Have you experience culture shock when studying abroad and how did you manage it?

In my first couple of months in Australia, I quickly learned that speaking English doesn’t mean you instantly understand everything. Australia may be an English-speaking country, but the culture—and the way people use the language—is different from what I knew.

I still remember the first time someone asked me, “How’s your travelling?” I assumed they wanted to know how I got to work, so I answered accordingly… and then wondered why everyone looked a little surprised. Another time, I heard, “It’s just down the road,” only to watch people hop in their cars and drive there!

As I settled in and immersed myself in Australian life, I realised these phrases aren’t just about literal meaning—they carry a whole layer of culture and local perspective. Understanding that made me feel a little more at home. 🏠

When I first arrived to the UK, I was sure my English was good. I did IELTS 7.0 and was watching movies / reading books in English. However, when I moved in into my student accommodation and started making friends with my flatmates I quickly found out that I lacked a lot of vocabulary. I am not even talking about slang. When I first got a friend telling me that my “trim” was very good, I had to go online and google what that meant haha. Or when I was asked what “dip” I wanted for my pizza in Dominos, I had to think for a moment to realise that they in fact meant sauce.

However, my story isn’t about UK slang, but rather about the fact that when you prepare for the University you mostly focus on academic language. Words like “therefore”, “citation”, or “multiplication” quickly become a solid part of your vocab. At the same time, I found out that I really was not prepared for speaking about day-to-day activities in English. For example I had no idea what a “tap” was (the one with water), or how to call bin bags properly, or chopping board, or a mop. You should’ve seen the face of my friend Fred when I was asking for a “long stick that you use for washing the floor” or “frying pan but like deep and you can put water in it”. That has been a struggle for a long time, and I still sometimes have troubles describing the most basic things in English while at the same time being able to write a top notch academic essay.

What I found really useful for learning such things is AI. I use gemini video mode to just ask questions like “what is this thing?” or “how can I describe that thing in English?”. That is exactly how I found out about the word “faucet” and that it’s a synonym to “tap” and that it has a “handle” to open it. I found it really useful to just ask AI to tell me what different things consist of, how they can be used in sentences and so on.

I hope that was useful and insightful for someone who is currently learning English to go to a university abroad.

When I first arrived in Australia, something I found different is the small talk culture. In my culture, we also greet each other, but usually just one or two sentences then we hit the serious topic. However, it really surprised me that here everyone does expect you to share more about your feelings and experiences.

I tried to catch up with this culture by viewing Youtube videos sharing common small talk topics, and I also tried participated in international conversation groups. These measures helped a little, what was the most important factor helped me fit in is that I started to focus on the details of my daily life.

I started to put down my phone while walking, thus I knew better about local plants and street graffiti. I started to join weekend markets, in this way I knew better about recent activities. I even learned latte art and got a certificate on this, so I can chat about coffee. Yes, the need to accumulate more small talk topics pushed me to enrich my experiences. What a fascinating process!