Cultural shock articule "workshop helps with culture shock"

Workshop helps with culture shock
Alexandra Cioper
Issue date: 9/12/08 Section: News

"Students from all different countries gathered together yesterday at the Photonics Center to learn about the most foreign culture of all -the culture at Boston University. More than 50 BU international students attended the second annual Culture Quest, a workshop sponsored by the International Students and Scholars Office. The workshop aims to create a network for the international students to feel more comfortable around school with a presentation and panel discussion, International Student Advisor Tana Ruegamer said. Ruegamer, who organized the workshop, said it is important for students to adapt to a new society without compromising their own values. "It is a negotiation process," she said. "You will be keeping parts of your identity and giving up parts of your identity."Students played icebreaker activities and had discussions to get to know each other and learn more about American values.A PowerPoint presentation explained the highs and lows of culture shock and provided tips on how to overcome it.Students hailed from Japan, Jordan, Korea and China, to name a few, and shared their feelings about how the United States is different from their home country. They also discussed the struggles and successes they have had adjusting life at BU.A student panel of three international students from China, Pakistan and Switzerland offered advice and answered questions from the audience. They urged the students to get involved in activities in school to create a support system and answered questions about how to cope with homesickness and adjust to the food differences.ISSO Associate Director James Leck said his office cut down the time of this year's workshop, made the presentation more streamlined and had better advertising, bringing in a larger turnout than the last year's Culture Quest. Leck said he hopes the workshop served as a sort of orientation for the international students to cater to their specific needs.

"I hope this starts you thinking about the cultural adjustment process and gives you some tools for your toolbox," he said.College of Arts and Sciences junior Arsla Jawaid, a panel member from Pakistan, said international students are not the only ones who must adjust, but everyone must do so."People around the world are the same," she said. CAS alumna Bansoa Sigam, a panel member from Switzerland, said patience is an important aspect of adjusting to a different culture. "The adjustment process is a rocky road, but it does happen at one point or another," she said.To maintain a support system from home, panelists suggested attendees use websites like Facebook and Skype as well and phone and email to keep in touch.CAS graduate student Dai Dai, who came to BU from China, said the panel discussion was her favorite part of the workshop because panelists voiced exactly what she has been experiencing, she said. "Now I know that the problems I am facing are because of the differences between my culture and the American culture, and now I can go about and try to fix them," Dai said. A second Culture Quest will address adjusting to the American classroom on Sept. 19."



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In this articule talk about culture shock at a university and the ways that they have to face it one their way is workshop, it is a kind of meeting where students from differet countries sahape their experiences from one another, in this disccussion there are people from Pakistan, China, Switzerland who give their point of view about this issue and give some alternatives to overcome it and to communicate with their family mainteinig contact withs their relatives, these ways are facebook, skype and phone.

This meeting help foreign people to feel more confortable in o