American students & International students
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About Myself
My name is Terry Shyu and I'm a senior student doing the option of International Business. I'm an immigrant from Taiwan and I came to the U.S about five years ago. After spending my first two years of college at P.S.U and P.C.C, I transferred my credits to O.S.U. Right now, I'm waiting to be graduated and I'll go down to L.A for a job waiting for me there.
Introduction
I'll use this article written by one of the international students to introduce my contribution.
"It takes being an international student to understand what international students go through. I'm from Zimbabwe and I did my first two years of college at Africa University, AU, http://www.africau.edu/studlife/index.htmt, which is a private university that represents up to 26 African countries and just happens to be located in Zimbabwe. Those first two years of college were fun and rewarding for me, because having been born and raised in my country, it was great to finally have something new to learn about and talk about.
I took advantage of the great source of information around me and learned about their countries, culture, food, dating, music and anything imaginable. I particularly made a lot of friends from Angola though my interaction wasn't limited to Angolan students only. I went to their parties, listened to their music, and ate dishes from their countries. It was surely the best time of my life; I've never had so much fun! It saddened me to see the negative attitude that some Zimbabwean students had towards international students, not because I felt sorry for the international students but because I felt sorry for my Zimbabwean counterparts. They were definitely missing out. My third year, I transferred and came to OSU and the knowledge I got from the international students at AU will stay with me forever, not mentioning all the friends and music I still have and dances I can still do. After I'm done with the US, I'm planning to visit my friends in Angola. They are the most fun people I ever met and I fell in love with their culture.
The past year studying in The US as an international student, couldn't be more different for me. While I have met some great people, my daily life in Corvallis couldn't be more disappointing. I rarely come across American students who are interested in interacting with me because I'm from a different country. What's even more disappointing is how ignorant most of these students are. To most Americans I'm from "Africa", and there doesn't seem to be a realization that Africa is a continent with up to 52 countries. I'm on the International Cultural Service Program Scholarship, ICSP, http://oregonstate.edu/international/oie/isfs/ICSP/index.html and I get to go around the community giving presentations on my culture. I've had the honor of doing presentations in some classes on campus and some of the questions I get asked are amazing to say the least, "do you have ice cream in Zimbabwe?", 'have you ever been chased by a lion?'. While I'm happy to shade a bit of enlightenment for these students, doesn't this call for an urgent need of interaction between American students and international students? I feel nothing but great sympathy towards such ignorance and I'm reminded of some of my ignorant Zimbabwean counterparts. My experience in my home country however, has enabled me to walk with my head high and to stay unaffected by the American student’s attitude towards me as an international student. I’ve learned to sympathize with them just like my ignorant Zimbabwean friends for they are definitely missing out; I'm not the one who is walking around with the belief that lions roam the streets and neighborhoods of African countries."
The Experience of E.L.I Students
In the past couple years, I have found some interesting things happening among international students and American students on OSU campus. As a volunteer at English Language Institute (E.L.I) on OSU campus, I have had international students came to me and complained that many American students wouldn't talk to them or help them with their homework assignments. I find this situation very disturbing; since O.S.U is a state-founded university, you'd think its students would have more tolerance to foreign cultures than ordinary community colleges. However, judging from what I’ve seen and heard, I found many American students are not only not willing to help but have no patience when they are interacting with international students! I’ll use this Wiki space to talk about some problems I’ve discovered so far and contribute my input of opinions on these issues.
1.) E.L.I students & American students
E.L.I students pay their tuition and expect to have a great experience during their stay in O.S.U; however, many of them find that American students are either impatient or not interested in even talking to them. Other than assigned conversants and E.L.I volunteers, many E.L.I students couldn't find other American students to be their friends. Some students even overheard some American students making fun of their accent and English mistakes.
Personally, I believe that one of the reasons of the U.S being a great nation is because of its capability to attract foreign cultures. People from all over the world bringing their ideas, opinions, and visions to this place and exchanging with each other are the greatest things in American universities. However, many O.S.U students are lack of the tolerance and understanding to interact with international students.
The most common problem E.L.I students have with American students is that American students wouldn't like to spend time to talk to them. Many American students talk too fast for most international students and when international students ask them to repeat again, they show impatience and unwilling to do so. I think it's fair to say that all international students need time to be able to catch up with American students' speaking paste; American students studying at O.S.U should understand this fact and be patient with international students.
Another problem many E.L.I students have encountered is American students ignoring them when they are trying to ask American students questions. For some reasons, some of my fellow American students don’t like to help, listen, or interact with international students; they either walk away from E.L.I students or pretend they don’t see them. This bothers me a lot because I believe every American student has the responsibility to help foreigners and show them the beauty of this nation.
Many E.L.I students have many things to offer for O.S.U and its students; their ideas, cultures, experiences, and many other fascinating things are precious to this campus and its students. Just because their first language is not English doesn’t mean they are any less intelligent than us. As the matter of fact, most of E.L.I students were honor students in their countries before they came to O.S.U. Missing the opportunity to make friends with these fascinating people would be a great shame for American students since we are lack of information of foreign countries already. American students can learn many things by interacting with international students and establish their multicultural background. Thus, I strongly recommend American students to make friends with E.L.I students and enjoy spending time with them.
2.) International students in classrooms
Since I’m studying the option of International Business, I’ve had many classmates coming from different countries. Their English might not be perfect, but every one of them had great ideas and experiences to share with me.
However, while I was studying in many business courses, I’ve discovered that sometimes, American students would only work with other American students for group projects. For instance, whenever instructors are assigning group projects, most of them would let students finding their team members; many American students then would only find other American students instead of international students to work with. This is a very sad situation because many international students are actually very good at organizing presentation and gathering information.
I find this situation very disturbing since the main purpose of business courses is to promote students’ awareness of business topics across the world. In order to expand one’s understanding of global business issues, a student has to be able to interact with other foreign students well and have to capability to accept the difference existing between them. Therefore, I think it’s really important for College of Business students to learn how to become interested with working with international students and accepting the differences of their cultures.
3.) Means for becoming interested in foreign cultures
After briefly discussing the issues I’ve discovered, I’d like to contribute some means for American students to get interested in foreign cultures. After all, before you go learning something, it’s important for you to like your subject!!
The Study Abroad Program
The point of this article is not to complain, but to encourage American students in particular to stay open minded to the world outside the US. I think one of the many ways to do this, besides interacting with international students is to take advantage of the study abroad program offered by the different colleges on campus. This program offers students a chance to complete some of their course work at other institutions throughout the world and receive credit at the university where they are working towards a degree. These programs are offered through a number of different methods including but not limited to IE3 Global Internships, Council on International Education and Exchange (CIEE), and Northwest Council on Study Abroad (AHA). From my experience studying abroad will not only benefit students in terms of learning a new culture but it will help them to broaden their perspective of the world as well as to learn about themselves as individuals and their own culture. Today, I can safely say I’ve learned so much about my culture, my country, myself and the American culture in the past year and it has changed me for the better. I will end by challenging American students to be international students for a few months and it will definitely change their attitude and perspective of international students on campus. http://search.oregonstate.edu/web/?query=study+abroad
a.) Participating I.S.O.S.U events:
I.S.O.S.U (International Students of Oregon State University) is a student organization that coordinates all international student clubs in OSU. Its sole purpose is to promote foreign cultures to American students and create communication channel between international students and American students. The organization has many affiliates such as T.W.S.A (Taiwanese Student Association) and J.S.A (Japanese Student Association); these affiliates are obligate to host at least one educational culture event based on their own culture. Many of these culture events are free and there are always some free food and fun activities going on. I urge American students to go to these events since they cost almost nothing and they are always interesting to see!
b.) Volunteering at E.L.I:
For students who wish to expand their resumes’ multicultural background, working and/or volunteering at E.L.I is an incredible opportunity!! Since E.L.I is a certified institute, volunteering at E.L.I can provide you solid and useful proof for your multicultural background. Volunteering at E.L.I is a very interesting a challenging job since you’re constantly interacting with people from different countries; thus you can expose yourself to great amount of foreign culture and eventually you’ll love doing it!! For volunteering opportunity and information, please contact Candy Pierson-Charlton at 1-541-737-2464 or go to E.L.I office located in the 3rd floor of Snell Hall.
c.) Taking foreign language courses:
In the business world, being able to communicate with your customers and understand their cultures are very critical for creating a successful business. Thus, taking a foreign language course is essential for improving one's communication skill and talking to foreign customers. Furthermore, during the process of learning a new language, one can learn the language's background and its culture; this will help a student to develop an interest in foreign culture.
For O.S.U foreign language programs, please visit Department of Foreign Languages & Literatures.
4.) Reflection & Feedbacks
Hopefully, my contribution on the issues can help American students to open up their mind about foreign students. I’m really looking forward to seeing more American students to befriend with foreign students and they can share their unique ideas with each others. I’m looking forward to seeing my fellow students to leave comments or make some improvements in this small Wiki page. I will enjoy any constructive opinions and I’ll provide more input on these issues along the way of my studying at O.S.U.
5.) Comments
I am also an international student and I feel that we are mistreated by American fellows students. I still remember it was on the first day of my calculus class and we were asked by the teacher to get at least 2 phone numbers from our neighbors. Nobody talked to me and asked for my phone number. So I encouraged myself to ask a girl named Katy next to me. Her reply was "Well, I've got 2 numbers already." It embarassed me so much, and it also hurt. I want this page to be viewed not only by international students, but those proud American students. This world has a lot for you to learn. So go ahead and make friends to those who have different cultures and languages. You will find this world is not just Americans'.
