I recently moved to the USA, from the middle east. My English is pretty good, and I don’t have a lot of trouble communicating with people at work or in stores. I also don’t know anyone here at all, outside of work. All my family is still back in Gaza, and I’ve been here over a year now, and still feel cut off from American people and culture.
How do you make friends and socialize here? How do I learn more about America and Americans culture? I know a bit about history, but not much about anything else.
I don’t drink or go to bars, for religious reasons. I have joined a couple of clubs based on hobbies, but still feel disconnected. I’m not sure how you socialize or meet new people here, in my family everyone came around your house all the times of the day, and here it seems like neighbors just stick to themselves. I don’t want to bug people or anoy them if that is not the customs here.
Also, what are your favorite parts of American culture and history? So far I have enjoyed Nascar and monster trucks very much, and studying mathematics.
This may not be the best advice here, but as someone who has struggled with making friends here in America, the one thing I know for certain works is befriending your coworkers. Some of my dearest friends, to this day, are people I met on the job 6 years ago!
This depends entirely on your work environment/climate, but there’s something about shared work stress that makes after hours bonding a lot easier. I know you don’t drink or go to bars due to religious reasons, so this may be more difficult for you. Instead of a bar, maybe propose something fun like laser tag or an escape room after work or for a staff outing!
It’s easier to find shared interests/make friends at that point because you’ll have been working together for at least a little bit, so the initial hurdle of “meeting someone new” has already been taken care of!
Anyway, I said all that to say, start with the people around you. Maybeeee not your neighbors, though, unless they’re having a yard sale/block party.
A few years ago, a new guy started at my workplace and was assigned to sit next to me. From the first day, he just acted like we were already friends. Constantly talking to me and asking me about myself and telling me about himself. Eating lunch with me. Asking me to go for a short walk together or something during break times. We ended up becoming friends because he made it so easy. I’ve never really been able to do that.
My current boyfriend is an ex coworker and did exactly that! I feel like we’ve been best friends our entire lives. Some people might find extroverted behavior annoying but for us introverts they’re a godsend 😩😭
This is what happened with my introverted kids. Someone just decided they were friends.
Usually worked too.