Quote:
Originally posted by lifesaver
Actually, I am interested to hear about it...from a non-american perspective. What's really different about our society form yours, besides obvious things (i.e., all the americans, lol.) Like what suprised you, what didnt, what did you expect, not expect, if you dont mind sharing with the group... )  So you would reccomend greek life to get a feel for american culture? Cool.
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life (and the rest of the group, esp. Mr. Aussie man),
I can write a book to answer all of these, but I will share some of the most important things comes out of my mind now. I will add later, and feel free to ask me later if you guys have questions
Well, first time I arrived in the U.S., I had no idea what is Greeks and what not. The goal I set for my self that time was to get a degree from my university. That's all.
I had to admit, the tendency of us was to hang out and live with people that share the most similarities with you, and my tendency was to talk in my native language and maintain my own culture. That was a normal behavior, I guess, like imagine yourself to be in Beijing to study and live and found a single American there. Would you talk with the person? Or would you just don't care ... So I did hang out with people from my hometown, and in my opinion, that closed my interactions with Americans. WTH you expected to go to school to different place and not to experience the live?
After settled down for couple months, I heard stories about Greeks from my fellow dorm people, on all the stereotypes (you know what they are! Both bad and good). Hell I was curious!
Because we have a strong Greek System, eventhough only 13% Greeks in my school, Greeks are dominant and everywhere, it seems. They're active, they're enjoying their lives, they're alcoholic, they're partying like no other, they're smart and focus, they're good looking, they're cool. It seems that they achieve a lot, and I HAVE to taste it. I like being active, so I thought that it would be good for me to feel what the Greeks is all about. So for short, I joined my beloved Theta Delta Chi fraternity. The finest moment of my live has began ...
Yeah, the biggest thing that differs the American culture with my culture is the openess and mass-living. Quite a shock for me to share a whole house with 40+ strangers. I used not to take shower "in public", or to knock on my own door to find out that my roommate needs some "privacy" with his girlfriend (yeah, what do you expect with Eastern cultures), or joining a organization with several surprises waiting in every corner. I love our histories and rituals, that is something I had NO slightest idea would happened to me, eventhough I pledged my fraternity already. I was not used to have this rich brotherhood with others, as well as our bonded alumni that comes to party with us for Homecoming. Or the 80 year old man that was so happy to see us, and insisted to be called a "brother" (in most of Eastern cultures, we avoid to be "unrespectful" to old people, like putting them down to our generation, if you know what I mean. So we NEVER use first name for someone older, eventhough the person only older couple years from you). Suddenly, my network opened and everywhere you go (US and the rest of the world), my own brothers would always be ready to provide you with anything they can help and would like to back you up for almost anything. I wasn't aware that when I joined my fraternity, I changed my whole life for good. I just though that simply I would live with Americans and improve my English. Or just partying. That wasn't it.
Oh yeah, you bet, so many awkward things have been happening since the first time I moved in couple years ago. First of all, this was the first time for all of us here to have an International student, so they had no idea how to treat me. It was a growing pain, try to adapt the pattern, on how you have to have Western manners, how to answer questions they have about my hometown (such as, how big is your village? do you have skycrappers in your country? do you eat dogs there? say something in your language!). I know they didn't really mean it, they curious on me, as well as I curious about them. Of course they made fun of me, as maybe it was weird for Iowans not to know what "poon" or "poudonk" mean. The strong friendship has formed. I always learned new things everyday, and also on the other hand, they learned new stuff about the rest of the world. Surely I opened their eyes to see new stuff as well, because they though that US was the best and the only good country in the world. Americans usually didn't care with the rest of the world, because hey, America such a big and strong country, why should us care about Malawi? Or who cares about the rebels in Phillipines that wants to be independent? Or how the East Timor as a country struggled with their independence from Indonesia or Portugal? Nonetheless, they slightly see the world, and I wasn't aware that I had a role to change perceptions of Americans here.
Now I am used to the, I can call it, "American cultures": one night stand, loss virginity before marriage, binge drinking, capitalism, working out, football, Abercrombie and Fitch, sorority girls, fraternity jocks, Greek Weeks, Homecomings ... and list would go on and on, and I wouldn't have learned them if I didn't join a fraternity. Nonetheless, I became "Americanized" as my fellow friends call me, and depends on which view you're looking at, that could be either good or bad.
Bad, maybe because most of the world doesn't like Americans. Several prototypes occured there, and I would not go farther. Good, because for myself, I loved America, and I could be "myself" in here.
So of course I would suggest my fellow international students to go Greek (esp. from the Western cultures), simply because it opens one's eyes and taste what college is all about. Greeks is not all about drinking. Or partying. Or getting laid everynight. Greeks is about brotherhood/sisterhood. Having fun. Enjoying your college experiences. Academics.
