Culture Shocking

I have experienced "culture shock" in the United State since I came here. I remember there was a time when I first time went shopping at Home Depot and be in an awkward situation. It was a Saturday night, 12th,  April, I did not know that I had to get in line in order to pay for something or ask for help. I was trying to buy a red paint with my poor English. There were a lot of people standing in line in front of the cashier counter , waiting for their turns to come (which I barely understand at that time). All I know was I wanted someone to help me find the exact color to paint the walls in my room. So I walked straight to the counter and wondered what all those people were waiting on. When I asked the cashier to help me, everybody looked at me like I had something on my face. The cashier then told me that I need to go back to the end of the long line and wait to be called like every one else. I was so embarrassed that I wish I could vanish in the air. In addition, it was hard for me to get used to greeting every single time I see my friends, teachers, or even someone on the street passing by. I felt uncomfotable.It was strange for me to be surrounded by cars, and felt alone walking by meself. People drive in their cars everywhere. Another things is tipping. I had never tipped anyone in my country, and found myself hard to adapt this manner. However I was amazed on how everything can be returned for a full refund, and people can carry their purses or backpacks into any store while shopping. I am pleased to experience these interesting things.

Mai's week 2

I used to read my drafts out loud or silently to myself to find and correct my errors in writing. It depends on how much time I have. For example, when I had to write in class, I only read to myself because I didn't want to bother my classmates, and it is also faster to check my draft that way. However, I had to write something at home, I read it out loud, so that I can find my mistakes. Honestly, I used to write a lot in my language, and I feel like I never had enough time to write, especially when I took a writing test. It is so much easier to write in Vietnamese, I rarely feel like lack of words t write. Instead, I had so much to say and always ran out of time to write what I had in my mind. For me, there is  a big difference between English and Vietnamese in using words. English has words that look the same but have different meaning while Vietnamese words are different in appearance and meaning. Therefore, I sometimes use online resources to investigate questions about language in order to improve my knowledge. I tried "Check your grammar" to find my errors in English, and that worked well for me. I think that is the only strategy I use for writing, so I do not know if there are any ways that not work for me.

Week 1

Writing in my language is much easier for me. I was a good writer in my country because I used to write a lot when I was  in elementary school, secondary school, and high school. I also was one of the  five students on top of the writing classes most of the time in my country. However, moving to the United State has changed my writing pretty much due to several reasons. First of all, the way of writing in Vietnamese and English is totally different. In Vietnam,we usually need " the opening" to get to the main points or problems. For example, if someone owed you money and you want it back. Unlike Americans, Vietnamese never ask right away that they need their money back but they would talk about the other things that related to that money such as, how is your work this month? do you remember that you need to do something for me at the end of this week? and so on. Then after a long conversation, they will ask for the money. It is such completed, but  Vietnamese think that is polite. l remember struggling to write first drafts in English was my challenges. Here they tend to write straight to the point and be done with it. My writing was  terrible as you could not imagine. Secondly, lacking vocabulary makes my writing worse. Sometimes it is even harder to write down things that you don't know how to call it. I had the ideas but I did not know how to describe it the right way. I was thinking in Vietnamese and writing in English which made my essay like a chaos. Finally, it is really hard at the first place to determine while writing about the position of the part of speech. In Vietnam, we always put a noun before an adjective but English is opposite. For instance, Vietnamese say book red while American say red book.  I appreciated what I have learned, and I think writing is a fun way to express what you think. The more I write, the more I like American way because it is clear, simple, and shorter than Vietnamese's.