Culture Shock
For the Austin College language
residents, their language house stay is often their first or most
extensive stay in the United States. Just as Austin College students
learn from them, the language residents learn about American
culture. The whole process can often lead to some interesting
experiences.
Chika Nagase, Japanese
language resident from Yoshikawa City, Japan:
“In my conversation class, I
was telling students that Mt. Fuji is surrounded by a huge
forest so beautiful it was famous for people committing suicide
there. Since famous (yuumee) and dream (yume) sound similar in
Japanese, a student got confused and thought I wanted to commit
suicide there.” OR
“In Japanese culture, feet
are supposed to be dirty or impure. It is extremely impolite to
put your feet on another chair or use your feet to stop a door.
Saying, ‘I won’t sleep with my feet toward you’ expresses our
deepest thanks. When I saw this sweet couple sitting on the
couch, the guy was putting his feet on his girlfriend’s lap, I
was glad that girl was not me. I would have given him a slap.”
Lucía Gascue,
Spanish language resident, Montevideo, Uruguay—
“In our country, we always
greet with one kiss on the cheek. It is very rude if you don’t
do this. Even when you arrive to a party and there are 30
people, you have to kiss everyone. Also between men, they greet
with a kiss.”
Lena Krian, German
language resident, Mainz, Germany—
“I was very shocked to see
students going to classes in their pajamas. That would be rude
and disrespectful in Germany and embarrassing in front of other
students. We also would not call our professors by their first
names.”
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