cultural reporter video

Summary Blog

What I experienced during my college life was totally different than my life when I stay with my parents. I have lived with my parents in China for 18 years since I was born. I have never left them more than a week before I attend college. It was really challenge for my family during the first year I stayed in United States. This is because my parents have prepared everything for me and I just need to study before I attend college. When I go to university, I need to do everything all by myself and my parents will not help me anyway. So our communication was a little different than we used to do.. So there are many conflicts during the time I studied in the United States. This is way I want to choose international students as my main audience to interview because I really want to know what other international students’ life like.

(This is a photo of my hometown, Qingdao,China)

I can give my own example to show the difficulty at the beginning stage when I come to the United States. I adopt much more western culture value than eastern traditional culture value, but my parents still live in my hometown and didn’t change their value as much as I did. One example would be my major. Since I live on campus and I was the only foreigner in my dorm, I observe how Americans behave and doing things every day. All the friends around me choose their major in terms of their own preference. But I have to choose one of the majors under the business department because my father’s preference. I feel unequal and we negotiate and communicate this topic many times. We talked about this issue for many times and key thing for us to deal with that is bring new information into the conversation. We both do many researches about the majors and other things about the current economy situation and the future of the job market. As a result, we got a deal- I can choose my preference as my minors.

For people like me who study abroad for a while and going to graduate soon, we met the time to make another big decision in our life. This is a new turning corner and the reasons I choose this group to interview and study is that the amount of this group of people is increasing fast and it has becoming a social phenomenon whether they went back home or stay in the country they studied. I interviewed three people studied in UNL and will going to graduate this May. Two of them are undergraduate students and the other is graduate student. It is a difficult choice for every international student to decide whether they should stay or not.

According to Martin & Nakayama (2009), W-curve theory is “a theory of cultural adaptation suggests that sojourners experience another U- curve upon returning home.” (p. 331).  Although these students have not went back home yet, their concerns and ideas about their future reflect this theory quite a lot. All of them told me that they actually experienced the difficulty during the time they visited their family during school breaks and they can even image some difficult situations after graduate because they need to suit their hometown again(personal observations, March, 1^st , 2012) !

It is harder for people to experience W- curve theory than the U- curve theory because people will not prepare for it that much. Of course, students can image some situations and they have prepared emotionally to face those challenges. But when those problems really come, they find it is not the results they expected to have. For example, one of my interviewees, which is also my friend, did an internship in hometown last summer. He said he will never forget the time he spent in the office and with those co-workers. This is not because the environment and those co-workers are not friendly. The reason is that those people have their own ways to do business and hanging out with friends. The way he treated with people in the United States is not work at all in China. The internship was just lasts for one month and he had to quit because he did not want to continue be an outsider in that office (Shu Wang, personal communication, March 5^th, 2012). As Martin and Nakayama said, “the person who returns home is not the same person who left home” (p. 332).

           We do need confidence to face the future of intercultural communication world, but we need to be aware that there always have things to learn about others’ culture. To suits other’s culture is difficult and that’s not only my personal experience. But I also see this special experience in the other way- challenge. We are not like those people who are the same age as us in our hometown. We can do many things that they have never experienced before and I believe this independence is the best gift for every student study abroad. Neither the U-curve theory nor the W-curve theory includes the benefit from study abroad experience when those students come back to home. The truth is they do face difficulties to suit their home again and people are not the same one who left home, but abroad experiences bring those people more mature thoughts and experienced minds to solve problems and suit the new environment, it just takes time and their own effect.

            Through the whole semester I have applied many terms to the blog and give examples that I have experienced, this help me a lot to understand them deeply. As a member of those international students, I do have some advices that may work if someone wants to go back to their home country and need to suit the country’s environment again. First, ask help, especially from family members. Although we leave home for years, families are still the most familiar people we have in the world. Talk to them and we will find the right way to live comfortable. Second, talk to people. Sometimes people think others do not like them, but the truth is we do not talk to others and they think we do not want to know them.  Conversations help people solve the lonely situations. Third, make friends. Make friends with different people is the fastest way to let people suit the new environment and get used to it. Your friends will treat you in the local way and we just need to balance our mind to accept it.

References:

Personal observations, March 1^st, 2012

Maritn, J. N., & Nakayama, T. K. (2010). Intercultural Communication in Contexts (Fifth ed., pp. 185-187). New York, NY: Mcgraw-Hill.

Shu Wang, personal communication, March 5th, 2012