Abstract:

"This video is about cross-cultural adaptation and culture shock. It is about diving into a new culture and having it feel--as one of the foreign students interviewed in the video put it--like a 'plunge into cold water.' The perceptions of 12 Boston University foreign students of their experiences in the U.S. are captured as each of the foreign students are interviewed about the experience of living and studying in a new culture. Initial focus is on the arrival and immediate postarrival period and the culture shock, which, for most of the interviewees, follows on its heels. It becomes clear that central to the problems encountered are major differences in values and behaviors between the foreign students and the Americans they meet. These are discussed with striking insights by both the students and the specialists and cover a range of basic characteristics of American culture: openness/directness, privacy, attitudes toward time, friendship patterns, informality, and competitiveness. COLD WATER is an excellent resource for any program wishing to help its participants better understand the cross-cultural adjustment process and the experience of being a foreigner in the United States. Useful in foreign student, refugee and teaching assistant orientation programs; briefings for Americans dealing with foreign students; and orientation for exchange students. The specialists include L. Robert Kohls, former director of the Office of International Programs at San Francisco State University and author of the best-selling SURVIVAL KIT FOR OVERSEAS LIVING and co-author with John Knight of DEVELOPING INTERCULTURAL AWARENESS." Noriko Ogami, Producer.