– thanks ds4dstern!

HK was by far the best year of my life, no second thoughts about it. You should definately try too!
Regarding your question, the Department of Economics is only concerned with your marks in Glasgow from 4th year as long as you pass all your courses in HK.

Andrzej

I remember being warned about culture shock before going on exchange and to be honest I didnt quite know what to expect. On the one hand I didnt think I would really encounter all that much of a culture shock because Canada and Scotland certainly have a lot of commonalities. On the other hand though I couldnt help thinking that these two countries, located a few thousand miles apart, couldnt fail to have their own unique traits and cultural differences.

Now, having returned from my exchange, I can safely say that both these statements have truth to them. There certainly is a lot of similiiarities between Scotland and Canada, and moving to Canada did not result in the same culture shock as I may have encountered had I gone to live with the hill tribe people of somewhere like Sapa in rural Vietnam for example. But what I really did find was that although many things in Canada were quite similar, this does not mean that you do not experience culture shock and that it will not affect you. Whether two cultures are polar oppisites or have a lot of common ground, I think that there is alwaya the potential for people to experience some degree of culture shock. By culture shock I mean to refer very basically to an initial difficultly in adapting to new and unfarmiliar environment.

What I, personally, often found was that it was things that were similiar to home but just a little different, that took me the longest to get used to. When things are similiar I think we can be forgiven for sometimes assuming that they are going to be pretty much the same. Take, for a very simple example, a cadbury chocolate bar. Cadbury chocolate is available in both scotland and canada…but it certainly doesnt taste the same in both countries. A really basic example but it pretty much sums up what I am trying to say. I found that the ways Canadians do some things are slightly different from what we might be used to in Scotland. However I dont think that there were any differences that I really struggled to get my head around. After giving myself some time to adjust to Canada, i found it to be really quite interesting to come across the differences between Canada and Scotland. Basically you are on exchange once, and while you know that at the end of the exchange you are going to be returning to your own culture and country, your next opportunity experience a new culture first hand is unknown. So what I would say to you is to embrace the differneces that exist between the two countries as best you can. Look at it as an opportunity to learn and have fun in a new culture rather than a huge hurdle to overcome. I found that I grew to love many of the Canadian cultural traits, while at the same time it made me really appreciate some things about my own culture too. There are always going to be things that you are going to miss from home, that’s normal. But I do think that going on exchange is made a lot more interesting when you go somewhere that you are lucky enough to experience the different ways that people do things, the differences between countries, people and places.

Basically be prepared that things are going to be different when you are away, but dont worry about this…look forward to it.

I hope that this is of some help, and feel free to give me a shout if you have any other questions.

Sian.

Cultural differences that I encountered while I was away

Thank you so much for your tips. I think that they will be really usefull in my following trip.

But can you tell us more about “cultural shock”… some friends told me that cna be quite difficult but I think it should be fine.

I found this article that explains it very well but I am looking for your personal views

http://www.studymove.com/index.php/During-your-studymove/Culture-Shock.html

Thanks!
Linda

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