One kind of culture shock faced by international student in the United State is difficulty in communicating with Americans. When they first arrived in the United States, they soon realize that their verbal skill is poor. First of all, they lack vocabulary, and they have poor pronunciation, so American people cannot understand them. For example, a few days ago, I asked an American student how to get the library, but because I have trouble pronouncing r’s and l’s, the student didn’t understand me. I finally had to write it on a piece of paper. International students also speak so softly because they are shy. It is difficult for foreign people to understand Americans, too. Americans use incomplete sentences, such as “Later” to mean “I’ll see you later”, and “coming” to mean “Are you coming?”. Also, Americans talk too fast, so it is often impossible to understand them. In addition, Americans also use a lot of slang and idioms whose meanings non-native speakers do not know. For example, the other day someone said to me, “That drives me up the wall”, and I could not imagine what he meant. I had a picture in my mind of him driving his car up a wall. It didn’t make sense to me. In short, communication is probably, the first problem the international students face in the United States. After a while, however, their ears get used to the American way of speaking, and their own verbal abilities improve.