Welcome to America Cali. I'm going to assume that you're taking this course because you're either already in the US as a university student, or that you're planning to go soon. And I'm assuming that you're taking this course because you want your years of study in the US to be great. That's what I want for you to. My name is David peace, and I'm your instructor for this course. My wife Cindy will also give some of the lectures a little bit more about me.

I grew up at Penn State fan in Central Pennsylvania. My career took me to New York City where some of my closest friends were from India. During that time, I also served as an adjunct professor at a colleague's just north of New York City. My primary focus is culture I'm an intercultural list. Maybe you've never heard of that before. But basically, I help people from different cultures understand each other and to succeed in interactions.

We've lived in Delhi since 2001, where we do consulting, training and coaching of both Indians and expats. One of the things that we've enjoyed most is training students going to the US, and American students coming to India. Students are always full of energy. And I hope you are as well. In this course, I'll draw on my experiences in both India and in the US to narrow the gap of understanding as you step across cultures, to study in the US what's important to a university student, well, making friends, grades, fitting in food. We're going to talk about all those things and more.

I'll give you some do's and don'ts. But more than that, I want to help you understand. We'll draw from the research and the cross cultural field, as well as practical examples of what it takes to be successful in the US, both academically and socially. We're going to go deeper to prepare you for adjustment in multiple areas. Our topics will include the basics of culture, which will answer the question, why is culture so important? planning for your move?

Where we'll look at? What do I knew I need to do before I get on that plane? Understanding the American context to help you know why do Americans do what they do or what things are most important to Americans adjusting to American everyday life or what should I do? What should I not do? communicating with America? ans will answer the question why do misunderstandings occur and how can I avoid them?

Studying in America and important session on what differences should I expect in academics? identifying support structures, which will answer how will I cope? This year there are over 100,000 Indian students studying in America, about 20% of those will return to India disappointed on able to finish their degree. We want your experience in the US to be a positive one, and have created this course with you in mind. lectures vary between two and 20 minutes. I encourage you to finish the first section the basics of culture first, because it's foundational.

After that, feel free to jump around and listen to the lectures about whatever is most important to you again, welcome to America. Calling