Transcript

What is important to know about Minnesota culture? 

Sophronia, Student: One thing to know about American culture is that, especially in the classroom at the U, you have to be proactive. No one, no professor, no one actually is gonna guide you and care about what you progress is. It’s you that needs to proactive, so if you are failing a class, go to the office hours or go to your TA and ask questions or find a study group so just study everything together. If you have any problems just like be proactive just ask people. 

Junyo, Student: One of the things that was kind of surprising to me was like all the small talks that I had when I first came here. Like on the street or in a line in a supermarket or something like that, people will start a conversation with each other even though they don’t really know all those people, and that was something that I was kind of, like, I felt like it was weird at first. Because in my country, if I don’t know a person or the people, then I wouldn’t really start a conversation with them, but here it was like totally different, so. I think I got used to it, like right now, nowadays, I would start conversations with total strangers on the street or wherever and it just became really natural for me

Ruyuan, Student: I think sports culture. Because especially in China, we're not very... the sports is not very popular. Usually we're just doing the sports class, but people not usually go to the gym in their free time. And here I think the competition also very popular. People buy season tickets every year to see multiple times, I think it's a good way for international students to see, at least one time, football game or hockey game, so you know what Americans are crazy for. 

Qingkang, Student: And also just be aware of the fact that there are multiple different subcultures under the generalized American culture. Not everyone is the way they’re depicted in Hollywood. There's people who are low-key, there's a lot of people who are still down-to-earth, and there’s a lot of people who actually share similar experiences with you, even though they grew up in America.