Ace! NewsFlash from eJournal-USA August 2009
José Henríquez (third from left) explored the Shenandoah Mountains with A.U. friends Paul Colombini, Brigitte Basile and Xingni Liang.
A Discussion With International Students at American University
An estimated 600,000 international students will take their places on campuses in the United States in the weeks to come as a new university term begins. Another 200,000 or so Americans will head in the opposite direction and leave the familiarity of their own country for an education in a different culture. In those hundreds of thousands of lives, no two experiences will be exactly alike. But when international students begin to share their stories, common themes emerge about what it is like to find a place in a new country on a strange campus. eJournal USA managing editor Charlene Porter shared a couple hours with just such a group on the campus of American University (A.U.) in Washington, D.C.:
• Akhmet Ishmukhamedov, Kazakhstan, 2009 Bachelor of Science, Political Science
• Shanika Yapa, Sri Lanka, Public Communication, undergraduate
• Gayatri Murthy, India, 2009 Master of Arts, International Communications
• José Henríquez, El Salvador, 2009 Master of Arts, International Development
• Stephanie Ayeh, Ghana, Economics/International Studies, undergraduate
• Gihae Song, South Korea, Arts Management, master’s degree candidate.
Becoming a Cultural Broker
Question: Akhmet is a newly graduated student in political science. Why did you think that Washington was the best place for you to study that subject?
Akhmet: Actually I was studying under the presidential scholarship program Bolashak from Kazakhstan. When I provided all of my application documents for the scholarship, the government decided which university, which city it was going to send me. After taking into account my specialization, public administration, it selected Washington, D.C., because it is a city where major government institutions are located. My documents were sent to American University because the scholarship administrators had previously sent students to this university who were interested in public administration. Furthermore, I was accepted to a highly ranked School of Public Affairs at American University. When I came here, I found that it was a great place to study and pursue my bachelor degree in political science.
Q: The last year, a presidential election year, was quite a year to observe politics in Washington as the United States elected its first African-American president. Tell me about your observations of these events.
Akhmet: I am very glad that I was here at this elections. I observed how people were extremely excited about them. As a result, [there was] high voter turnout rate in general elections. Moreover, it was hard to predict who would win general elections. For example, last spring I asked one of my professors, “Who do you think will win, McCain or Obama?” He said, “Probably, it will be McCain.” Then in October he said, “Probably Obama will win.” When we were looking at primaries, caucuses, how politics works here -- is very different from any country in the world.
Q: Shanika, you’re a student of public communications, and certainly a lot of media issues were under debate during the presidential year. What were your observations?
Shanika: I think it came with a lot of positive and negative things. Like the debates being available, that was very useful. A friend of mine actually decided who she was going to vote for based on the debates, which I thought was really strange, but that was how she did it.
Q: Why did you think that was strange?
Shanika: Because I have noticed here at A.U. that people are either Democratic or Republican. They are very strong in their convictions, and there are very few people who are not strongly affiliated with either party.
Q: Your friend was different from other Americans you had observed, then?
Shanika: Yes. And I know she missed one debate, and it really helped her that she was able to watch it online later. But at the same time, I thought the media was biased towards the male candidates when compared to the female candidates. I’m minoring in women and gender studies so it matters, and I talked about it quite a bit in my courses. That was really not fair. I felt I was in a majority who had a problem with that, and especially how Senator [Hillary Rodham] Clinton and Governor [Sarah] Palin were treated by the media. They were scrutinized in a way that the male candidates weren’t.
Gayatri: When I came here in August 2007, it was the first time I had ever been here. My idea of America was popular culture and literature and what my dad would tell me. For me, my picture of America was Simon and Garfunkel and people marching on the Mall [a site of many demonstrations in Washington, D.C.]. (laughter) That was what my dad would tell me about, but my first semester didn’t match up to that idealistic picture of America. Then I remember the spring semester of 2008, Obama came to A.U. and spoke, and that was the speech where he was endorsed by [U.S. Senator] Ted Kennedy, and it all happened here. My friends were saying, “We have to go!” I remember waking up at five in the morning and standing in line for that.
From that moment on, the rest of 2008, I could see that idealism. Whatever side of the spectrum you were on, people were talking and had things to care about. For me, I could see the America that people imagined, especially my parents’ generation. When they imagine America, they imagine Vietnam War protests, Beat Generation poetry, and I could see that. It was just a little more alive.
Q: Tell us about that day of the speech at five in the morning. Were your friends dragging you out of bed?
Gayatri: No, I was, like, “This I want to see.” Because I am studying international communications, I am impressed by someone who can speak well and communicate with a range of people. So I was interested, but it wasn’t like I had to go. November 4th [the U.S. election day in 2008], I was excited. January 20th [Inauguration Day], I was excited. By that time, I thought, “I have to go. It would be stupid to miss this moment.”
Q: Enough politics, let’s talk about your academic experience. Gayatri, you’re warmed up. Tell me about the differences in how classes are conducted in the United States and in India.
Gayatri: It depends on what you study, but to a large extent, classes are very top-down in India. The professor comes with a very fixed idea of what he or she has to cover in class. I went to a very big Jesuit college, each class had about 300 people in it. It was difficult to have a class discussion, and that leads to a level of indifference. And our system was all about exams in the end, like the British system. You sit in class all year, and one day at the end of the year you regurgitate everything you learned, and that’s the end of it. No term papers, no presentations. The one exception, my literature class was more discussion oriented and smaller.
When I came here, the difference was that you are encouraged to give your opinion, to raise your hand in class and disagree. To say, “My world view is different.” We all learn then, and so that’s the beauty of the American classroom.
José: I agree. I studied in Guatemala, and it was very similar to what Gayatri described. Discussions were not really promoted, and sometimes professors used to show that they had the authority; to argue with them was risky. To me that was the main difference. I really loved the way we had discussions with multiple points of view in the international development program.
Q: For you personally, was it difficult to adjust to the different mode of conduct in classes?
José: The first semester it was difficult. I had some English, but we had to read hundreds and hundreds of pages in English, and I didn’t have the speed-reading for that. And I didn’t understand the dynamics of expressing a totally contrary point of view to a classmate or the professor, like saying, “I’m sorry, I don’t agree on that.” So it was a process of getting used to that.
Stephanie: It was definitely difficult in the beginning to get used to just jumping in. Sometimes I felt like people were just jumping in [the discussion] trying to show they were smart. That’s where I had issues. Where is the line between respecting the professor and expressing your own views? Sometimes I feel that line is crossed. Even now, I’m in my final year, and I still find it difficult to just cut in like that.
Gihae: I totally agree. I thought that some of the students acted really rude to the professor. I thought the professor is here to act more like a facilitator than an instructor, without acting on a lot of authority.
When I came here for the first semester, I had to do a lot of reading. I was afraid that my understanding of the reading might be wrong, so I stopped talking in the classroom. I lost some self-confidence then. That made other classmates and some professors think that I did not do the reading or that I don’t have any thoughts or opinions on the topics they addressed. And it wasn’t the culture that I was raised up. We had to listen, not talk, in the classroom. So the first semester was really hard.
Q: Did you become more active in the classroom discussion over time?
Gihae: I’m still quiet. But I began to talk with professors, saying if you can give me some time to talk, rather than me speaking up and jumping in, I can answer questions. I asked professors each time when the semester begins. They understood my culture differences, and when the chance was given I was prepared.
Q: Understanding language in the classroom is one thing, but understanding American students and how they talk and interact, that might have required even further adjustment for you. Did you find informal communication difficult among your peer group?
Gayatri: I grew up with English as my first language, so that was an immediate advantage. That culture shock didn’t exist. I come from a big city, Bombay [Mumbai], so coming from a city of 20 million people, my idea of space is very different. We’re just not used to it. Private space is nonexistent.
Space is a big thing [issue between people], and it even infiltrates the definition of friendship and your boundaries, what you can expect or not expect from a friend. Initially my gut reaction was, “I miss home. I can’t call my friend at two in the morning and ask them for something.” I was sad, and I would compare and contrast the two different places. Eventually, you reach a point where you see both cultures for what they are. You begin to see the societies as both an outsider and an insider. Here, I’ve become the Indian spokesperson. I go home and I’m the kid who came back from America who can tell us how they really are.
Q: Does that mean you get past the compare-and-contrast stage and take circumstances and cultural ways for what they are?
Gayatri: Yes. They are different systems of existence. Just as traffic rules are different in America and different in India. That’s the system, that’s how it evolved, and you see it for what it is. But it has a disadvantage because you become an outsider everywhere, like you’re falling between two worlds. I learned this term in a cross-cultural class once: a cultural broker. Hopefully you become a broker between cultures.
Indian student Gayatri Murthy (left) huddles with A.U. friends Shanti Shoji (top) and Maria Fiorio (right) on a snowy December day.
Q: Let’s go around the table with that question. What was your most difficult cultural adjustment?
Akhmet: I’m a very open person, and I’m glad to face new challenges. Before coming to the United States, I went to South Korea for an exchange. I went through adaptation process to Korean culture. From that international experience I was prepared for some of the challenges in the U.S., for example, a challenge that arises from different communication styles. I noticed that American students are very open to talk about any topic. However, I was not comfortable talking about religion with them because I rarely discussed it with my peers in Kazakhstan. By being open, trying to understand American students’ point of view and asking many questions, I easily adapted to these kinds of conversations.
Another kind of culture adjustment was getting used to the professor-student relationship. Professors here want your contribution and active participation in the class all the time. They encourage students to join class discussion. In Kazakhstan, even if professors want that, they do not explicitly articulate that. In the United States, you have to express your opinion explicitly because otherwise the other person will have hard time in understanding you. Sometimes, for example, I did not say details of something because I thought it was too obvious. I thought that my friend with whom I talked will understand. But then he would say, “Why didn’t you tell me? I didn’t know what you were thinking.” So I became more explicit person, more so than I would be in Kazakhstan.
Stephanie: Making friends was very difficult. I used to think I could make friends with anybody, that it was easy to talk about anything. But after a while here, I figured out that the things I find funny, other people don’t find funny. Something I might want to talk about for hours and hours, people I met here were, like, “What is that about?”
Just getting along with people was fine, but really bonding with people and feeling, like, “You see me. You know what I mean,” that was very difficult. When you are in that state, it’s very easy to just chill with your African friends because they understand what you’re talking about. So it was easier to make friends with people from other countries, more than it was with Americans.
Shanika: I was trying to think of something that really, really shocked me, and I couldn’t think of anything. I was really surprised actually at how similar our thoughts and views were, and how comfortable I was with American students. It wasn’t that I was expecting to be uncomfortable around them, but I wasn’t expecting a level of comfort where I could be walking along with a friend and we’d both start laughing at the same time because of something funny we saw on the street.
I felt very fortunate that I happened to stumble across a group of people who were very similar in opinion and world view to me. There is one friend I made in my freshman year. I was just really surprised that we grew up on different sides of the planet and we have such similar opinions that it is creepy sometimes. And I have more than one friend whom I have that bond with.
Gihae: South Korea is very westernized, so I don’t have any “shock.” My difficulty is with the language. Whenever I talk with a person casually, I don’t want them to feel that I’m different, that I’m a foreigner. I like it better if they listen to my opinion, and I want to hear their opinion. So whenever I don’t understand some of the language they use, I just smile. I don’t want to bother them with a question about language. I think that is my problem. So language is my greatest difficulty. I tried to do phone texting with an American friend, but I couldn’t understand anything. I’m trying hard to adjust to that part of the culture.
José: I find that the way people are friendly here is not the way I am used to in Latin America. That matters when you are starting to get into relationships with others. You go a certain number of degrees latitude north, and people are not as friendly as in the south, in general. It is not something I really like.
The other thing that bothered me, and it’s probably becoming a worldwide trend, you are invited here to spend, to consume. Sometimes, I find it hard to observe. I remember the first time I went to a large store with a pet section, and I couldn’t believe all the merchandise. (laughter)
Q: So they had dog sweaters in a variety of styles, and leashes in six colors, and hats for dogs … ?
José: Yes, yes, I couldn’t believe it. But that’s becoming more of a worldwide thing.
Shanika: I think I had been here a week when someone took me grocery shopping. I wanted to get cereal. I go to the cereal aisle, and I’m staring up and there are more different kinds of cereal than I can see. I’ve always had the same kind of cereal. I’ve never tried anything else. There’s just too many options.
José: And then there’s Starbucks. How complicated does it have to be to get coffee? Choose between four levels of caffeine, 24 varieties, eight types of sugar. But the point is, Starbucks is everywhere, not just here. I was in El Salvador, and I went to a mall offering the same. They have become one of these “global places,” places that are the same in every country you go to. I don’t know to what extent you want to call that consumerism a culture clash, or is that just something we have to face as global citizens?
Q: People in the United States have been questioning how extreme consumerism has become here in the last few months as the economy has declined so sharply. A lot of people are reevaluating their spending and the acquisition of possessions. What have been your perceptions of how that self-examination has unfolded in 2009?
José: That depends on how affluent you are in the United States. I live in the Petworth neighborhood of [Washington] D.C., and it’s a low- and middle-income-level neighborhood. People there haven’t been spending too much because they don’t have much. This downturn makes them think twice, but I haven’t seen many changes. But I have seen, in the news, how people do keep spending, and it has been interesting to watch. I have a big loan so I keep my spending low.
Q: I phrase the question in the context of U.S. consumerism, but it has been a global downturn, making us all aware of the interrelated nature of markets today. Does it make you more aware of your status as global citizens?
Akhmet: Yes. International students have to understand how economic events affect various regions of the world and your future career. You have to understand the international arena. This global downturn is a lesson for everyone about tying the world together and coming up with solutions that will help to prevent similar events in the future.
Stephanie: It definitely makes you think. If I’m buying a book or a pair of shoes, it makes you think not just as a person who wants something, but about how you’re contributing to the GDP [gross domestic product] of the United States. If I contribute to the GDP of the United States, maybe the United States will import more from Africa. You recognize that if something is going wrong in one country, there is definitely a ripple effect. I start wondering how my actions are going to affect someone back home. It makes me start thinking about where to buy something and what to buy.
And in the United States, people are thinking, “Do I really need all this stuff”? Is it necessary to spend beyond your means? I see people who have 20 pairs of jeans. I wonder, “Why do you need 20 pairs of jeans?” When you come from another country and you see that people have so much in the United States, you ask why is that necessary? Then after you’re here for a while, you think, “I probably need some more jeans.” (laughter)
So like Gayatri said, you’re the outsider, and you think that there are things that need to be changed. This has been a rude awakening for everyone, just to make people think a little more before they spend.
Q: The term “cultural broker” was used. How do you see yourselves in that role?
Gihae: I am thinking of going back to South Korea ultimately. When I go back, I am planning to teach at university, and I definitely think that I will be teaching what I have been taught in the United States’ way, rather than teaching in the Korean way. I’m dreaming of being a professor more like professors here, facilitating debates rather than teaching everything that I know. That way, I’ll be not only an individual getting a degree here and going back to teach, but I’ll be the connecting person who also teaches culture in Korea.
Shanika: I have no idea what I might do yet. I agree with Gayatri that after you have been here for a while, a part of you is at home here and a part of you is at home where you grew up. But neither place is completely home.
Gayatri: It’s schizophrenic. At times you don’t know who you are any more. For me, when I am here, people obviously think my accent is Indian. And it is. But I’ll go back to Bombay [Mumbai], and my friends say my accent is Americanized. It’s the weirdest feeling. You don’t know who you are any more. Here, you are very obviously an international student. When you go back, how could you not change? It’s a role I’m not comfortable with, but I’m going to have to get comfortable with it.
Shanika: If I went back in the next two and a half years, I feel that my experience would affect me as a person, but I don’t think it would affect Sri Lanka. I wouldn’t be doing what Gihae wants to do, influencing others through my experience.
Gayatri: I want to say another thing. I don’t think this is always a depressing experience.
Q: You mean schizophrenic in a good way? (laughter)
Gayatri: Yes, in a good way! In Bombay [Mumbai], I was just was one of the girls, nothing special, but sometimes now I enjoy being that outside voice, I sometime relish it. Sometimes I hate it. At times, it’s exciting.
Stephanie: It’s like you are almost stuck being an ambassador for your country. It’s kind of crazy. When you are in your country, you don’t really care. You hardly think about being Ghanaian, but then you find yourself here with a weird sense of nationalism that you develop. Absence makes the heart grow fonder, for me.
José: I think I came here precisely to understand myself as a link, as a cultural broker. I have been working on development projects in Central America, and funds for those projects have come from big donors like the European Union, Asia, the United States. To make that connection, that development is not just about the money or politics, is important. How can I help people affected by these projects to understand the perspective of donors? How can I show donors what people in the communities are thinking? There’s a huge gap between those two sides that has to be closed. To me that’s crucial if we’re going to reach the Millennium Development Goals, for instance.
Q: Final question. What advice would you give to a younger person who is planning on becoming an international student?
Gihae: My advice is they really have to work on language skills before they come, especially for people coming from countries where you don’t share any commonalities with English. In Korea, we have a totally different alphabet, and in order to speak English fluently, you either have to spend time here when you are young or study really hard at home.
Shanika: I would say to come without any expectations. You have to have an idea of what’s going to happen, but I think so many people come here thinking, “It’s going to be like that movie, or some TV show.” Then they get here, it’s all wrong, and they are disappointed. Don’t think about what it’s going to be like, just let it happen.
Stephanie: I’d say be prepared to be confused. You’ll be confused about what you want to do, who you are, if you are smart, if you are not, especially if you are coming here as an undergraduate. You have spent your whole childhood in one country, and you are becoming an adult in another country. Just know that the way you think is going to change. It’s going to be difficult to balance who you are versus your nationality, versus your place in America. But don’t be afraid of that confusion, because it is a good thing in a way. In the long run, you’ll become a wonderful human being and learn so many things.
Akhmet: My advice is to be open-minded and open to any challenges. They should know that things here are different. It’s not wrong or right, just different from your country. I’d also really recommend, have a good sense of humor. Any challenges you have, take it with a sense of humor. Learn to smile about your own mistakes, smile about the mistakes of others. It helps in your adjustment, I think.
Also many international students don’t take advantage of all the resources the university provides, like talking with librarians if you have problems with research [and] joining clubs where you can practice your English more, meet new friends, and advance your communication skills. And they have to know they are not alone, there are many international students they can talk to. And just be happy and enjoy student life in the United States.
José: Be ready to learn, be eager to learn, because there are so many opportunities to learn. Akhmet made a good point that this university, every university, has so many resources. But it’s not just on campus; there are many other experiences around you can learn from. Be also ready to teach. There’s a myth about the superiority of some cultures, and it’s important to reaffirm your cultural identity and offer its richness to others. So be eager to learn, but be generous enough to teach.
Gayatri: I think what has helped me is that I have remained foolishly naïve. I was naïve getting on the plane thinking it would be a quick adjustment, and it wasn’t. Then I was naïve to think I knew everything, and I didn’t. But I think it’s helped me to have this foolish-dreamer curiosity. Then, I agree with all the things everyone else has said. It’s going to be a huge roller coaster, and you are going to keep learning and unlearning, keep getting confused. The moment you think everything is fine and you’ve adjusted, some silly thing will happen to throw you off. The moment you resign yourself to the idea that you’ll remain a complete outsider, a friend will offer a hand, and everything will be fine.
The editors thank American University’s Office of International Student and Scholar Services for their assistance in arranging and hosting this discussion.
The opinions expressed in this discussion do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the U.S. government.
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