Studying Abroad

Professor Stoner talked about culture shock and new media in her lecture to the class. She shared her personal experience when she studied abroad and how it so greatly affected her. I found this to be very interesting because studying abroad has always been a dream of mine, even though my father is highly against this. I shared some of the information that Professor Stoner gave us with him and he seemed to be more open to the idea.

The chart that she showed us about when you first arrive you are in a honeymoon stage when everything is just really exciting and new. Slowly going down into the actual culture shock stage is when she scared me a little bit. I never really thought about what it may be like to have to make adjustments as to where things are and how to communicate with people in a foreign place. Adjustments take a long time as she mentioned and that was something I never really considered prior to her lecture.

As she ties this into new media and the way we communicate with others back home is much more accessible now than it use to be, I began to feel more at ease. Connecting to family and friends is something I would be able to do on a daily basis and I think that is something that would make the adjustment process much less timely. Communicating to people that I am use too talking with would give me the reassurance I need when I am feeling out of place and lost.

Overall her lecture really inspired me to continue forward with my dream to study abroad. Sharing her insight with my father also persuaded him to be more open to the idea, even if he is not 100% ready to let me go off to a foreign country.