The Culture Shocks I Have Met In America

For Chinese students who are studying in the United States, cultural differences are always a popular topic. For every non-native American student, the shock about cultural differences is happening all the time. A lot of things that you believe are normally become so incredible for American, but they feel normal about things that you think are not understandable. In sociology, there has a concept called "culture shock" to describe it. In fact, during my first month in the United States, I did experience some culture shocks, and I will introduce them in the following essay.

First of all, due to the influence of Chinese traditional culture, offer help to people in need is a type of basic skill of modern citizens. So you will often see someone in China offer seats to the elderly by bus or subway. Although such a habit is good, but when I arrived in the US, I found things are not what exactly I think. When I first arrived in the United States, I offered seats more than one time to the elderly who seem need a seat, however, most of them refused politely, and several are unhappy. And they replied to me with "NO". Later, I talked with my American friends, and they explained, that is the Americans have always been independent. Especially the elderly, so when you offer them a seat, they will feel that you are thinking they are too elderly and need help.

Secondly, the transportation ways of American are not the similar as Chinese at all. The United States has poor public transportation. For instance, underdeveloped subway and railway systems. The trains are usually late and they are slow. So that almost everyone has a car, and this is the reason why America is called “the nation on the wheels. ” If you don’t have a car in the US, you will find it is difficult to do anything in the US. For example, you just have to drive 10 minutes to a nearest market, and there is no bus which can stop near the market, which is unbelievable in China, buses just pick-up in the cities’ main roads. That is the reason why in America, you may find the car is your foot.

In addition, there is a big difference I noticed that is the attitude to a stranger or a person that is not familiar with. It is completely different from my country. Americans like to praise each other whether you are familiar or not. My classmates and friends saw others were very beautiful and then they said: "You look great!" "I like your shirt." Even though we don’t know each other very well. What’s more, the greeting habits are different from my country too. In China, talking to a stranger and say Hi is pretty strange. However, in America, it is normal behaviors. If you walk down the street and meet a stranger, then he says hello to you politely, don't be surprised, it is just a natural greeting.

In conclusion, these are the culture shocks I have encountered. I learned a lot of customs that American have, like greetings, ways of transportation, and the lifestyles. The first month in the United States really broadened my horizons by understanding the culture shocks.