In her book, My Freshmen Year: What a Professor Learned About Becoming a Student, Rebekah Nathan accounts her experience as a teacher turned student and her finding on how American students and international students relate to one another. In the fourth chapter of the book, “How Other Sees Us”, Nathan evaluates US college students’ opinions on other cultures based on interviews with international students and their experience interacting with US-born college students. Nathan, through the interviews, portrays American students as oblivious to the world scene, lacking or misusing information about other countries and other cultures. Although her main focus is to expose the shocking way most international students perceive Americans, Nathan also …show more content…
It must not also be motivating for foreigner students when Americans can not relate, rarely showing interest in adventuring themselves in the road of language discovery. But not all Americas are like that. According to the US Census 2000 brief, 18% of the total US population 5 years old or over spoke a second language at home (Shin, 2003). These 18%, for instance, comprise a group of Americans that mostly come from families that just recently immigrated to the United States, and tend to be more sympathetic towards multiculturalism. College students who grew up in families like this are more likely to develop a broader world awareness, creating a diversion in the perception that all American students are oblivious to other cultures and …show more content…
According to her, although only 10% said no, 35% said they did not care about welcoming a larger international student population (Stahl 1). This information is aligned to my findings, although slightly more pessimistic. Less than half of the interviewed students admitted that they weren’t affected by international students or they never really gave it a thought. Anthony, another Temple freshman I interviewed, despite displaying a quite fascinated view of international student’s bravery for moving countries, said that he did not have any international friends and didn’t really care about making any. In Nathan’s book, she says admits that most international students thought American did not ask them questions regarding their culture or they they came from (Nathan 84). Without a doubt, this shows the motivation and interest American lack considering the world beyond their boarders. It important to point out that other half of my interviewees had a friendly reaction when asked if they wanted more international students around campus. Christine, a sophomore, said she didn’t have international friends but really wished she had. She blamed not knowing who is international in her classes, and the difficulties of approaching people between classes. Hence, she supports having more international students around campus, giving her more opportunity
In the article, “Colleges Adapt to New Kinds of Students from Abroad,” Karin Fischer (2011) explains the increase of foreign students in U.S. universities leads to make more problems in campus and how universities are trying to overcome those problems and help foreign students to adapt to campus. Fischer explains the increase of the foreign undergraduate students due to the support from foreign governments. Fischer quotes Wesley Young, the director of services for international students and scholars at the University of California at Davis, to discuss that the increase of foreign undergraduate students especially requires more care and help than graduate students. While older students know what they need to do and what to do in U.S. university,
Why does international students tend to group themselves away from American students? What are some possible aspects that cause difficulties for international students to make American friends? In Karin Fischer’s article, she used the online questionnaire that professor Elisabeth Gareis conducted on international students in America to answer those questions proposed above. This survey’s result claims that cultural and regional differences affect international students to have difficulties when trying to make American friends. This research was conducted on various non-American students with different genders, cultural backgrounds and circumstances. Not even half of the participants responded that they have a good friendship with American students. Karin argues that students’ home region, university’s location and language differences took critical roles which made a barrier between international
Most young people believe that studying in a different country is a privilege because they are able to experience other cultures, and learn from them. However, in the United States it is not as good as they thought because International students have much more pressure being in this country, and sometimes they cannot handle it very well. Therefore, in the United States the life of an international student is very unfavorable if people compare it to the life of an American student. International students have to learn a new language to study, they cannot work while studying, and their tuition is much more expensive.
American culture, they often develop a sense of membership in the United States despite their legal status. For many, the United States is the only country they have ever known (p. 268). In a sense, these students feel they are a part of a system that is trying to exclude them despite their similarities and integration into aspects of that system.
Hang Yuan (James) Professor Spencer English 0812 April 21st 2016 Essay assignment #1 Final Draft The Gap between International Students and Domestic Students How to make friends with American students? Probably every international student had this question when they first came to the United States. In Rebekah Nathan’s book “My Freshman year,” Nathan exchanges her college professor position back to a college student.
Nathan’s claim stands to be valid and proves it by interviewing students. She explains that students whom she interviewed said that Americans are not someone they can count on when they are in trouble and on how they do not socialize as much, inclining to spend extra time alone. Even if Americans do socialize, they do so by having a couple of drinks and go home. International students, who leave their homes, come to U.S. to study with an optimism that U.S. students in some behaviors or custom will accept the international students yet, here what international students discovered that Americans only
However, the change from home to college can be difficult for international students (Mesidor & Sly, 2016). While some international students find it easy to adjust to the transition, others international students find it challenging to adjust to the transition (Mesidor & Sly, 2016). Studies show that international students experience many challenges as a result of language and cultural barriers, academic difficulties, financial difficulties, medical issues, housing concerns, food differences, alienation, homesickness, lack of social support system, racial discrimination, and cross-cultural loss) (Akanwa, 2015; Guzman et al., 2015; Mesidor & Sly, 2016; Sherry et al., 2010; Smith & Khawaja, 2011; Tung, 2011; Zhang & Goodson, 2010). According to Prieto-Welch (2016), international students as a group are regarded as a main minority population in campuses
As an American who has Russian parents and was born in Israel, I have always been engaged in multiple cultures. My parents have put emphasis on preserving our Russian heritage while encouraging me to immerse myself in American culture. As I stand at the threshold of entering college, I am thrilled by the prospect of becoming acquainted with yet another cultural sphere.
It is meaningful to have a program like that. It gives a lot of opportunities to study in the United States. However, the colleges’ want does not stop in there. They want the money from international students. They accept a lot of students who are not good at English because they are international students. When I read this part of the article, I feel angry and sad at the same time. It is too merciless to do that to international students. It looks like they kill all the international students’ dream. In fact, it affects to the America’s statue, which presents for forthright.
Rebekah Nathan’s central significant point writes to us that international students saw individualism and independence in various places such as dorm rooms, students’ home and social life around the campuses. She related that in America, “there's much more independence here”. At home, students live with their parents. Here families aren't tangled together and they call their parents, perhaps once a week” and the “international students generally saw family as more naturally integrated into their social life when you're not near your family”. Additionally, She inscribes “”Oh, I like you so much”, they say. But then if I’m in trouble, it’s “Oh, I’m so sorry for you”, “So sorry for you”, doesn’t help” She inscribes about how in America, the U.S.
In Nathan’s article, she keeps her principal focus on how foreign students interact with American students and the distinctive type of relationships that they build. It is quite strange to some of the foreign student’s that Nathan has interviewed about how non-committed American students are to the foreign students because American 's students do not socialize as much, and tends to spend more time alone. Furthermore, they will make small talk rather than being close friends or let it evolve into more. At that point, Nathan turns her center towards the difference between a relationship and a friendship between American and foreign students. She also discusses with different foreign students with different background and how they interact with their American roommates, and the relationship that they bond. In addition, American student’s family is a distinct subject from school but for international students, it is something naturally integrated into their social lives, which is why they care so much about their parents (Nathan 73). Furthermore, she discusses how many foreign students make comments about how different students look and the lack of attention that they give their professor compared to in their home country. Nevertheless, the social life and making companions in American can be quite troublesome for any foreign students. However, once you become acquainted with American students and get to be
For instance, during my English as Second Language program at Capital University in Ohio, Columbus I established friendships with students from all over the world, including people from Asian and Middle Eastern countries. As a result, I was able to acquire a global perspective. Eventually, I expect the same interactions in Rochester University, which is motivating.
The United States is mixing people from cultures all around the world which often called a melting pot. Also, American culture is exceptional, and might be different from international student countries in many ways. The number of international students attending institutions of higher education is on the rise in the United States. The overall number of international students in the U.S. has grown 72 percent since 2000, according to us news and world report. Also, the foreign student population rose from 547,867 in 2000 to 690, 923 in 2010. The international students from different countries such as China, India, South Korea , Japan, Saudi Arabia, Vietnam, Turkey, and the United Kingdom. Moreover, China occupies the largest number and then India that 30% increase in Chinese student enrollment in the United States and 15 % of international students from India. Furthermore, the number of Saudi Arabia increased that there are 10 times more Saudi students in the U.S. today than in 2000, according to IIE. The number of students from Saudi
“In 2006 to 2007, according to the data compiled by the Institute of International Education, 582,984 students from all over the world were enrolled in American colleges and universities in a wide range of fields” (Carter, Paragraph 2, 2008). The United States has the highest number of students who are coming to study abroad than any other countries. Each year, the number of international students coming to the United States to obtain degrees is increasing by thousands, and home countries of these students are primarily India, China and Korea, all located in the whole different continent. But what are the motives of students who are crossing the sea to study? Their goal of studying abroad is to experience diversity and to adapt attitudes
It is obvious that one cannot leave behind the influence that they have from the culture that they were raised in. We are affected by that culture. As for the International students at