My Freshman Year Chapter Summary

According to the U.S., News, 886,052 international students were enrolled in US colleges during the 2013-2014 academic year. To my way of thinking thousands of international students come to the US not only to pursue a high quality of education, but also to chase the openness, tolerance, freedom and so on. Subsequently, most international students commonly have been struggling with in terms of culture shock. A chapter of a book that I read recently was written based on culture shock. In chapter 4 As Others See Us of her published book My Freshman Year, Rebekah Nathan presents international students’ opinions toward several different aspects in American colleges by returning to college at her age of fifty. She discusses those differences with

I myself did not have abundant choices to decide in China’s education system, as well as most students there. To be specific, Chinese students grow up in a system which has centuries’ history with thousands of rules and orders, to give a simple example, most of our questions in coursework have particular standard answers. Luckily, I survived after suffered entire twelve years. Due to a lack of ability of thinking individually, we are panicky and anxious when American professors or students ask us “‘What do you want?’ ‘What do you think?’ ‘What do you like?’”(Nathan 82). Indeed, “they’re used to thinking that way”, different places cultivate distinct cultures and develop various ways of thinking (Nathan 82). I “can’t take a ceramics course just because I like it” in China or most countries, instead, choosing favorite classes seem reasonably normal in American universities (Nathan 83). To give an illustration, our scores of University Entrance Exam (Gaokao) significantly decide which university we can apply and which major we can apply, that is to say we “fortunately” do not need to write personal statements, join clubs and even do volunteer works before entering colleges. In addition, as long as we begin our study, “certain courses MUST be taken, and a class is given at one time and that’s it” (Nathan 83). Though changing major is possible, only students who have earned extremely high GPA are allowed to do so. In some degree, choice may give students more opportunities to be curious about the unknown world and discover it in their own interested fields. Nevertheless, sometimes American students would rather like to think Chinese students are simply shy and not willing to speak up than believe most do not hold their own positions, our education system and culture initially make who we are, what we think and how we