Different Perspectives

Journal Entry:

When you move to a new country with a culture that is different from yours, you can expect to encounter new ways of thinking. This is one of the reasons why traveling is so great—it opens your mind to new ways of looking at and interacting with the world around you! However, this can also be challenging, and sometimes even the little differences in perspective take some getting used to. 

For example, when I first moved to Romania, I had just finished my master’s degree, so I was used to working full time and being a full-time student. Time management and punctuality were a big focus of mine. However, Romanian people are generally more relaxed when it comes to time. For instance, classes taught by Romanian teachers often start 10-15 minutes after their scheduled time, and students know this. So, at first, I would start all my classes exactly on time until I realized half of my students wouldn’t show up until 10 minutes after class began. Eventually, I realized that this is just a cultural difference. They weren’t being rude, they were just used to something different than what I was used to, and they just had a different perspective on time and punctuality than I did. Once I understood this, I was able to relax, just like my students!  

Romanian people also look at personal space differently, and this also took some adjusting for me.

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