American Terms that you probably should know

Student Lounge International Students
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<p>As I mentioned on the other thread, I'm helping out with my college's international orientation and am gathering information. I split this into two threads as they have slightly different purposes. Here, basically, I'm wondering what terms that international students usually don't know, but should know, in America.</p>

<p>Prep school: (from wiki) Secondary school, usually private, designed to prepare students for a college or university education. May have negative connotations, see Preppy.</p>

<p>Preppy: (from wiki) Preppy is a chiefly North American adjective or noun traditionally used in relation to northeastern private university-preparatory schools and denotes a person seen as characteristic of an attendee of these schools. Often used to refer to a particular subculture present within most populous American high schools: the traditionally "popular kids", generally consisting of the children of middle to upper class families, typically characterized as a shallow, transparent group, who are primarily concerned with extrinsic things, the three most obvious of which are probably popularity (generally within their own high school), physical appearance and material possessions.</p>

<p>Northeast: (from wiki) In general, the region comprises nine states: the New England states of Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont; and the Mid-Atlantic states of New Jersey, New York and Pennsylvania.</p>

<p>Midwest: (from wiki) In general, the region consists of 12 states in the north-central and north-eastern United States: Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin.</p>

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<p>Prep school in here means from the age of 5 to 10 , lol ; big difference.</p>

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<p>I am surprised by your choice of words. I would have expected the geographic regions to be pretty self-explanatory and I have never heard the terms “preppy” and “prep school” used on my college campus. Words that came up that I didn’t know:</p>

<p>procrastination, beer pong, homecoming, everything related to Greek life, various political lingo, “to be stranded off campus”, “Bryn Mawr time”</p>

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<p>Oh and of course there’s all the official stuff:</p>

<p>visa: I-94, D/S, OPT, CPT, DS-2019, I-20, grace period …</p>

<p>money: social security number, tax day, tax treaties, income taxes, sales taxes, credit history, credit card vs debit card vs ATM card, checking account vs savings account, overdraft fees…</p>

<p>college: deans, hall advisers…</p>

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<p>slightly off base but:
sketchy</p>

<p>flashlight (vs torchlight)</p>

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<p>For more cultural terms, take a look at the book 101 American Customs. It covers terms like “Thanksgiving” and “backyard barbecue.”</p>

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<p>Yard Sale and Garage Sale…</p>

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<p>‘midwest’ is certainly not self-explanatory! it is after all largely in the north-east of the usa.</p>

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<p>Students who know their US geography probably know the term “midwest” too. If they are unable to label a map of the 50 states (like most international students), telling them that Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin are Midwestern states isn’t going to help either. And what good does it do to show them a map of the US with the Midwestern region shaded if they know nothing about the physical or social geography of the region? </p>

<p>Honestly, vocabulary is one of those things that I would not waste time on in an international student orientation. If I care to learn more about US geography, I can easily do that on Wikipedia on my own time. The useful information sessions are the ones that tell me stuff that I would have not thought to look up on my own (tax obligations, college traditions, etc) or information that I could not easily find on my own (which cell phone carrier has the best reception in the area? what’s the cheapest decent clothing store? which stores or restaurants have authentic food from my country?).</p>

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<p>One book worth picking up is “Dangerous English”. It can help you avoid using words that aren’t appropriate for certain situations.</p>

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<p>Nope sorry I have to disagree with you here. I remember an international student friend of mine was confused that Chicago was so much closer to the east coast than the west coast - after all, she knew that Chicago was a midwestern city. Once the (nonsensical, if we’re honest) meaning of the term was explained to her, it was something that helped her understanding of America fit into place.</p>

<p>I wouldn’t bother trying to say which stores/restaurants have ‘authentic’ food. American ideas of what’s ‘Authentic’ are often way off, and they are likely to find this out from their compatriots anyway. I do agree that information about cellphones is useful, not just which carrier is good but general info about how the plans work in the US etc – that you pay to receive calls, that many people are on family plans, etc.</p>

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<p>

That’s precisely why I suggested it. I should add that the international student orientation at my college is run by other international students, which is the format that I had in the back of my mind.</p>

<p>Actually, now I am curious how the international student orientation looks like at other colleges. At mine it’s a three-day event that’s mostly practical and official stuff: we take students shopping, let them open a bank account and help them apply for social security numbers. They hear about visa policies, their tax liabilities, details of the international student health insurance, and academic support services that the college offers. Only two hours of the three-day event are devoted to “cultural” topics. The first hour is specific to college life (how to interact with professors, how to choose classes, what to expect of dorm life, how to get involved on campus, how to live on a budget) and the second hour is an open-ended Q&A session. I remember discussing topics like cell phones, tipping etiquette, public transportation and yes, restaurants.</p>

<p>If you were in charge of orientation, would you spend less time on “official” stuff and more time on culture?</p>

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<p>^ at our college, the orientation is run by volunteer undergraduates, typically earnest americans who have studied abroad etc, not by international students. it is just an afternoon session in addition to the real orientation for everyone, I think. we really don’t have many foreigners, though.</p>

<p>no, I would tend to spend the orientation time on official stuff. I agree that’s useful. but I think I would hand out a guidebook with more cultural stuff, and perhaps a guide to common american terms that they may have some hazy idea about, but not know too well (fraternity, sorority, greek, midwest, rush, dean, recitation, professor, midterm, college, dean, etc etc).</p>

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<p>That actually sounds like a great idea! And with new students getting a bag of free stuff anyway, I wonder if there’s enough money in our orientation budget to add a guide to American culture for new international students. I should bring that up as an idea for next year. Thanks!</p>

<p>(Culture lesson #24: Say thank you more than once.)</p>

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<p>Here’s something I had to ask my brother because I honestly didn’t know (I do now!): How do you give someone your cellphone number? </p>

<p>Where I’m from we do it by stating a string of two digit numbers (like, eleven zero-one fifty-two etcetc) but apparently in the US you rattle it off number by number, pausing like so ### - ### - ####. That just seemed odd to me!</p>

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<p>fist pumping. beer pong. you’re all set.</p>

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That’s a historical thing. Back in the days of landline phones, the first two sets of three digits indicated your geographical location. The first 3 digits are the “area code.”</p>

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<p>^ in America, there’s no special area code for mobile phones. they use area-specific numbers like landlines do.</p>

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<p>I don’t think it’s weird to give definitions of geographical regions. People use them as descriptors a lot (as in people from the north east have a certain stereotype as well as west coast, etc.) and moreover the terms aren’t intuitive. Sure the north east is in the north east, but many northeastern-ish states aren’t included. The boundary is arbitrary. Also, I am from pennsylvania but in school in texas now and even people here misuse the term “north east” all the time, some even think it extends to north carolina…</p>

<p>while I’ve heard preppy used before, I think it’s a bit dated. I think “fratty” is a term tossed around a lot more. It’s a little harder to describe but meet some people in a fraternity and you’ll probably be able to piece it together.</p>

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Yes, cell phone numbers share the landline geographic area codes but they may not belong to the area you are living in. My cell phone area code is different from my landline area code. You can also keep your cell phone number when you move, but you cannot keep your landline number.</p>