By Daniel Do – Feature

For any student, moving away from home can be daunting. But Wail Labrouchi, a junior at Lincoln High, didn’t expect student life in America to be all that different from his home of France.

“However, when I moved from France with my family and ended up at Lincoln High School I began to realize that a few small things were catching me off balance.” Wail said. He was suffering a minor cultural shock.

Labrouchi experienced the difficulty of the language barrier from French to English first hand.

“In my first year, I quickly found out my English was not as good as I’d assumed, Wail said. “Most of my English was learned in France, and I constantly found myself having to ask people to repeat themselves. My French accent didn’t help and I was mispronouncing names and places all the time,” Wail said

“The language barrier meant that public school was tricky at first. I found the lack of information about the expected level of English really surprising. Classes here kind of expect you to be able to speak English even though they know you’re a foreign student.”

He was also pleased to see that there were so many other students at Lincoln High in similar situations. The diversity at Lincoln High allows for new students to find each other easily and make new relatable friends.

Social life in every country, as expected, would be quite different. Consequently, anyone moving from one culture to another has to be able to adjust to a new social life. Wail explained how in France, people are “friendlier” in body communication.

“People are more willing to hug even if they don’t know each other or are fine with kisses on the cheek to close friends, Wail said. “But here, even just sticks to handshakes or high fives.” This just goes to show how different cultures can be. The cultural and social gaps can only be bridged by interacting with one another in school and activities.