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David Triviño
Julian Mosquera
Daniela Chamucero
Claudia Torres
Paula Florez

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Name

katherine neira

Semester/Course

5

Career

Technologist in industrial chemical processes

What was the destination?

USA

How long were you there?

3 weeks

How would you characterize your experience?

It is interesting to know another country

Tell us about a culture shock you had?

The taxes. It always happened that when I bought something I had to pay more than the price that was on the shelf and it is that only the price of the items with the tax appears in the box

How did you deal with the situation?

calculated the price with the tax from the beginning

How would you rate your experience?

10/10

What have you learned from this experience?

That before traveling you need to learn a little about the country so that cultural shocks are not so hard

What advice would you give to someone going to another country and going through a similar situation?

1. not to be altered

2. Kindly ask, since you are in a country you don't know

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German teacher, ECCI University, since 2022-1 

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What was the reason for your trip?
Twice, once in 2012, and another in 2016, both for scholarships In the first one I was a student. At the time I had a level b1 of my language. And I was doing a deepening course of language improvement in the Summer and winter scholarship program, academic exchange service and a scholarship for teachers for a level higher.
What was the destination? German and Hamburg.
How long were you there? On both occasions were scholarships of one month each.
How would you characterize your experience? My experience was good in both cases, I had the advantage that they were academic experiences and that I had the support of the institutions in the financial part, in the presentation before the institutions and so on.
Of course, at that time I was very attentive, anxious to know and to live in the flesh all the experiences, including the personal part.
Tell us about a culture shock you had: not as a culture shock, I could mention that, as I said a moment ago in the two moments, well I seem already had a good level of the language, and yet how?
You know me, you know my features?  Well, they are of a person that here in Colombia are, well, closer to the indigenous communities and you can say then eh, the first interaction from there to here was always in English, some even made signs as if pretending that I did not know German or English. I think this was based on some stereotypes because of my physical appearance. In the beginning, it was frustrating because my idea was just to improve my language level, let's say, being in this authentic context in all the moments that I could practice, it is something that, although it is normally a plan of many people who travel to a country.
Where their language is not spoken, huh? Well. Sometimes some people arrive and get so overwhelmed that they just go for what they already know, call it English or if they go to a community where there are people who speak their language they do in this case, because my goal was always to practice the language, but it happened that the others start from the fact that I didn't know it, so initially it was a little frustrating because even though it has and I would start my conversation, continue the conversation in the language. They were changing. From the language eh I think I still believe that it was a matter of stereotypes of prejudices.
How did you deal with the situation?Quite simply.
Always expressing myself in the language, not changing the code and, sometimes making it explicit that my objective was that, so I don't think it was a bad experience, just a challenge that I faced at that time in for me was, well at first because of the prejudice.
How did you rate your experience? uh, not so positive, but realizing that I had the capabilities and sustaining so my intention. my academic and personal objective at that time, well, it was satisfying.
What did you learn from this experience?Whit my academic and personal objective at that time, well, it was satisfying.
What advice would you give to someone going to another country and going through a similar situation?Let's say not to be overwhelmed by the context and trust in your abilities and take advantage of every opportunity of interaction to practice the language of interest.
Even if at some point outside of English, in a country where this language is not spoken, then do it too. But how to know how to differentiate or attribute to these spaces? Well, a particular objective is to take advantage of the experience of being there.
In these places, I definitely recommend that in these situations where there is.
Well, beyond, for example, a course or being a tourist or whatever, if as an academic objective, you have, uh, to strengthen, reinforce your knowledge of the language, do it in every possible opportunity. There are people who are willing to wait a little bit for 1 to finish his speech to continue now others and I and I would dare to say that these are the majorities that simply for the economy of language, for the use of time, and so on, well they are going to.
Try to do it differently, then they better do it.

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What was the reason for your trip?
The reason for my trip was because my mother went to lifting at state so I decided to go with her.
What was the destination?
Houston, Texas.
How long were you there?
I lived there for 2 months, June and July last year.
How would you characterize your experience?
The experience was unique, I could learn a lot of new things, and was really good for me.
Tell us about a culture shock you had.
The thing is that the culture shock was not that big because Houston is really near to Mexico you can find a lot of loving people so, they are really like get used to our culture. Because of that going with this equation, it was something easy.
How would you rate your experience?
Also, rate my experience a ten out of ten and would say that. Learn from because of this experience. How is work as an immigrant  Like the culture of the working united states it was something really hard.
What did you learn from this experience?
I learn about how to be more independent because I had to work there for those 2 months.
What advice would you give to someone going to another country and going through a similar situation?
My advice for somebody in a similar situation would be to enjoy it, the most that you can because is an unreliable experience.

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What was the reason for your trip? I went for vacation
What was the destination? Spain
How long were you there? About 15 days
How would you characterize your experience? It was great, it's a good country to visit and you can find different cultures on it
Tell us about a culture shock you had: Well in Barcelona there are too many tourists and they have different costumes, but my culture shock was with the spanish vocabulary, they use different words and the meaning is not the same as in Colombia. For example my grandma asked for a "tinto '' which in Colombia is a cup of coffee but in Spain is a type of Wine, so she received wine instead of coffee, I didn't know that as well.

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What was the reason for your trip?
I travel because I was making a cultural exchange.
What was the destination? Seattle (Washington state).
How long were you there? I lived in there for 2 years.
How would you characterize your experience? It was the best experience ever! I grew up as a person and many other levels. Taking the risk of doing that has been the best risk I have ever taken and I would do it again.
Tell us about a culture shock you had: Wow! Thankfully I ended up with lovely people but even though, North American people is not as friendly as we Latinos are, I mean, they don’t hug and kiss you as we do it here and that was a bit hard to process. Other thing was that for Christmas and new year they don’t celebrate as we do it in Colombia, there are not huge family reunions and loud music and midnight-waiting things as we have them here so it was challenging during my first Christmas season in there
How did you deal with the situation? would say I just realized that I was in a different country and I just needed to deal with it and distract myself with something else. And regarding the hug and kisses part well, I just got very used to it hahaha, I got so used to it that now it is hard for me to kiss people when I greet them.
How would you rate your experience? As I stated already, that experience has been the best experience ever.
What did you learn from this experience? Well, I learnt how important it is to adapt to different situations, I learnt to be more independent than I was, I learnt how to explore a new place on my own, I learnt how a “1st world country” looks like from the inside among many other things.
What advice would you give to someone going to another country and going through a similar situation?
My advice would be just don’t give up, keep your goals and motivation on top of your mind and just keep going. Enjoy every moment, days are lived in a different way there than are lived back home and that should be an excuse to take the most out of it. Try to make friends and to enjoy the people and culture and if possible save money for traveling but also for when you come back home.

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How did you deal with the situation? Well, I just tried to use neutral vocabulary and with time you can figure out which words to use.
How would you rate your experience? I would give it a solid 9, the experience was great
What did you learn from this experience? That very culture is different, you can think it is good or it is bad, but people live with this costumes everyday so you should be respectful

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What advice would you give to someone going to another country and going through a similar situation? It's a matter of getting used to it, and trying to be open to other cultures. You won't enjoy your trip if you don't go deep into the experience.