plus2" program here at UW-L, is on her third year of the program, but her first year in the U.S. 2plus2 is a program designed to allow international students to complete two years of higher education where they originally desire, then transfer to an American 4-year university to obtain a Bachelors Degree- a degree in which Vivi is pursuing with great perseverance. She is pursuing a job in teaching English as a second language, while also attempting to grasp the culture shock of landing in the states. “Its different,” Vivi stated, “With America, its all about freedom.” 

Some of the differences in culture Vivi also elaborated on ranged from the withstanding freedom of America, the population change from Hechi (approximately 3,991,900 people) to La Crosse (approximately 51,000 people),  and the differences in drinking age, being that Hechi’s drinking age is non-existent: “In China, everyone can buy beer.”La Crosse is not the only city in America she has seen, she also visited the Big Apple- a city in which she didn’t seem exactly fond of, especially of the public transportation, “The public transportation is so old, in China its very fashionable,” she continued, “It’s a symbol of the city, why haven’t they changed it?”

The culture shock is presumably an aspect of school many students, especially ones who aren’t studying abroad and have a general understand of American culture, take for granted and never experience. As if a 16 hour flight to live in a city she has never seen before wasn’t enough to take in at once, Vivi is also now separated from her boyfriend, who still lives in Hechi. Vivi and Cooky, her boyfriend of 2 years, still remain in contact every day, “In your heart you know you love him.” 

If I had more time, I would have asked: What is your favorite class so far, and does that class relate to previous notions of the cultural gap?
What do you plan on accomplishing in your two years in the United States?
Do you ever plan on coming back to the US after you leave?