An experience during my time in London where I had to adjust to an aspect of my host culture was during my internship. During my work experience in the US, my managers have always been more hands-on and provided lots of feedback. Of course, attending a small school also meant that I was getting lots of feedback and direct communication with my professors. However, I noticed that while in the UK, my internship supervisors rarely provided positive feedback, which made me worry that I was not doing my job correctly. However, once I brought this up to my supervisor, she told me “no news is good news,” meaning that if I didn’t receive feedback, that meant I did my task correctly. After learning about that cultural difference, I could complete my tasks confidently.
It was difficult to understand this cultural difference at first because I was used to the friendly culture of the southern US. It sometimes felt a bit isolating to be in London where everyone minds their own business and can be not as warm and friendly on the surface. I think being aware and open to these cultural differences make a huge difference. It’s all about having a good attitude.
However, someone from my host culture would perceive this culture as normal as this is typical across London life. People keep to themselves when you’re in the shop buying food or when you’re on the Tube. It is very typical to see the kind of behaviors, attitude, and values that I saw while working at my internship site across life in London.
Now that I’ve had this experience living in London, I will be more prepared for experiences where I might encounter new culture at home or abroad. I think that growing up in Central Florida, which is a huge tourist destination, has been beneficial for me in my understanding and acceptance of other cultures because I meet people from from over one hundred or thousands of miles away. My experience in London has been extremely value and life-changing to me, because I see the world from a completely different perspective. Now that I have seen other ways of life and culture, I am much more aware of how life varies and can be similar, but I can also think more critically of my own culture and question why we do the things that we do.
