To Deal with Living America

I have been living in Chicago for two and a half years since I moved from Japan, and I have been getting used to living here. I'm working, going to school and I can do anything that what I want to do for myself now. However, at the time I moved here form Japan, I had suffered to living in the United States. I could not deal with living here at all because some people do not accept other cultures, it was hard to understand people who came from different backgrounds, and some people are not helpful to people who speak a second language.

One experience that I made me feel different was when people looked at me like I was an alien. When I got to Chicago, I was living in a neighborhood which was mostly African American. There was only one Asian, and that was me. Every time I went out, people stared at me. Even little kids were interested in me. They wanted to talk to me, and tried to play with me. Some people tried to get my attention by sounding their car horn and that bothered me. Sometimes people said bad things to me when I passed next the person. I stop going out, and felt like a bird in a cage. I was like a stranger in the neighborhood.

Another experience was that it was hard to understand people who came from different backgrounds. Several months after I moved here, I decided to go to beauty school. There were many people who came from other countries. One day someone asked me to use my beauty supplies. Once I said "yes", she continued to use my supplies every time she needed. When I left my supplies while I went to restroom, people started using my supplies who I did not know. It was unexpected behavior because people in Japan do not act like them because manner is very strict in Japanese society. Once I permitted some one nicely, some people took advantage of me. However, at the time I couldn't refuse them because in my country to accept is respectful to the person, and to refuse is disrespectful. I was confused, and I could not handle some people’s behavior.

My final problem was that some people are not helpful to those who speak a second language. When they noticed that I could not speak English fluently, they treated me like a dog. For example, one day I went to register to take an ESL class at Harold Washington College. A lady told me that according to my data in the computer, I was going to take a class next semester in at Malcolm collage, and she could not do anything about it until people fixed this problem at Malcolm X College. Therefore, I went to the college that she wanted me to go, and I talked to an old lady about this problem. She gave me an attitude of arrogance, and she told me that we could not fix anything about it. She was not helpful, and she did not even try. It seemed like no body was taking my problem seriously at all. I went to two colleges back and forth two more times after this day. Finally, late in the day people in Malcolm X College fixed this problem. I wasted my entire day dealing with this problem, but they never apologized to me. I was so sad because they just did not care about my case. It would not be like this If I could speak English fluently.

As you can see, I had a hard time to dealing with living here. The U.S has so many different people; everyone has different backgrounds than me. Some people are not helpful at all. Now If someone stares at me when I walk down the street, I don't care anymore like used to, and I can say no to people if somebody tries to bother me. If people don't want to help me, that's fine. I found out to how to deal with living here, and that is not to take any bad experience personally. This is the best way to deal with living America.