How to Adapt in a New Country

How to Adapt in a New Country

by Veronica (A RW 7 student)

          Living in another country is difficult because it means that we need to adapt to new culture, people, language, and so on.

The first step to adapting is when you arrive in your new country. You can feel sadness, loneliness and you may want to return to your country. What you need to do is to investigate ways to get to new places that are exiting to visit. For example, if you go for a walk in a new area of the city you’ll probably find places like museums that you can visit and might even find information of other interesting new places.

The second step is to meet new people so that you will not feel loneliness, especially people who speak the same language as you because this can make it easier to communicate. Plus you can ask them for recommendations about how to adapt, and which activities they do for fun. But, if you don’t find people who speak your same language, you should try to meet other people around you like neighbors or classmates. In my case, I started doing exercise in a Gym (the Oakway Fitness Center), and there I found many exercise classes and new friends that made me feel more relaxed and active at the same time.

 Third, I think that it is very important to learn the language to improve your communication with the native speakers or with people who don’t speak your language. For example, when I first arrived in Eugene I went to find information about schools to study English as a Second Language at Lane Community College. This helped me a lot because right there I found many people who were from my country, but even more importantly I found people who didn’t speak my native language which made me practice the new language, and at the same time I got to know wonderful new things that I had never imagined getting to know.

In spite of the fact that people have difficulties adapting to new culture in new countries, you can find positive things to make adapting easier. In conclusion, I can say that I think adapting to a new country requires patience to live comfortably with the culture, people, and language.