One of the biggest challenges when you are a student is finding your place, there is so much to take into consideration; budget, proximity to uni but also to the party places and figuring out what type of room or flat you are looking for. It’s just a lot of big decisions and responsibilities which you have to base on aspects of your life which you had never even asked yourself about until right there and then. Take it as a period of discovery, during which you are not only going to be finding out about who you are but also become much more insightful as to how people surrounding you are. Flatshare is the way of getting the most out of this discovery phase and in our days the chances are that you will be living with with people from all over the world, all with their own habits and ways. This is a situation which will take some time to adjust to, here are some tips to making the process go smoother.
START BY BEING AWARE OF YOUR OWN CULTURE, VALUES AND ATTITUDES
Understand that people who have not grown up in the same country or context as you will interpret some of your behaviours the wrong way. To avoid this seek feedback from your friends and family, to find out more about what type of person you are and what might come across as offensive to people who do not know you. It might seem a bit odd to learn about your culture after living it for so long, but if you understand better what affects your culture you will understand in what ways your behaviour might affect other people’s culture.
GET RID OF YOUR STEREOTYPES
Knowing about the values, expectations and beliefs which drive individuals behaviour from certain cultures should inform you how to behave towards an individual but what it does not do if inform you about the individual himself. Most people confine to their stereotype, but so do you and it is never a good nice feeling to get the impression that you are being put in the same basket as everyone else. So approach them with some guidelines but do not thing that you know them.