Final Paper: Being an International Student in the USA.

 “The USA has the world’s largest international student population, with nearly 700,000 students choosing to broaden their education and life experience in the United States”(1).”The pursuit of learning beyond the boundaries of one’s own community, nation, or culture is as old as learning itself,” observed Cora Du Bois, the author of a 1956 survey entitled Foreign Students and Higher Education in the United states(2). It takes courage to decide to leave one's country and come to the USA, where you are going to be by yourself. Being an international student in the USA has amazing benefits; however, it does not go without disadvantages too. Now you can goes as far as you want looking for advantages and disadvantages, but in this paper let us keep our attention just a few of them. As benefits, this paper is going to, first, talk about the “before leaving preparation” which is all you had to do when still back home, it is going to cover the discovering of “American culture”, the American English which is different than the British English, and the all thing as a good adventure. Next, about the disadvantages, the paper will cover communication problems and the ability to understand Americans, cultural shock, home sickness and then stereotypes, encountered all over the world. So, if you want to know more, follow me in the next lines.

The before leaving preparations

You probably wonder what I mean by that. Well here I am talking about all the things that you took care of in order to get access to the USA. First of all, there is the phase of searching for potential schools on the internet, or maybe through friends or relatives that already were in the USA. In this process you learn how to search for schools, you learn how to compare schools based on the programs that they offer and the tuitions rate. Next is the applications process. Once you have set your choices on schools that you found interesting, you have to apply and wait for their response. Applications being in English, which is not the native language for most international students, you have to sit in front of the computer with a dictionary because there are new words that you will definitely come across. For example, taking my own experience, a word like “Affidavit” never belonged to my vocabulary. So I had to find out the meaning. Now, after all the paper work, the applications, the waiting, you finally get the response, and the next step is applying for the visa which is the most stressful step for all students going abroad. But once you get done with this step, you just have to book your flight and then get ready to go embrace a whole new culture.

Discovering American culture

 

After being on a plane for almost a whole day (for those coming from Africa like me), you finally land in the US. Now, most of international students come in the USA just by themselves; trust me, that is the funniest part. You look for your bags and when you cannot find it you panic. But you cannot ask either, because you don’t speak English; you are afraid people might not understand you or you are afraid you might not understand their saying. So you keep looking until you find it yourself. Then you get out of the terminal, and out there, there people waiting for you with a big sign with your name on it. When you see that sign you start practicing your English greetings trying to be as fluent as possible. They pick you up and there goes your first taste of Americans. First of all, you notice that Americans talk loud and they expect you to do so. But with your English level you are not confident enough to do that because you think they will laugh at you. Wrong! Americans don’t laugh at you because your English is poor or boring, which is way different back home where people laugh at others mistakes. Secondly, the American food; hamburgers, pizzas, sloppy joe, hot dogs… At first you struggle with it, you think American food does not have any taste, and you which you want to cook your own food; but you don’t know how to cook. And besides that, they eat dinner at 5 o’clock pm. Who does that in the world! Back home dinner time is at least at 8 o’clock. When you eat dinner at 5 o’clock pm and you have to stay late to study, by 10 pm you get hungry again! But as time goes and you don’t have too many choices, you get used to it. One last thing before getting to the next point, most of the Americans don’t know anything about the outside world. They only care about their country. So when you tell the name of your country they are like “Come again please…” or “What?!” or “I’m sorry, could repeat?”… It used to drive me nuts. Then they ask you where in the world is that located at. So you have to sit down and teach them about the geography, culture, food of your country. It can be frustrating at times, but you get to advertise your country and it makes you practice their English. At school, there is what is called student employment. "Many college student in America hold part-time jobs during the school year, and a great number of students work during summer vacations. Students work in restaurant, take care of children, work in libraries, sell, and type. If the language of your home country is not English, it may be possible for you to teach or tutor people interested in learning your native tongue."(5)

American English

That is where you realize that their English is way different from the one you learned in back home in high school, which is the British English. It is fast, simpler, and it sounds cool! Words like “whatsup”, or “dude”, I have never encountered before. And this one here, “Imma” which is a shortcut for “I am going to”. Isn’t that cool?! For instance, I just learned that in the US to express that you are full after lunch or dinner or whatever, you can say “I’m stuffed”. Now you do not want to say that at a British table, because it means that you just had sex.  In other words, American English is much more informal than other versions. What a cool way to distinguish yourself. The cool thing is that there Intensive English Programs where you can go and learn all of that. Another thing about American English is the pronunciation. It is so different. For example the way Americans pronounce the word “center” is “cenner”. It is hard to follow at first, but once you go through those English Programs you get familiar with all of those little differences, but of course it takes time and practice to get comfortable with it.

But it is interesting to watch how you progress with time, and after going through all these training, you now have the privilege to help others that are coming to the US. They may be friends, relatives or just general people you don’t know. That is where peer advisors are really are really needed. They can give tips on how to adapt to all the different situations that new international students may face. Being an international student has amazing advantages; however it does have its disadvantages too. Now let's take a look at various international students' disadvantages and what you can do about them when studying abroad.

Communication problems and the ability to understand Americans

Since you may be studying in a foreign language, you are going to have a harder time than domestic students in your class. You will have the same assignments and the same amount of time to complete them and it is not going to matter to anyone that it is not your first or not even fifth language. Coming to a different country and becoming an international student was your choice, so now you are responsible for keeping up with your peers. Many international students have a hard time understanding their peers, because in many countries students like to use informal language or slang, which is not found in books and dictionaries. It doesn’t even have to mean foul language. For example, international students who study in the United States often have a hard time figuring out what “wassup”, “dude” and “da bomb” mean. The best advice for international students would be not to nod or smile when someone tells you something that you don’t understand, but ask the person to explain what the word or phrase meant. Most people, especially those who don’t speak a foreign language don’t realize that the words they are using may be unfamiliar to someone who learned their language by books (3).

Cultural Shock

No matter how much you learn about the country you are going to be studying in and how well you prepare yourself, culture shock is almost unavoidable. The way people dress, the way they eat, talk and think may seem completely different than what you read on the Internet or in travel guides or what you see in the TV shows. Try not to stress out about it too much and not to be overly critical, especially in the beginning. Don’t pack your bags the first week of your stay in another country, because it will get better. As time goes by, things will start making more sense and you will be able to look at the culture from a different angle, which will be less judgmental. “Some people find it impossible to accept the foreign culture and integrate. They isolate themselves from the host country's environment, which they come to perceive as hostile, withdraw into a "ghetto" and see return to their own culture as the only way out. These "Rejectors" also have the greatest problems re-integrating back home after return” (4). Some people integrate fully and take on all parts of the host culture while losing their original identity. They normally remain in the host country forever. This group is sometimes known as "Adopters". Some people manage to adapt to the aspects of the host culture they see as positive, while keeping some of their own and creating their unique blend. They have no major problems returning home or relocating elsewhere. This group can be thought to be somewhat cosmopolitan. Culture shock has many different effects, time spans, and degrees of severity. Many people are handicapped by its presence and do not recognize what is bothering them.


 Homesickness
 
Yet the nature of homesickness remains elusive. The research community still has not reached consensus on an exact definition. Many conceptualizations include a missed home environment in addition to missed significant persons. Problems assimilating new experiences and maladaptation to a new environment also feed homesickness. Some researchers have encapsulated homesickness in five factors: missing family, missing friends, feeling lonely, adjustment problems, and home ruminations (6). Culture shock often causes homesickness. You can’t understand the new environment and you don’t feel comfortable in it. You miss your friends, family and your country where everything is familiar and everyone understands you. Again, give it some time. You may never completely understand the new culture, but soon you may even be able to love it and embrace its differences. You may have spent so much time preparing for college that you may not have considered how much you'd miss being back home. While homesickness is very common for the majority of college students, it can be very difficult to overcome. Being homesick is often a sign that you have happy, healthy relationships with people back at home. You may miss your family, your friends, your boyfriend or girlfriend, or just your old routines and familiarity. Even though many students won't talk about it, a very large number of first-year and transfer students experience homesickness during their first few months at school.

Stereotypes

Whether you like to admit it or not, we are all guilty of stereotyping. Some more than others, some less, but no matter which country you are from you will probably be stereotyped until your peers will get to know you better. For example, Russian students are often asked about their favorite vodka drinks; Italians are perceived as melodramatic, loud and overly emotional; British – too formal and snobbish. Try not to get offended and not to take things personally. You are probably stereotyping about the natives of the country you are studying in also, so the best way to destroy the stereotypes is to get to know people better and, of course, to let them know you.

Studying in a foreign country has so many advantages and the challenges that you may encounter will only make you stronger and make you grow. Being an international student may have its disadvantages, but they should not stop anyone from studying abroad. “It stems”, Du Bois continued, “from the human capacity for curiosity and adventure… [and] reflects the ability of human beings to communicate with each other at varying levels and with varying sophistication across the barriers of social particularities.”(2)

IV.         REFERENCES

1. 1.       http://www.internationalstudent.com/study_usa/ , Tuesday, December 11, 2012.

1. 2.       Teresa Brawner Bevis and Christopher J. Lucas, International Students in American Colleges and University: A History, (PALGRAVE MACMILLAN, 2007, New York), p. 1.

1. 3.       http://www.brighthub.com/education/college/articles/87056.aspx, Tuesday, December 11, 2012.

1. 4.       http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Culture_shock, Tuesday, December 11, 2012.

1. 5.       Commager Henry Steele, Meet the U.S.A. Including a practical guide for academic visitors to the United States, (Institute of International Education, New York, 1970),

1. 6.       http://gohitchhike.wordpress.com/2009/09/19/homesickness-in-international-college-students/, Tuesday, December 11, 2012.

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