An american Abroad - Spain edition

I believe that I am very aware when it comes cultures that are not my own. My parents raised me to be very observant and to acknowledge differences. They always say take the meat and throw way the bone. Which means be open minded and not defensive. Listen to what others have to say, learn about other people and their cultures for the sake of being educated. To be able to understand and connect to others that are different than you is important. You may not agree with their ideals or practices, however, it is still good to see and understand someone else’s point of view.  I feel like there are a lot of things that I will not learn or completely understand until I live in Spain. However, I feel like by reading and talking to people that are from Spain that I can understand their culture more without just assuming things. I believe that the best way to learn about another culture is to observe and not to make assumptions before you know something for sure.

I feel like everywhere else hates America would like to show people that America isn’t all bad. America is a mix of so many different people and backgrounds and being exposed to that diversity has helped to shape me and how I view others and the world. I by no means know everything and still have tons of room to grow and learn. I am excited to learn all about someone else’s culture. 

Not much differences!

The surveys help me to know that I am going to the perfect country. Knowing that I am not a Type A person, I had some reservations about adapting to a new culture and environment, but the survey assured me that I am going to a place that is very similar to my attitude and personality. For example, I am never on time when it comes to being in classes, meetings, or any other time-specific things. Although I know that it's not a good thing, it has made me the type of person I am and, believe it or not, it makes me a lot more grateful for the time that I do have. Leaving in the United States and not being a prompt person really doesn't have much backlash considering nothing in America, technically, starts on time. However, I found out that while I am going to the United Kingdom, they are pretty much the same way.

An American Abroad

First Long-Tern Experience Abroad

By taking these surveys, I learned a lot about myself. I learned about the things I value, the ways in which I choose to work, and my reactions to potential events around me.
A strong positive trait I think I have pertaining to adapting to a new culture is my ability to learn through simply observation. I am good at picking up social and interpersonal cues in situations, and I can adequately adapt to those cues. I will use this in many social settings in my country. These things include the common greetings people use for others, the ways to appropriately interact with people with whom you have differing relations with (i.e. professors, family, friends, strangers).
I would say a weakness of mine when it comes to cultural adaption is my unwillingness to "go with the flow" in certain situations. I put emphasis on being punctual, I enjoy working alone on homework assignments and studying, and I can occasionally dislike when things don't go as planned. For these things, I will need to constantly remind myself to be patient, take a deep breath, and react in a logical way. I will remind myself of my situation, that things may change quickly or drastically, and that I am completely immersed in a whole new culture.

An American Abroad

Luckily, going back to Germany for me will not be a total "culture shock". For one, I have been before, but two, America and Germany are not the most different in terms of culture. For instance, Germany is a pretty low context culture. This is what I am used to in America, and also what I operate well with naturally in my own life. I have also heard that timeliness and structure is fond among Germans. This is something that is also one of my strength. I think that there is always a time and place for everything, as long as I have planned it before hand. So, I recognize while I may find this a common thread in Germany, I may have to attempt to more leisure and unplanned festivities when I travel elsewhere while abroad.

So, in terms of strategies to better understand the host culture, I think it is all about the people you decide to participate with. I come with my understanding, and the people I meet come with theirs, but ultimately to break down walls we must listen and try to understand each other. I understand that this will be a combination of getting to know some people in great depth, but also to make sure I talk to a large variety of Germans from different areas. While, some generalizations are good and useful, I am excited to build real friendships that help me learn about culture. Because culture is built into the lives of people.

On that note, I understand that culture is also built in to me, because of where I was raised. So, I have a couple of "American" characteristics that I think are important to accept and bring to the table. (Not saying, as of now, that they are good or bad, but just patterns I know about myself) Americans are very individually oriented. Each individual's perspective and way of living are unique. Americans are also always over consuming. And this lies in many aspects of life. We over consume food, objects and maybe most importantly (especially for me) time. I think that my time always has to be filled with a "something next". And this keeps Americans perpetually busy with now down time. This is probably the biggest thing of all I wish to work on while abroad. To quote myself, "There is a time and place for everything." So, there must also be a time for relaxation, friendship, and sabbatical.

So, along with that, other skills I want to learn are being a good communicator. Have positive and deep friendships that are not your typical, American, surface level interaction. In terms of social and political beliefs I do not think I will have any trouble because I probably align more with young Germans than young Americans in the south. But, still being able to openly engage and learn about not just American issue, but global issues is high among my priorities because it will lend itself to helping understand culture.

I have my cultural norms and so do you, but to know people we have to try to understand their norms.

Nate Long Blog 2

Preparing to study abroad and then actually studying abroad can be very difficult to prepare for and then do and it helps if you possess certain skills to help you transition into another culture.  Personally, I feel that my strengths are some of the characteristics I have, two of the most important being my calmness and my self-confidence.  First, how calm and collected I am usually helps me a lot because it helps me to not get as stressed out in many situations.  When it comes to schoolwork, for example, if I have a week coming up with lots of work I tend to not stress and just look at what needs to be done and just get it done as it is due.  As far as self-confidence, I feel that this will go a long way to helping me in Spain.  I think it will be most useful when I find myself in situations where I am not completely sure what is going on for whatever reason I will be able to look past it and know that I will know what is going on next time.  I think that the self-confidence will give me the ability to learn from all situations, even when they aren’t the best for me and apply it in similar situations in the future.  I feel that some of the biggest challenges for me will be forming new friends.  I feel this is something I am not always the best at because I am generally quiet around people who I do not know well and I feel this may be even more true when talking in another language.  This is where I feel that I should learn more about the media around me upon arrival so as to see what is popular in that location.  For example, as suggested on the “Culture Learning Strategies Inventory” I could read local newspapers to find out about current political and social issues in the country.  I think expanding this idea further to other media outlets would be useful to learn more about the way of communication and what people talk about most.  Lastly, as an American I think I want to prove to the people that I meet in Spain that many of the negative stereotypes are untrue.