Why don't we socialize a lot?

Marham Jupri Hadi

College Place, Gwynneville,  September 1, 2013.

 

Picture source: https://www.google.com.au

“Jumping back to the moment before my arrival in Australia, I was expecting to have more friends from Asia, Europe, Africa, USA and Australia. Yet, such expectation does not seem to be the truth after almost two months staying in Wollongong. I am just wondering why this happens. Have I been too introvert, or  have I been immersing myself  too much in academic related activities, such as reading and doing my assignments?. However, having a deep thought of what has happened within these two months,  I finally come up with some reasons why I do not have many new mates.”

This might not be my personal feeling, but I suspect that many of other international students experience such a situation. Therefore, at this moment, let me share some ideas, which I got from my "short" reflection, why such a case exists . First of all, it seems that the existence of international community like japanese, vietnamese, or Indonesian students association, affects students’ preferences, to certain degree, whether to socialize or not. It is because such communities create comfortable feeling for their members, which is good. Also, to leave a comfortable zone is not many people’s choice which means that instead of starting to build new relationship with people from different cultural background, it might feel safer to flock with their own community. Some may find these communities enable them to cope with home sick or cultural shock as they are circled by their fellows coming from the same country.

However, there are some disadvantages of such a thing. For instance, if a new arrival only sticks to his/ her own community, s/he might not develop her language skills which could influence their confidence whilst or after completing his/ her study. Also, they might have less understanding about the culture of Australia or other international community which might lead to the lack of cultural awareness. For instance, I was surprised when wanting to shake my hand with a vietnamese friend. She did not allow me to touch her hand and I thought that was weird. But as I took a risk to have to ask her, I found out that in some vietnamese family tradition, a married woman should not shake her hand with any man. This example, fortunately, makes me aware about the importance of socializing in order to avoid cultural misunderstanding which may means misperception, a negative situation.

What about spending too much surfing, diving and swimming to the internet ? is it also the cause? Or perhaps, we just don't want to open a relation? So...would you share some thought about another reason why we do not use our time for socializing. I would be happy to hear from you.