EPTI guess I can open with this:
In my case, "shock therapy" proved fairly useful. When you live in one country your entire life, and then travel somewhere else only as a tourist, it's fairly natural to dismiss others as "weird" - finding yourself unable to really relate with their religious beliefs, their customs, the way they communicate. As someone totally accustomed to the American way of communication, Japan can be extremely frustrating, being that it feels like no one really expresses their feelings directly, but rather in (what may seem to you) a roundabout way. It's not actually roundabout, because people there know exactly what is being said, it just feels unsaid because it's not done in a way you can understand easily. Or you get frustrated when someone offers you tea in Taiwan and you decline, but they pour it for you anyway, because "you're supposed to decline out of politeness, and people understand that they're supposed to pour it anyway".
But when you move to a place, and for all you know, permanently... it's easier to get deeper into a culture, to understand how and why things work the way they do in a different place. Of course you have the kids of businessmen working abroad who go to American schools in gated communities and never really interact with the locals in any meaningful way, but for the most part, it changes you profoundly. It helps you to notice things about yourself that you had previously taken for granted. When I'm in America, I feel quite Taiwanese at times, but when I'm Taiwan, I suddenly realize how American I am. Overall, moving to Taiwan forced me to challenge many things I had taken for granted in life, and once I was able to do so, I came to the realization that *I could be wrong*, about almost anything.
But when you move to a place, and for all you know, permanently... it's easier to get deeper into a culture, to understand how and why things work the way they do in a different place. Of course you have the kids of businessmen working abroad who go to American schools in gated communities and never really interact with the locals in any meaningful way, but for the most part, it changes you profoundly. It helps you to notice things about yourself that you had previously taken for granted. When I'm in America, I feel quite Taiwanese at times, but when I'm Taiwan, I suddenly realize how American I am. Overall, moving to Taiwan forced me to challenge many things I had taken for granted in life, and once I was able to do so, I came to the realization that *I could be wrong*, about almost anything.
via Funnytoss
As an immigrant myself, from the Philippines, I had the same kind of culture shock when I moved to the US and began to assimilate into American culture. It was weird, living in an Asian country with traditional (for my country) values, and then suddenly moving into a more liberal area (it was Southern California). For example, I never really made fun of the things I liked for fun, I just enjoyed them. Talking with my (then) 5th grade friends, they'd crack jokes about the things we all loved, usually video game related, and I'd be really confused. Of course, that's all normal now.
Strangely enough I'm experiencing yet another culture shock, even after 10 years in California. Moving to IL, the majority ethnicity has moved from Hispanic/Asian to White. Back in California, most of my friends and experiences are within the Asian-American frame of reference. The area was largely Vietnamese, which are similar to my own in the Philippines, so I kinda settled back into that type of friend circles and dating customs and the like.
Now that I'm in a largely white community, there's different kinds of social pressures. That sense of pride I had with my schoolmates on where we'd go to college, what classes we're taking, what grades, they're all gone. Maybe its part the transition from high school to college, but thankfully I'm adaptable.
But now instead of those pressures keeping me going through my suicide pace (literally, I used to threaten myself with suicide my junior year if I didn't make certain marks, even though I knew I probably wouldn't do it) are gone. Asian circles are difficult to break into; if you're not already in one its very rare (at least in my California area) to join one that's more traditional. Of course there's always more Americanized people that are easy to make friends with though.
I've made plenty of friends with white people. That sounds like I'm really segregating but keep in mind, in California, I knew maybe 6 white people my age. More so, California is NOT the Midwest. There's pressures to drink, to have sex, to do all sorts of things that I'm not used to feeling anything about. There's actually a purpose to talking to girls: we wanna fuck them! Whereas before I was disillusioned in why I even wanted to meet new girls, when I was happy just making friends since in a largely Asian community, casual sex just doesn't happen, now I'm back to being unaccustomed to the things going around with me.
A quote.
. It’s hard to explain precisely my feelings but the way I see it is girls know I want to have sex with them, right? They are the one who are desired, the ones to be courted.
via TuElite
Its true right? That's the whole point! But I've never really...cared. It'll happen eventually, and when it does that's when its meant to be. There's more important things to be done.
Oh well, just some thoughts. College is going great though, even just my first week taught me a lot, both in ways to think, small tips on where to sit in certain halls, being more comfortable with just walking up and talking to people... I've met so many people just because I've heard or mentioned the word "Starcraft"
^____^
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