When Mathematics professor Erik van Erp began teaching in America, he was struck by a focus on grades that didn't exist in his native Holland.
Astronomy professor Ravi Sheth was thrown off by students using teachers' first names - a norm not found in India, where he grew up.
International faculty is one of Penn's greatest assets, International Student and Scholar Services Director Rodolfo Altamirano said. The University hosts 1,300 full-time foreign faculty members each year."
Foreign professors may face new academic climates, as well as new customs and expectations, once they begin teaching in the United States.
Most international recruits have studied or taught at other U.S. universities, Altamirano said.
For scholars who have never been here before, ISSS offers regular orientation sessions.
As they adjust to new surroundings, foreign professors say experience is often the best teacher.
Van Erp said talking to students helped him understand the U.S. education system, which prepares students differently than Holland's does.
When he started at Penn State eight years ago, he found his methods weren't working.
"Students started asking me things I at first was appalled by," van Erp said.
He began to understand that American students want more practical application to prepare them for competitive careers.
"You try to find out what [students] need and what they expect of a course and just listen," he said.
Sheth and his wife, Astronomy professor Mariangela Bernardi from Italy, met during post-graduate work in Germany.
Bernardi said they like living in a city like Philadelphia, where a big international presence doesn't make them feel like outsiders, especially since the couple's colleagues are so supportive.
For Spanish professor Esther Alarcón - who spent a year abroad at Penn while at the University of Sevilla in Spain and began teaching here full-time this year - the toughest part of the transition was culture shock.
"When I don't understand something, I say 'huh?' and I make a face. My [American] husband believes it's really rude," she said. "It's little things, going to the supermarkets and not knowing how to say something."
Alarcón said she spends time with others who are like her, but immersing herself with locals - she lived with an American roommate before she got married - has helped her fully grasp American life.
She said she is adjusting well, but that "after seven years here, I still feel that I am in a movie."
