Culture Shock, In a Good Way

In my first week at Richmond University I have encountered people from all over the world. Even though the school is in England very few students actually come from the UK. The first thing I usually ask someone upon meeting him or her is where he or she is from. For me, this is a simple answer, 'the States' or 'Boston'. I was surprised one time when somebody thought Boston was near Chicago. My instinct was to become defensive. How dare he not know where such a large, important city was. Then I realized, I probably do not know where a lot of important European cities are either. On the other hand, most people here launch into an explanation of how they lived here and there and studied somewhere else and have spent the past year in another place. It is overwhelming how worldly and cultured these people are. It makes me realize how much of a bubble the United States is. Almost everyone here can speak more than one language yet we insist on making imigrants learn English. They know what is going on politically not only in their home country but throughout the world. I used to feel ok with my ignorance of current events because it didn't affect me anyways. However, with technology, the world is becoming an increasingly small place. Many companies have international locations or do business with other countries. One student here even said that a degree in international business was useless because all business is international business. I have to agree with him to a certain extent. Countries are all interdependent and an increasing number of people from the US need to travel abroad for work-related reasons. I have learned very quickly that keeping up with what is going on in the world is not as useless as I once thought. I have already noticed that people think of Americans as ignorant when somebody insisted that I do not know where Lithuania is even though I do. In my future career, I am sure there will be a time when I have to go to another country. Now I am armed with a determination to prove that I can be just as knowledgeable as the people I have met.