By Janet Lee FEATURES EDITOR
Moving away from home and adjusting to a new environment is always challenging, but moving to a new country is a totally different experience. Menglyu Liu, who goes by Leah, is an international graduate student who is studying accounting. She shared some culture shocks and a few things she learned and experienced when she made the move from China to the U.S.
Leah moved to Hempstead, New York from Zhejiang Province, the eastern part of China near Shanghai. “I spent nine hours on a flight to Dubai and another 21-hour flight to get here,” she said. In the midst of her long flight and waiting in the customs line for so long, her impression of New York was just as she imagined. “It’s New York. I couldn’t believe I was actually here. Everyone seemed very nice. At the hotel we booked, there were some problems. We couldn’t check in. When I got to Hofstra, everything was okay. We got here early and couldn’t check into the dormitory, but the people in the office let us move [in]to [the] dormitory early. I appreciate it. The people are so nice here,” Leah said.
Unlike Leah’s smooth transition moving and settling into her dorm, her first day of class was more challenging. “It was awful because I couldn’t understand clearly what our professor said. It wasn’t so good. And I haven’t prepared for the class before so I cannot understand the context in the class. But later, these kind of things got better. I prepared for the class, and my English is improving,” she said. She also described how “the class atmosphere is so different. During class in China, we just listen to [the] teacher. I’m an accounting major and there are many Chinese students. But U.S. students like to discuss with the professor and discuss with the classmates during the class, so the atmosphere is different. And the study habits and performance is different.” Leah went on and said, “Chinese student[s] [are] accustomed to following the teacher and to not talking so much during the class. Usually U.S. students are willing to talk more about their knowledge.”
Although Leah passed her Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL) exam – a standardized test for non-native English speakers who plan on attending American universities – she had some concerns about speaking English. “Actually, I worried about oral English very much because I don’t want U.S. students to think Chinese students are not polite enough. I wanted to know how to ask questions politely. Now I know when I go a restaurant, I have to say, ‘May I have...’ or ‘Could I…’ but actually my first time here, I didn’t know this. I actually started my sentences with ‘I want…’” Leah said. “In China, we start our sentences with ‘I like, I want,’ so this language difference confused me the first day. But later, after I communicate with local students, it became better.”
“During our class in ELP, [our] professor will say that Chinese students will stay together and [that] looks not so good. Maybe Chinese students thought U.S. students don’t want to make friends with them and U.S. students think that Chinese student don’t want to make friends. She wants us to communicate more and more because actually Chinese student wants to know their local friends better at the same time and U.S. students also want to know Chinese students better,” Leah said. “I want to discuss with U.S. students in class, but I always keep silent because [my] English is not so good and maybe because I’m not open enough and still feel shy to talk with U.S. students. But I really want to make friends with the local students.”