Problems I Had in America
It has been fifth month since I came to the U.S. As an international student, I definitely had problems, such as weather conditions, language speaking, academic depth and culture differences. First, the view in UCSB is really beautiful and stunning. However, the weather is always sunny and very dry, which made my skin get darker and dryer. At one time , I can clearly feel pain when the sun was above me. Second, language is a challenge to me, as an international student. Because Chinese and English have different logics , structures and expressions. It took me a really long time to get used to speaking English. Third, I also had difficulties in academics. Because all the course materials are written in English, which have totally different styles as mine in China. And the last difficulty I had is cultural difference. People around me grew in environment which was totally different thing. The way people think is different from mine. For example, once I came down to San Diego to visit my roommate’s house. His mom made really good cookies for me. And at the time we were back to school, his mom asked do I want more cookies so that I can continue enjoying them. In the Chinese’s mind, we should be polite when we are the guest to other people’s house. Therefore, I refused because I want to be polite. I don’t want to trouble her. But my roommate asked me later that did I refused his mom because I didn’t like the cookies. Then I knew that in America I should express my feeling directly in stead of being shy. Otherwise I may hurt other people’s feeling. It took me long time to get used to it when I socialize with people because I had to be careful trying not hurt other people.
As an international student, the biggest difficulty I had is language. I can talk to American girls without problems because their speak each word clearly. However, when it comes to talk with my roommates, I can’t catch them up because they speak too fast with a lot of blur and California slang because I am not a native speaker. Therefore, sometimes it is really difficult for me when I want to join their conversation. Besides, my spoken English also sucks. I can only speak English one word by one word. Even though I was dare to talk to them, by the time I finiesh my sentences, they already changed topics. Moreover, my speed of reading articles written in English is really slow. I have to read them word by word and line by line. My linguistic professor will assigned a lot of readings every week and it typically took me the whole day to read it. At one time, I felt lonely and disappointed.
Nevertheless, life can be changed as long as you persist. I found myself gradually can understand people who speaks very quickly and I can read articles faster. I think as long as I am in the environment where people all speak English, I can also speak English very well one day. Instead, I should decrease time of speaking Chinese because that will deter my way to learn English.
