1st blog entry Culture shock

Justin Modessa (Ma Zhengxie)

Blog entry #1

When the word culture shock is mentioned, it is usually something that most people in my experience take pretty likely. They think it means adjusting to food that is different or adjusting to people being late or early to appointments. I myself did not think too much about the word culture shock. However, nothing could have prepared me for the greatest culture shock I have ever experienced.

I've been to a few other countries like Mexico and the Bahamas. The transition was not difficult at all. However coming to China was completely different. I'm used to life in the United States where we have many different races. There are African Americans, Mexicans, Indonesians, and of course, even Chinese people. If I were working in a store in the United States and I saw one person come into the door that were all of these races, it would not be strange at all. The same cannot be said for China.

For the first time in my life I really felt completely like an alien. I felt as if I were from another planet and I was visiting another one. The idea that every person in this land is Chinese and nothing else is just so difficult for me to comprehend. Although China has minorities I think the comparison cannot be made to the situation in the United States. I really felt and still do feel like an alien when I walk down the street and every person I encounter stares at me, because they are not accustomed to to seeing people with my appearance. It happens every day and everywhere I go, but this happens because they are making a judgment about me based on my appearance.

In my opinion the best way for me to overcome and adjust to this shock that I feel is to hone my level in the Chinese language more and more. I need to keep improving my language ability, because I notice that when people see me being able to talk to them, they respond so much better than I thought they would. They view me more as one of them than before. Their judgmental mindset starts to not exist, or at least not have as much influence. As the days pass I'll talk more and see how much more I can improve. This will be the only way to really get over the shock, because then I'll have nothing to be afraid of.

Explanation of picture:

Before I came to China, I had many misconceptions about the Chinese culture, just as Mark, our tour-guide in this picture, has many misconceptions of the American culture. I believe that if he ever visited the U.S., he would experience a similar amount of culture shock as I did when I came to China.