<p>I would like to alert future international students (who have never been to the USA) to some of the "surprises" that they may find if they come here for college.</p>
<p>If you are a brand-new international student who has recently arrived in the United States for the first time, what is most different from what you'd expected?</p>
<p>(And if you are a current international student who came to the U.S. for the first time for college in a previous year, I'd be interested in what you found most unanticipated, too.)</p>
<p>I’m surprised at the inefficiency of governmental organizations (e.g. DWP, DMV) and most U.S. commercial entities at large (e.g. Time Warner Cables, T-mobile).</p>
<p>Coming a close second would be the pre-occupation with upholding surface face-value courtesy, while generally lacking any sincerity in interpersonal dealings.</p>
<p>I feel limniengs points are very valid. Customer support is extremely superficial, in the way that stores pay somebody that says hi to you at the entrance of a store, but if you actually have a problem, stores personnel are often clueless. phone hotlines are even worse; you first have to wait for at least 30 minutes and chances are that you get to talk to somebody in India (nothing against Indians) where it is apparent that was very poorly educated in the subject matter. </p>
<p>Also, what I found very odd is that it can be very difficult to find raw goods. For instance, you can get milk with all kinds of vitamins added and/or fats removed or processed in any way you can imagine, yet simple milk is impossible to find.</p>
<p>And the amount of crime is disturbing, i.e. bicycles get stolen, people warn you that you shouldn’t go to certain areas on campus after dark, etc, …</p>
<p>Also, there are tons of small things, like having to pay for receiving calls and/ texts, that everyone asks how you are though its completely obvious he is completely uninterested, that sales personnel puts all your stuff into bags without asking, that prices are advertised without tax and without tip, how often the national anthem is sung, the prevalence of the army in public life, the number of homeless people lurking on or around campus, that signs tend to state according to which law they are put up, and how much you have to pay if you don’t follow them, etc.</p>
<p>(For comparison, I am a central European in Berkeley)</p>
<p>Wow, brutal. I think most of the changes mentioned thus far are superficial in the sense that they don’t point to a fundamental difference of culture. </p>
<p>I, for one - a Singaporean in NYC - was surprised to find out how friendly New Yorkers could be, after everything I’d heard about unfriendly New Yorkers. Even though the interactions may be nice at face value only, it was something I never saw in Singapore - customer service and sales staff never ever ask “how are you,” etc. It’s just not done. </p>
<p>The other thing that surprised me, coming from a place where support services in schools are either nonexistent or heavily underutilized, was the level of support offered by the university and the resources available to students who wanted or needed them. A writing center, a career center, counseling services, Safe Ride, Ticket Central - most of these resources and services aren’t available to students in schools back home, or at least not to the degree they’re available here.</p>
<p>“Also, what I found very odd is that it can be very difficult to find raw goods. For instance, you can get milk with all kinds of vitamins added and/or fats removed or processed in any way you can imagine, yet simple milk is impossible to find.”</p>
<p>It is not legal to sell raw milk in most of the US. What is sold in the stores is pasteurized, and usually also homogenized (the fat won’t separate if you let it sit in your fridge). If you want non-homogenized milk, you will need to find a “natural foods” or “health foods” store. Raw milk is nearly impossible to find, try googling for it in your area.</p>
<p>HappyMom - you can find raw milk if you purchase direct from a dairy. If you are in a rural area you may be able to find one. I am in South Central PA and there are at least two within about a 10-15 mile radius.</p>
<p>Some of the international students I know have been offended–or at least confused–by the casual way that American students tend to make plans that never really happen. For instance, an American student might say something like, “Maybe we can hang out later,” upon leaving class, and the international student says, “Sure. I’d like that. I’ll see you after dinner,” and then assumes that some sort of date has been made. But then the American student forgets about it and finds something else to do, and the international student feels stood up.</p>
<p>As much as I wish that my grouse was that simple, it really isn’t.</p>
<p>jixani gave an excellent exemplar of what I meant when he commented:</p>
<p>“I feel limniengs points are very valid. Customer support is extremely superficial, in the way that stores pay somebody that says hi to you at the entrance of a store, but if you actually have a problem, stores personnel are often clueless. phone hotlines are even worse; you first have to wait for at least 30 minutes and chances are that you get to talk to somebody in India (nothing against Indians) where it is apparent that was very poorly educated in the subject matter.”</p>
<p>My grouse is not simply a matter of cultural difference in the way people ends conversations, but a real sense that people in the U.S. says a lot, promises a lot, guarantees a lot, to project a favorable image, but in actual fact do very little, and is very un-concerned with the person next to him/her.</p>
<ul>
<li>The first floor refers to the ground floor, not the floor above that.</li>
<li>I still don’t know if jaywalking is legal, but everyone does it.</li>
<li>College students in the US are chaperoned by a hall adviser, go home on weekends and get spending money from their parents. </li>
<li>Most volunteers are not 19-year-old males who are avoiding the military draft.</li>
<li>Cell phone providers charge for incoming calls.</li>
<li>I was impressed by the sheer diversity of the population and the range of accommodations available, from free interpreters to wheelchair-accessible buildings to the acceptance of religious head coverings.</li>
<li>Sex and alcohol seem to be very sensitive topics. Back at home, mainstream teen magazines reported on the newest flavors for condoms and discussed which lubricants are compatible with various toys or forms of birth control.</li>
<li>People feel threatened by strangers. Women often don’t go outside alone after dark, even in areas that seem perfectly safe to me. (Just earlier this week a professor insisted on giving me a ride and a lecture on pepper sprays because he was concerned about my safety. I had been walking that same route at the same time of the day for several years and I have not once felt not-safe.)</li>
</ul>
<p>Warning: the following may be offensive to an American audience.</p>
<ul>
<li>Veterans are treated like heroes, not murderers.</li>
<li>People try to show off their wealth. Back in Germany, it’s generally assumed that the rich had to exploit others to become wealthy.</li>
<li>Health care and education are considered a privilege, not a basic human right.</li>
<li>Americans seem very wasteful. Buildings are super air-conditioned, cars are ginormous, few people care about recycling and people actually have swimming pools out in the desert.</li>
</ul>
<p>Maybe the most significant difference of all: Americans don’t usually say what they think and are considered insensitive when they do. I apologize for this very German post. Back to being cheery and optimistic :)</p>
<p>After reading a few more comments I think it might be helpful for me to add what I was told to expect before I arrived as well. Most people told me variants of “New York is like Singapore, but taller” (replace “taller” with “with more life”, “faster”, etc.). When I came I found that generally to be true. The differences tended to be a matter of degree rather than a completely new world. In that respect it’s been remarkably easy to settle in; I don’t feel like I’m in a foreign place, just a familiar place I’ve never been. However, I think if you take the element of the big city out of it (Singaporeans think of ourselves as a small place but we’re actually a city of 5 million) - if I’d gone to a rural or suburban campus instead, I think my experience would be very different.</p>
<p>^well not really-dont expect too much from americans lol- some valid points though especially the friendliness part. I have imbibed the bad habit of asking people how their day was without even bothering to listen to their responses lol. But yeah people in the US tend to be ultrafriendly (especially in the south) which comes of as fake to most international students.</p>
<p>I wasn’t surprised - I don’t know much about countries outside of Europe either. If I cannot label a map of the 50 states, I shouldn’t expect Americans to know all of the European countries.</p>
<p>Somewhat surprised by the reverse, actually. I’ve yet to meet someone who’s asked where Singapore is - if they don’t know where it is, they’re not saying. Quite a number I’ve met have been to Singapore, know people from Singapore, or know people who’ve been to Singapore.</p>
<p>I had this amusing experience at an orientation talk… I turned to the person on my left, introduced myself, and said I was from Singapore. He said, “Wow, that’s far.” I was surprised he knew where Singapore was, so I asked him where he was from - Oakland, where there are lots of Singaporeans (relatively speaking) due to the presence of UC-Berkeley and the proximity to SF.</p>
<p>So I turned to the person on my right, introduced myself, and said I was from Singapore. He said, “Wow, that’s far.” Again I asked him where he was from - Dallas, where Singapore has an air force base.</p>
<p>Again, this may be a factor of the school, since I’ve met many more people from urban areas than from rural ones, and they’re more likely to have encountered Singapore in some form or another.</p>
<p>Interesting, gt607rmcf. I would expect that most Americans of college age would have at least a vague idea of where Singapore is (i.e., “far”) but I often find that Americans learn a lot less about the history, government, culture, etc. of other nations than foreigners learn about the U.S. To some degree this may be inevitable due to the size of the U.S. and its prominence in many arenas (from military presence to movie-making), but I also feel that too many American children aren’t raised with sufficient awareness of what goes on beyond their national boundaries. Perhaps curiosity can’t fully be taught, but it certainly can be encouraged.</p>