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Old 10-09-2007, 08:06 PM   #1 (permalink)
Prince
/nɑndəsˈkrɪpt/
 
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Location: LV-426
How to talk to Americans?

Well I started college this fall and so far it's going decently, I took on more courses than I should have, but it's a lesson learned.

I am a bit concerned though about the fact that I have been in the States for four and a half years and have made zero friends. In the back of my mind I assumed that once I started my college studies I'd be more exposed to my kind of individuals, but that hasn't happened. All I see around me are 18-year-old kids who are addicted to their cell phones and walking around with as little on as they can get away with.

I mean I love the cleavage, but am admittedly feeling a bit lonely. I find it hard to strike up conversations with people, and I'm not sure why but people don't approach me. Maybe I give off an aura of "don't talk to me", unintentionally or something. I don't really know what to talk about. I am lousy conversation when it comes to sports because I don't understand anything about American sports nor do I find them at all interesting. And I can't talk about politics since I am from a country which has a socialist-democratic political system, which people here seem to think is the same as communism, and they hate it. So I kinda keep to myself as far as all that goes.

And I'm not very talkative in class, I guess. The culture I am from is more subdued, I guess. Let's say for example that you're back in my home country and you're at someone's house, there's a bunch of people there drinking coffee and having conversation, right? Well typically one person speaks at a time and everyone else listens. To speak while someone else is speaking would be rude and disrespectful. Not so here... Everyone talks loudly at the same time, and I just can't bring myself to speak up unless there's a moment when no one is talking. And that doesn't happen a lot in this country. It doesn't really help that where I am from, people don't approach strangers. They will stand at a bus stop next to one another quietly. If you start a conversation with someone who you don't know, they look at you like "do I know you? why are you talking to me?". People need to be introduced to one another first.

So I don't know how to talk to people I don't know here. I don't know why it is so complicated. It really shouldn't be.
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