Social isolation

I grew up in a very protective household(my mom didn't let me go out for more than 2 hours a day),so I ended up mostly watching American shows, listening to their music and watching Anime and my only friend shared the same interests . We both even developed American-like accents and spoke mostly English, even though Sotho was our home language and we were very fluent in it. It wasn’t a conscious decision; it just happened naturally.

When my friends moved away, I slowly began to realize that I didn’t fit in with my peers, not just them, I don't fit in South Africa, this made me socially akward, this was only worsened by my low self-esteem cause by my weight. Now(19), I attend UJ, but I still don’t feel like I belong. I came here hoping I’d change and make friends, but I find it hard to connect with people because I act "too American" or seem weird to others. This leaves me feeling isolated, and I don’t really know how to fix it. I tried watching YouTube videos on how to be less socially awkward but they are all also American so it kinda feels like that thing where you ask a South African maths question and you get the Organic Science teacher but there's a difference that makes it hard to apply to your current question.

I feel like I can’t truly be myself, and I end up pretending just to try to fit in, but it doesn’t help. I can’t even talk to my parents about it because they genuinely don't ’t understand/ I'm bad at explaining, I just don't know . I just want to stop feeling this way, and I’m not sure how to move forward. I'm just asking if there's anything I can do to fix this;I really don't know, I just feel so awful wherever I go and I'm tired of feeling this way.

I just wanna know If I can stop feeling this way?

Edit: Thanks for the advice guys honestly makes me feel a bit better and less anxious. I don't really feel like I'll be able to respond to your response so I think I'll just upvote them 😅

Edit: Any one who wants to be friends can DM honestly wouldn't mind making new friends