What our immigrants in the USA are silent about: personal experience - ForumDaily
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What our immigrants in the USA are silent about: personal experience

Author of the channel “The ABC of an immigrant” on Yandex.Zen shared her experiences and impressions about the unpleasant side of life for people who immigrated to the United States. Next - from the first person.

Photo: Shutterstock

About six months before moving to the USA, I began to read, watch, and study a lot. Everything was interesting: where they live, who they work for, how much the locals earn. And for the most part, I encountered ideal pictures of an impeccable life. Of course, I didn’t believe it. After all, there are those who say that life in America is terrible - even worse than anywhere else. I don't believe them either. Why then do people live here? Therefore, I share my observations.

And I want to start with our imagination. When we watch American films and see someone going to a coffee shop for a morning latte, we often imagine that this coffee shop is located in a skyscraper on the ground floor, because that’s what they show us all the time. But in fact, America is a one-story country, and there are fewer skyscrapers here than we think.

And this ideal picture of skyscrapers, houses with lawns and other attributes of the “great American dream” constantly appears in our imagination - that is why we expect something more from life here.

Dirt and stench

My husband, cat, and I spent our first week in the United States at a hotel in Manhattan, right in the center. When we booked it, we still had no idea what it was. New York has very old buildings. And Manhattan is an example of this. Houses from the beginning of the last century cannot even be called old. The New York metro is older than Moscow, dirtier and has a harsher “aroma” (homeless people, drug addicts, etc.). We arrived in July. I will never forget this stench! The smell of sewage and garbage cans mixed with the smell of grass is a hellish mixture. And these are not some gateways, but 6th Avenue. I remember the first time we went to Central Park (how I dreamed of going there!), but the dirt and street “fragrances” around ruined everything. You can’t see or feel this on TV.

House-bedbugs

And this is in the literal sense. I have already written that the buildings in New York are old. The houses are mostly wooden, so there is plenty of such living creatures in them. My first job was in just such a building. I will never forget how the bugs crawled on my legs. Brrr... Still disgusting. Therefore, searching for relatively new housing takes a lot of time.

Without a credit rating, you are not human

In Russia, we are accustomed to the fact that credit is bad, it’s bondage, it’s interest. And many try not to take out these loans unless absolutely necessary. In the USA it's a different matter. Here, a credit rating is one of the indicators of a person’s financial literacy, a tool for determining the level of this financial literacy. Why do you need a credit rating? When renting an apartment, buying a house, leasing a car, applying for a loan, even when connecting to the Internet - it is needed everywhere. And if you don’t have it, then you will have to buy a car at full price, get a telephone connection with prepayment (which is more expensive), and renting an apartment will become very difficult, sometimes even impossible.

On the subject: Why Russians are leaving the USA: the immigrant named the main reason

Mobile telephony

If we briefly characterize the quality of communication in the United States, it is the same as it was in Russia when the first cell phones appeared, and there were not enough towers. Therefore, noise, creaking, and interruption are all characteristics of communications in the United States. Despite the fact that it costs very much - from $20 to $100.

Hazing

One of the popular questions among immigrants is: how long have you been in the United States. And if you sincerely answer that a month / two / half a year, then, as a rule (well, which is not always), people begin to be treated as a lower being. It's unpleasant.

First job

Not all immigrants start working immediately in their profession. Many, many begin with a construction site, a dishwasher, cleaning, working as nurses and nannies.

Euphoria passes, depression sets in

I talked to many immigrants. Most often, people say that euphoria goes away a few months after moving, and then depression sets in (longing for home, friends, problems, a feeling of hopelessness) - and this can last for 3-4 years. Usually they say that it goes away after 4 years. I hope I have less.

Work is necessary

And one more observation of mine. I wish I was wrong, but I see it all the time. Many immigrants have a hard time because they think there is no need to work here. Some have only one desire: to sit on the neck of their husband/wife/state. America requires people to work. And even in a low-paying job you can earn enough to belong to the middle class. The main thing is to work!

You may be interested in: top New York news, stories of our immigrants and helpful tips about life in the Big Apple - read it all on ForumDaily New York

Language

I have been learning English all my life: at school, at the university, I even took courses. But, having arrived in New York, I could not put two words together. She blamed herself. Then, when many familiar philologists appeared in my environment, who, like me, could not speak normally, I realized that the problem was in the system. At school, we were taught grammar and vocabulary that is not used in everyday spoken language. This is the same as speaking in high-flown literary phrases in everyday life.

Original column published on the blog. “The ABC of an immigrant” on Yandex.Zen

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