One of the big changes in my life was entering college. Japanese high school and college had a very different system and I needed to change my way of thinking. In high school in Japan, students belong to one class and teachers come to give a lecture. Students always took lectures with the same classmates and sat at the same desk. Therefore, my high school life was easy because I could make friends and could always be with them and could share all the information about school life with my classmates because they took all same lectures and knew same teachers. When I forgot do something important, someone let me know. However, in college, everyone took different lectures and it was hard for me to make new friends because most of the lectures were audit-style and discussion-style classes were rare. Also, Japanese students did not like to speak in class. I did not have a chance to get to know my classmates’ ideas or even their name (we used attending cards, in this way teachers never call students’ name in class). To adjust to these new circumstances, I became more active and held myself responsible because no one would have helped me if I did not ask them and no one would be my friend if I did not be friendly with them. Fortunately, I could graduate college with good grades (I am a transfer student) and meet good friends. I did not think adapting to college life was hard because I knew high school and college were different. However, if I did not change myself to be more active or friendly, my college life would have been very different.
When you adjust you to new place, do you try to change yourself deliberately or did you change unconsciously?
I think I change both consciously and unconsciously depending on where I am. If I feel uncomfortable in a new place or feel like I am standing out, I may unconsciously change my behavior to fit in better. However, if I have been to a place before and know that I want to change something about my experience there, I may consciously decide to change. I am a very shy person, and like you, I work to be more open and friendly in college classes or club meetings because I know I want to make friends.
返信削除I think both, when I came to River Falls I met new people and not all of them had the same life style as I did and they liked different things that I did. So I think that you kind of change to do the things that they like to do and they will change to do the same.
返信削除I don't think change occurs very quickly in either case. I know that I had to try and change some ways of thinking and acting in order to fit in with cultural norms. There were also some unconscious changes that occurred that were more about ways of thinking about things more so than behaviors or acts.
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