← Quora archive  ·  2012 Dec 02, 2012 07:17 PM PST

Question

Should I transfer?

Answer

Empirically, culture shock takes about 6 months to overcome, leaving home takes 6 months too. So give it a full year. Maybe 14 months, due to compounding. Took me about that long. Moves like transfers are expensive, career wise and financially, and in this case won't solve the problem anyway.

Social integration is trivial. Find an American girl willing to give you a makeover (shop for you, approve a haircut...doesn't matter what your gender is). Watch a lot of current American TV. A semester of evening reruns of popular sitcoms and dramas should do it. Slow down your speech. Watch a few football games, enough to carry on a polite conversation, but don't fake interest if it doesn't actually interest you. That will come across as rude, patronizing or too eager to fit in.

You'll be surprised how quickly you make friends once you eliminate the overtly and superficially foreign parts of your social personality. Americans are used to having the rest of the world learn their ways, rather than the other way around. But these expectations are relatively superficial, so doesn't take much adaptation.

Don't try to think up and adopt different social strategies for American versus Indian contexts. Develop one personality for both situations. It will take longer initially, but in the long run will feel more comfortable.

Overall, just relax. You're taking this too seriously. America is a fun place, and Americans are fun people. Relax, drink a beer or two. Laugh. Let time teach you how to live in America.