By: Molly Dzialga
Ever since I got accepted into college, I always knew that I wanted to study aboard in London as it was a place that I have never traveled to before. Through Rollins College, I chose to apply for CAPA London, a program where I took three classes and worked an internship that was 20 hours a week. When discussing the cultural differences between the UK and the US I noticed that these two cultures are that they are both very similar in a unique way. London as a culture is very similar to a New York city environment in the sense that both cultures are very diverse. However, that isn’t the case for all of England. A cultural difference that I noticed is the communication in England. A lot of people that I encountered were not very straightforward, especially in the workplace environment. With that, it was something that I struggled with specifically with communicating with co-workers and making connections to their sense of humor and communication. However, I entered the program with a very positive attitude and fully immersed myself in all parts of the culture even though I knew it was not going to be easy. Entering this program back in January I was excited but also a bit nervous about entering this new environment. I was thankful enough that two of my close friends were going to be there with me. Also, I did not realize the number of hours my internship consumed of my daily schedule while also managing to take three different courses. I knew that my intention of being in London was to expand my options for my future and learn more about my career as I enter my final year at Rollins. Connecting back to communication I did not take into account that there was going to be a contrast which there was when it came to task management. However, I was able to travel a lot and form great connections with friends that I will have for a long time. As someone who is from the New York City Area, I would say someone from England would say that my experience is very realistic but also cannot embrace everything about England as I was in London for the majority of the time. Since I was only in the city of London for a few months they would view me as a tourist bc I would always use a GPS to get to my destination and encourage me to be more immersive in the culture and be open to meeting many different groups of people. However, given that I had a working role, they would say that I was learning the realities of a working adult in the UK. I would explain to them the similarities that the English Culture has to American culture, especially in an environment similar to New York City. Answering the fourth and final prompt of this reflection I feel as though it is important to be open-minded and receptive to all cultures as well as empathetic on different cultures’ aspects.