To My Muslim Friends: Know What You’re Getting Yourself Into

by Mohammed Al-Suraih - Posts (5). Posted Thursday, February 7th, 2013 at 2:42 pm

Muslim students at Rutgers University in New Jersey (Photo: AP)

Muslim students at Rutgers University in New Jersey (Photo: AP)

When I started the process of applying to undergraduate schools in the United States, I never thought about whether America would be a welcoming place for a young Muslim student. I read articles that talked about the diverse America, the melting pot America, and the land of dreams America.

I had conversations with friends who were already studying at American institutions; they reassured me that there was nothing for me to worry about.

When I received my acceptance letter from the College of St. Scholastica, a Catholic school in a very small town in northern Minnesota, I did not even look up how many Muslims go to the school.

But maybe I should have looked for these answers. Muslims have a lot of differences from Christians. Like Jews, Muslims are not supposed to eat pork, and we can only eat Halal meat. Halal meat is meat slaughtered or prepared in the manner specified by Islamic law. Muslims do not drink alcohol at all. We also pray five times a day between sunrise and late evening, and must be cleaned and showered before each prayer.

If you are studying in the States right now, look around and see if your campus is warm and welcoming to Muslim students. Is there an Islamic center or a mosque? How about even just a small prayer room? Does your cafeteria know that Muslims do not eat pork? How many special dishes for Muslims do they make for every meal? Let me help you by mentioning some food that contains pork: pepperoni pizza, sausage, hot dogs, ham.
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The US in Words #6: Pinned Down (How I Discovered my Own Identity)

by Paula - Posts (7). Posted Monday, January 14th, 2013 at 10:59 pm

The sixth in a series looking at U.S. life and culture through its idioms.  View previous entries.

To pin (something/someone) down – to get exact or specific information on/from

There were a few things I was sure I was before coming to the United States: blond, big, and Uruguayan. However, all of these things, which were part of my identity, seemed to blur and fade upon my arrival here.

The first time I ever stopped to think consciously about fitting my ethnicity and skin color into a category was on the plane from Uruguay to Miami, when I was asked to fill out a customs form (if you ever travel to the U.S., you will have to fill in one of those). It gave me options for Latina, Hispanic or White. I didn’t know which to pick and eventually made a random decision to placate a less-than-patient agent at the airport.

After having been in this country for about five months, I have since given the question a lot more thought than I ever thought I would.

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When Your Race Is Not the Only Race: An Education in Diversity

by ZitaMF - Posts (3). Posted Thursday, January 10th, 2013 at 1:20 pm

Students wearing Columbia University sweatshirts. Creative Commons photo by Flickr user airsoenxen

A multicolored student body (Creative Commons photo by Flickr user airsoenxen)

Being in a multiracial environment changes how you view yourself and the world. Whatever your race is, when you are surrounded by people of another race, you become more aware of your color, your looks, your accent, and the people who you ‘belong to.

You start to see that the world is divided by subtle differences, study then learn to acknowledge those differences, and eventually start to appreciate the great diversity that surrounds you.

Growing up, I was only exposed to people of white skin. I had barely even met people of another color. One of my main motivations for studying in the United States was the multiracial environment the country offers, which I knew would be a new kind of challenge. I was looking forward to getting a better understanding of how different races interact, and seeing how I would react in a multiracial environment. And while I knew this could mean seeing negative examples of race relations as well, I didn’t really have an idea beyond what I had seen in media of how racism manifests.

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A New Style of Education Through Cultural Diversity

by Mohammed Al-Suraih - Posts (5). Posted Wednesday, October 24th, 2012 at 1:38 pm

Before coming to the U.S., I went to college in Iraq. For four years, I was in classes five days a week from 8 in the morning until 3 in the afternoon. I have no clue how my brain is still intact and functioning after that.

I’m not going to attack that style of education, but I will say that I didn’t like it.  That’s why I decided to get a fresh start here, where education has a totally different meaning.

In particular, one thing that makes learning in the U.S. unique is that you don’t only learn from books – you learn from the stories of people you meet.

In the U.S., significant efforts are made to bring students from all over the world to study here. It’s almost a guarantee that you are going to meet people who are totally different from you.

I go to school in Duluth. Where is that? I know, right! It’s a small town in Minnesota. However, I have met people there from all around the globe. During my four years at college in Iraq, can you guess how many international students I met? I met none, my dear friends.

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Separation Between International and National Students Happens Everywhere

by Jessica Stahl - Posts (411). Posted Wednesday, July 18th, 2012 at 4:10 pm

While we’ve been on vacation, you guys have been busy commenting and weighing in on our anonymous survey revealing the truth about how American students feel towards their international classmates.

Take a look:

Part 1: The Truth – Americans Reveal What They Really Think of International Students

Part 2: Why Aren’t Americans and International Students Becoming Friends?

American students at Ohio University talk to our blogger Olena about what they and their classmates think about international students


We found that Americans generally like having international students on campus, but that there is a separation when it comes to forming friendships between the two groups. But is this unique to the United States?

Our intrepid readers from around the world weighed in to share what relations are like between international and domestic students where THEY are, and it sounds like crossing the culture boundaries is tough no matter where you study.  Here’s what you had to say about forming friendships around the world (all quotes are posted as written).

Finland

Linza: I’m an American student in Finland, so I’m the other side of the coin. It’s very similar here; international programs are taught in English, and regular programs are taught in Finnish. Many Finnish students understand a lot of English, but don’t speak it very well, whereas many international students don’t know very much Finnish (at least, not enough to have a long conversation, and certainly not in their first year). It’s a major barrier. At least American students seem to have a more positive view.

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60+ Opinions From American Students About Their International Classmates

by Jessica Stahl - Posts (411). Posted Wednesday, June 20th, 2012 at 10:21 am

So you want to know what American students really think of international students?  You’re in luck! We did a survey to answer just that question, asking over 50 Americans to answer anonymously with their honest opinion of their international classmates.  If you haven’t read our analyses of the survey results, take a look at these articles first:

Part 1: The Truth – Americans Reveal What They Really Think of International Students

Part 2: Why Aren’t Americans and International Students Becoming Friends?

But if you’ve already read those and are still dying to know more, this post is for you.

The Americans who took our survey wrote long form answers to two questions: (1) Why do you think you do or do not relate to international students; (2) Why do you or do you not try to get to know international students? Here, in their unedited entirety (with names removed for privacy), is every single comment we received.

Why do you think you do or do not relate to international students?

Do relate
(60% of Americans responded they relate to international students as well as or better than they relate to other Americans)

I think I relate to international students mainly because of our environment. We are all here to learn, have fun, and make new friends. We have some of the same views because they know quite a lot about America (which only makes me feel extremely ignorant considering how I do not know much about their countries other than what they tell me themselves.). This being said, I think our constant thirst for knowledge is another thing that brings us all together, along with our curiosity to hear each other’s experiences.
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The Truth: Americans Reveal What They Really Think of International Students

by Jessica Stahl - Posts (411). Posted Monday, June 18th, 2012 at 9:55 am

Admit it, you’re secretly dying to know what other people think of you – what they say behind your back that they would never say to your face. Do they really like you, or are they just being nice?

After some of our international student friends told us they’d love to know what their American classmates really think about them, we devised a way to find out – an anonymous survey.

Over 50 American students responded to our online questionnaire, sharing their most honest thoughts about international students.   Not to let the Americans off the hook, we also gave the survey to over 50 international students, and we’ll be discussing the responses in a series of posts all this week.

So, what did they have to say?

Let’s start by “ripping the Band-Aid off” (getting something painful done quickly). Here’s the worst comment we heard: “They smell bad and don’t speak English,” said an American student at North Dakota State University. “They are annoying.”

Take a deep breath. Are you still here? Are you okay?

American students at Ohio University talk to our blogger Olena about what they and their classmates think about international students

We also heard a lot of really positive things, like this comment from Noa* at Oberlin College, who said, “I think the international students on my campus are really interesting and wonderful people and a lot of times I feel that they are more grounded and well-rounded than American students.”

Or this one from Jacob at Washington and Lee University, “International students add so much more to a college campus. They have experiences that you could not possibly have, and make some of the best friends. The negatives are negligible.”

As is often the case, the reality of how Americans feel about international students is somewhere in between these two extremes.
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Overcoming Stereotypes of Chinese Students: Diane’s Story

by Guest Post - Posts (30). Posted Monday, June 4th, 2012 at 5:00 pm

I met Diane Paik, a student at Michigan State University, because she was in a journalism class that was assigned to report on the increase in the Chinese student population at MSU (you might remember the class’s work from this post). As the year came to a close, I asked her what she had learned from doing the assignments. This was her response.

2/13 Reception

The recent influx of Chinese students in the United States has caught the attention of the press, and at Michigan State University, where I go to school, Chinese students are streaming into the university. Comparing my freshmen year to my current year (junior), the increase in Chinese students is noticeable just walking around campus. In some classes, I’ve even realized that my American classmates no longer dominate the international ones (depending on the class).

I received the opportunity through a journalism class this semester to report about the Chinese international students at MSU and to find out more about them.

Some of the other American students in my class seemed quick to attach stereotypes to the Chinese students when they learned about the assignment, and some even grouped any Asian as being a Chinese international student.

They only hang out in groups and with each other” and “they drive really nice cars” were some of the comments I heard from American students.

[Blogger Qian talks about the tensions between Chinese and American students on her campus]
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On Being an African in the US: Navigating an Endless Web of Stereotypes

by Simbarashe - Posts (5). Posted Monday, April 23rd, 2012 at 5:16 am

Harare (Creative Commons photo by Flickr user Martin Addison)

Harare, Zimbabwe. Would an American know that this is Africa? (Creative Commons photo by Flickr user Martin Addison)

During my first week in the United States, I went to lunch with a group of American students to whom I had just been introduced. Pleasantries were being exchanged around the room, as was some great food and conversation. Everyone was immersed in those typical introductory conversations that revolve around hometowns, majors, dorm choices and so on.

Someone then brought up the excellent idea that it would be a great thing if we could all share our Facebook usernames so that we could contact each other in the future. With everyone agreeing that this was indeed a brilliant suggestion, a piece of paper was circulated around the room by a girl who we shall refer to as Girl X.

Girl X went around the table and collected everyone’s details, and then just as I was about to append my own username to the list, Girl X snatched up the piece of paper from my grasp and haughtily declared: “Oh wait, you don’t have Facebook in Zimbabwe, right?”

As soon as those words penetrated my body, my appetite evaporated completely. I was stunned and disappointed. Not just by Girl X’s tragic assumption that being African somehow disqualified me from knowing what Facebook was, but also by the emphatic assuredness and certainty in her tone.

In her mind, she was absolutely convinced that my being African automatically made me technologically inept, and had extrapolated that assumption to reach the conclusion that I obviously had never used the internet, never mind dared to break new African ground by creating an account on a social networking website.

I quickly realized from that encounter that as an African in the United States, I was going to face a strenuous battle against the barrage of stereotypes that Americans have imbibed about Africa over the years.  The media has conditioned Americans to think of Africa in the context of the exotic. If it’s not wild animals strutting leisurely against the background of picturesque plains, it’s mud huts, famished children, wars or despotic rulers.
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How Young African Leaders Are Changing The Narrative (or, Do Africans Live in the Forest?)

by Jessica Stahl - Posts (411). Posted Wednesday, April 18th, 2012 at 5:08 pm

America is a country where you can find incredible diversity, but also racial and cultural prejudices.  In their time as international students, our bloggers have confronted stereotypes about their own country and had their own preconceptions about other countries challenged.

Like we did last year, and earlier this year, a bunch of us hopped on the phone over the weekend to chat about whatever was on our mind about studying in the U.S.  But this time, the conversation turned in particular to racial and ethnic issues, driven by this question that we received on our Facebook page:

What is your view to the relationship between Asian students and black American students?

We ended up having a wide-ranging discussion about stereotypes and prejudices – both the ones we’ve encountered and the ones we hold ourselves.  In particular, Simba and Alex discussed the negative or uninformed perception of Africans in America, and the responsibility of African students to help change the narrative.

Take a listen and then share your own opinion.  What stereotypes have you had to confront about people from your country? Have you ever had your own misconceptions about another culture challenged?


Or listen to the mp3

A Step Towards Finding Balance Between Chinese and American Students

by Qian - Posts (7). Posted Thursday, March 8th, 2012 at 1:01 pm

Earlier this week we posted a video in which Chinese and American students talked candidly about some of the problems they encounter in forming relationships on campus. It generated a lot of discussion about the source of these tensions and what needs to be done about them.  In this article, Qian looks at the situation on her own campus, discussing why such tensions are suddenly so prominent.

2/13 ReceptionAfter spending a summer in Israel and the fall semester as an exchange student in Washington, D.C., I finally came back to Syracuse University to finish my last semester before graduation. However, walking around this campus that was once so familiar, I can see that one thing has changed rapidly – the presence of Chinese students.

Besides the fact that the library is nearly “occupied” by Chinese students, when I walk through campus, every few minutes I see a Chinese face or hear someone speaking Mandarin. In some engineering and finance classes, the majority of students are Chinese.

I was even shocked one day after having just finished talking to my friend on the phone in Chengdu dialect (a Chinese dialect used in the southwestern region of China, which is different from Mandarin), someone came over to me and asked, “Are you from Chengdu? I just recognized your dialect and I’m from there, too!
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Disability, Difference and Left-handedness in China and America

by Dandan - Posts (11). Posted Monday, November 7th, 2011 at 9:56 am

http://www.flickr.com/photos/trojanguy/3251306608/

“Professor, you write with your left hand!” In my professor’s office, seeing her working with her left hand, I can’t help screaming.

Since my first day in America, I have seen a great number of left-handed people: three out of my six professors are left-handed, and the left-handed amongst my classmates are more than I can count.

It is so common to see people writing with their left hands that people here regard it as normal and face it peacefully. Or, perhaps, being left-handed IS normal – but in my country lots of people will joke about it and many, including myself, will treat it as a kind of disability.

Is left-handedness really a disability as I used to think about when I was at home? Or is it just a common difference as is thought by people here?

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Superficial Diversity? Why Political Activism is Rare in the US

by Guest Post - Posts (30). Posted Thursday, July 7th, 2011 at 1:15 pm

Ferran Masip-Valls

Ferran Masip-Valls

This post comes from our sister blog, Comite de Estudiantes (the Spanish version of the Student Union).  Columbia University student Ferran Masip-Valls talks about why there seems to be less activism on U.S. campus (which, by the way, is considered a relatively politically active school by American standards) than at his school back home.

For our Spanish-speaking readers, you can read the original text in italics. The rest of us can read the English translations.

At Columbia University, where I’ve been studying this past year, the truth is that politics is not something you breathe in the air. However, I look back at the Spanish university where I studied before, and the feeling was quite different.

En Columbia University, donde he estado estudiando este último año, la verdad es que la política no es algo que se respire en el aire. En cambio, miro atrás, hacia las universidades españolas donde estudié antes, y la sensación resultaba bien distinta.

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Some Personal Favorites from the Past Year: Cultures, Subcultures, and Love

by Jessica Stahl - Posts (411). Posted Friday, June 17th, 2011 at 2:55 pm

I did a similar list at Christmas time, so I won’t repeat any of the posts I listed there. Take a look back at that post from December 2010 to see some previous favorites worth checking out.

Top 5 personal favorites

Farima holds Afghanistan's flag

Farima represents Afghanistan at a school cultural event

#1) We Are Not Terrorists: Muslim Experiences on Campus, Question of the Week

Also:
My Biggest Surprise in the US: Sadia’s Story
Being Afghan and Muslim at a US High School, by Farima

I loved these three posts because of the unique insights and perspectives they offered on being a Muslim in the U.S.  Sadia, Farima, Umer and Beenish (the two people we interviewed for the “We Are Not Terrorists” story) all talked honestly about their experiences – both good and bad.  And I felt like their conclusions were summed up beautifully by this quote, from a Pakistani UGRAD partipant on his first day in the U.S.: “There are only two kinds of people which you will find in every corner of the world, in every society, in every country. That is good and bad. It exists everywhere, and last night I found this true.”

#2) On Cultures and Sub-Cultures in America, by Nareg

We came to know Nareg as our resident sociologist/anthropologist, always interested in the foundations and layers of American culture.  This piece explores a particularly unique part of American culture – the way it enables innumerable subcultures sprung up around everything from particular styles of dress to musical preferences to emotional states.  I enjoyed seeing his take on some subcultures I’ve grown up with, and tussling with him in the editing process over his portrayal of hipsters and nerds.

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Don’t Study in the US: Part 3, the Cultural Side

by Jessica Stahl - Posts (411). Posted Wednesday, May 18th, 2011 at 10:12 am

Though it feels like most people talk about improving their career prospects or getting a better education when they discuss why they want to study in the U.S., in an informal survey on our Facebook page, the majority of you said the cultural experience of studying abroad was the most important reason to study overseas.

Cultural Immersion

Cheerleaders at George Mason (Creative commons photo by Flickr user J Rosenfeld)

Cheerleaders at George Mason (Creative commons photo by Flickr user J Rosenfeld)

For Nareg, it was the “spirit of adventure” that drove his decision to come to the U.S.:

The experience of it all was definitely a major factor: to be away from family and friends, in an unknown environment, is just the kind of adventure which would educate more than any book or lecture could.

Farima agrees.  She says her initial motivation for coming to the U.S. as a high school student was to get a better education, but over time it has been the cultural exposure that has kept her here:

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