Why Roommates Don't Get Along

[pic 1]

Title: Why do roommates don’t get along.

        Everyone gets excited about the idea of living with a roommate, but why do many students love living with a roommate? Is it because they think that living outdoors is fascinating and enjoyable? However, have they ever thought about how hard it is sometimes to live with someone unknown because living with a roommate is not as easy as it seems in movies where the best time spent with a roommate! Actually it is the exact opposite for many reasons, such as: Having different cultures and traditions, studying different majors, living different lifestyles, and being in different age groups.

         First of all, having different cultures and traditions is a main cause of not getting along with a roommate. When two roommates have different nationalities, they will mostly have different traditions; so they can’t enjoy their holidays together. For example: one of them is Indian and the other one is Syrian; therefore, they won’t have their times of holidays together. Besides that, there will be lack of communication between them because of having two different languages. Like the Syrian speaks Arabic; however, the Indian one speaks Indian. Also, being foreign students as roommates causes issues because of having two different cultures; so there will be a lack of sharing thoughts and ideas like two roommates, Palestinian and American living in Australia. Furthermore, they both will feel homesick and being foreign will affect them psychologically. According to (tognoli, 2008), homesick students usually score lower GPA and have less self-esteem and less self-confident than those who are in their homes. It will be hard on them to get along with each other due to needing anything that would remind them of their homes instead of reminding them that they are foreigners.

         Another main reason of why roommates don’t get along is studying two different majors. Studying habits is a big deal when having a roommate especially if they have two different schedules for courses, so their classes won’t be alike, as a result they will have different times of studying. Also, they would fight upon rules and principles of their majors. For example: one of them studies Environmental science while the other studies engineering; therefore, the Environmental science student would be so meticulous when it comes to how clean and organized the place is while the engineering student wouldn’t really care if it was messy. In fact, being a roommate with someone with a different major affects your university grades because when one of them needs help the other won’t be able to help. Similar to a medicine student won’t be able to help a mass communication one! Hence, two roommates with different majors can’t be combined.

          In addition, living different lifestyles may cause conflicts with the roommate. Such as, daily issues that face roommates like time issues. For example: A medicine student who is strict person would not agree that their business roommate who is known as a careless person to come back from a hang out with friends late at night; also, an Indian roommate won’t eat the same food as the Palestinian one, so it will feel alone and uncomfortable with the roommate. Moreover, the idleness in arranging the surrounding area in the place, as (Elijah, 2011) stated, living in dorms for years would make it as home, like arranging the place in a classy style while the other roommate wants it in a modern style, this will lead to an argument and then to a fight. Also, they would not get along in sharing a closet or some kitchen stuff if they had to.