An Experience of Culture Shock -- Anny

I’m from China and I came to the University of Otago as a visiting scholar in April this year. It is my first time in New Zealand. During the last three months, I have experienced a lot of culture shocks, such as wearing short shorts or short-sleeved shirts even in winter, very cheap milk, rare and expensive vegetables, high electricity bills, extremely strict rubbish sorting, widely used e-books, and so on. What shocked me the most was a bus ride experience when I just arrived in Dunedin---the bus won't stop If you don't wave or press the ‘stop’ button. 

It goes without saying that the bus stops at every stop in China. Passengers who want to take the bus don’t need to wave, and it isn’t required to press any button when passengers intend to get off the bus. In addition, the bus will announce the name of each stop in advance. So it perplexed me very much when the bus sped through the bus stop while I had been waiting for it for nearly half an hour in the George Street, Dunedin. I asked one passer-by and she told me it is necessary to wave to the bus driver if I’d like to get on the bus. I finally got on the bus and found there were few passengers on it. But unfortunately, I missed my stop because I didn’t press the ’stop’ button when I realized I should get off. 

It was an unpleasant experience for me. Later, I formed a habit of checking the route  and locating the destination on my phone in advance when I went out to take the bus. Although this kind of culture shock is not difficult to deal with, the important thing is that I have learned lessons from it. It’s necessary to learn the rules of living in a new country and take the time to learn the language, behaviour and customs.