You know that feeling you get when someone doesn’t remember your name? That mix of embarrassment, hurt pride and annoyance as you repeat your name again, and again…and again?  It’s all too common for an international student in the U.S., as your name is likely to trip up most Americans.

Last week we had a bit of fun at my friend Kate’s expense, letting you hear how an American might pronounce (or mispronounce) your name if you studied here.  This week our bloggers weigh in on their experiences, and the various ways they’ve coped with introducing themselves by name in a country where the most common reaction is likely to be, “Can you say that again?”

Jamal Janybek

Actually it’s a funny story. So first of all, they misspelled my name in my international passport in that office in my country, where they initiate these sort of documents (I honestly don’t know how this office is called). My “real” full name in the passport was supposed to be Jamal Janybek kyzy (2 last words are my last name). But instead, they wrote it as Zhamal Zhanybek kyzy, which sounds absolutely wrong and I hate the spelling, as it seems very odd and weird. Kate can try to pronounce it, if she can.

Here you go, Jamal.  How’d she do?

And I didn’t mention that the name Jamal in other parts of the world is usually a male first name, which is really funny. Cemal (pronounced as “Jemal”), is a very common male name in Muslim countries such as in Turkey, Iran, and others. Moreover, Jamal, as you probably know, is a name commonly given to African-American boys. And almost everybody before meeting me thinks that I am a boy (LOL). So, when I meet somebody, the first question for me is that why I have a male name.

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Want to hear your name mangled in crazy (and hilarious) ways? Just ask an American to try and pronounce it. It’s one of the things you’ll surely have to get used to if you study in the U.S.

Nareg shared this story with The Armenian Weekly:

I was at a coffee shop with an Armenian friend of mine, and the person who took our order asked for a name to go along with it. I immediately said to myself, “No way am I about to spend half an hour going through ‘Nareg’ with this white American,” and then I looked at my friend. His name is “Shant.” I sighed and said, “Joe.” It was a coffee place, after all, and so “Joe” came naturally. Ever since, Joe has been my “restaurant name” in the States.

Some people take this idea even further and choose an American name to use during their time in the States. Neither Tara nor Nick were born with those names, and Jihye introduced herself to me first as Jade.

So, for the Question of the Week we’ll be looking at having a foreign name in the U.S. …
[Update: See what our bloggers had to say about having a name Americans can't pronounce]

Do Americans have trouble pronouncing your name? What strategies have you used to help them out? How do you feel about your name in America – is it funny, embarrassing, annoying, or a mixture of all three when Americans can’t remember how to say your name?

Want to hear an example?

My friend Kate recently appeared on our Cambodian radio broadcast to pick the winners of their monthly contest (winners get an ipod or a Flip camera! If you’re in Cambodia you should enter). Here she is trying to say the name she picked out of the hat – Air Kaoleap:

How do you think Americans would pronounce (or mispronounce) your name?

With love in the air this week thanks to Valentine’s Day, our Facebook fan Abdirahman reminded us that love is universal. Dating, however, is not.  Romantic life in the U.S. isn’t what you’ve seen in TV and movies, but it might still be different from what you’re used to.

For Sadia, her first Valentine’s Day in the U.S. felt very similar to what she was used to from Pakistan:

Since my childhood I used to see, every year on Feb 14, girls and boys in Pakistan get crazy about Valentine ’s Day. They love buying gifts, like stuffed cuddly teddy bears, chocolate, perfumes, small red heart pillows or cushions, balloons and who can forget bouquet of red roses. This Valentine’s Day I saw the same hype here too, everyone is busy in shopping, getting extra deals in shopping malls, websites are announcing valentine day’s promotions on flower bouquet, fruit baskets, chocolates perfumes, dresses, and list is endless.

But Tara noted, on her personal blog, that Valentine’s Day gifts seemed different in America than back in China. Tara’s Taiwanese friend received a greeting card from her American boyfriend, and was disappointed. In Taiwan and China, it’s more typical to give a concrete gift.

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One of the toughest parts of studying in the U.S. is being far from home and your favorite holiday traditions. But the Chinese New Year (which falls on Feb. 3 this year), is one holiday that’s celebrated around the world. You might be far from your own traditions, but wherever you are, there are sure to be some new traditions waiting for you.

How is the Chinese New Year celebrated where you are? Join VOA’s “Chinese New Year Where I Am” project on Flickr, where we’re mapping photos of new year traditions around the world. Share your pictures and your stories, and learn about Chinese New Year festivities in other cultures.

Here’s a sampling of the photos we’ve seen so far…you’ll have to visit the Flickr group to see where they were taken!

So, what traditions will make your Chinese New Year special?

This week, the Question of the Week was about tolerance and prejudice on campus.  How do Americans react to international students and the diversity that they bring?

I asked our bloggers to reflect on their experiences, and to discuss any negative incidents they may have had with stereotyping or prejudice.  But (happily!) they all had nothing but positive things to say about how they’ve been received by Americans.

The question was inspired by a message I received from a Muslim student, and we’ll look more in depth at what life is like for Muslim students in upcoming posts.

Senzeni Mpofu

Prior to my departure from Zimbabwe, I had braced myself for the worst type of racism one can ever experience. The tales of woe that some returning students shared fueled my fears: One student confessed that no one wanted to share a seat with her on the bus simply because she was black. Another told me about her biology professor, an openly racist man who would laud praise on her white research partner for an experiment that they had done together. The list goes on, with each story more mortifying than the last.
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Many of our bloggers have brought up that one of the things they’ve been most pleased to find in America is diversity – people from all over the world and people with all sorts of beliefs and preferences. But Martin Luther King Day yesterday serves as a reminder that America has a difficult history, and ongoing struggles, when it comes to accepting people from different backgrounds.

This week we’ll be looking at prejudice and tolerance on American campuses – what prejudices you might encounter and which ones you’ve heard about that aren’t true at all. What have you heard about how different races, religions and ethnicities are treated in America? Would you be worried about how U.S. students would accept you?

We’ll look in particular at what it’s like to come to America as a Muslim. I recently received the following message from a student on Facebook:

I really want to study abroad, to America of course… Actually, my boss would probably pick Aussie for us as most of them had studied there, but I need to go further than that

But, the “jilbab” that I wear quite worry me, I hope American people wouldn’t bother it at all for a moeslim girl like me study and live in their neighbourhood

I wanted to write back and say, “Of course it wouldn’t be a problem.” But the reality is probably more complicated.

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This week’s Question of the Week came to us from our friends at Digital Frontiers.  They wanted to know what technology and devices you use each day.  Are you tied to your BlackBerry or texting from your Nokia?  Do you update Facebook multiple times a day or play games online?  Do you wish you were more wired or less?

And most importantly, what can you expect in the U.S.?  Will you be ahead of the curve or behind compared to your American classmates?

Tara tweets about her BlackBerry from her BlackBerry. Now that's dedication to your device.

We asked our bloggers how their relationship to technology and their gadgets has changed since coming to the U.S.  They talk about what’s different between where they grew up and America, and what bad habits they’ve picked up when it comes to their connectedness:

Sebastian Sanchez

I can affirmatively say that at least in Bolivia and America people are pretty much the same when is about having “gadgets” or being involved on the “tech trends.” … But there are still some differences among countries, mostly related to economic factors.

For example, in Bolivia cellphones, and hardware in general, are overall more expensive than in America and for that reason far less people are used to having fancy phones like iPhones or Blackberrys. But on the other hand, services are usually cheaper. One big difference is the mobile companies, in Bolivia talking is not really expensive, as opposed to America, and talking and texting in a phone is almost the same price.

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The Question of the Week this week comes to you in partnership with our good friends over at the Digital Frontiers blog, which looks at how computers, mobiles, and other digital technologies are impacting our lives.

What technologies rule your life?  Do you spend a lot of time on your computer or your mobile phone, and what do you use them for?  If you’ve traveled or lived in different countries, how were their tech habits different than your own?  What devices do you wish you had, and which could you live without?

We want to look at how Americans’ relationship with technology might be different than your own, and what that will mean when you arrive here to study.

What stood out most for you in 2010?  What are your resolutions for 2011?  To answer the Question of the Week, we delved into the world of memes to look at one of the most loved and hated internet memes – the new year’s survey.

How did our bloggers and other young bloggers around the world respond? Hopefully you’ll have as much fun reading this as we did researching it.

What was your biggest achievement of 2010?

Beginning the year 2010 I was already in college in Bolivia and I can safely say that the change from school to college in any place changes the person, I felt myself more mature than I was before. But life gave me a second opportunity and I was able to apply for colleges in America by that time, since I failed to start my studies abroad in 2009 due to not enough financial aid. This second chance I had gave me the opportunity to live a whole universe of new experiences. The fact of living by myself for the first time was a live changing event by itself, the cultural shock (that evolved to be the cultural lessons I got), the people I met and the whole lot of places I have never seen before. All this events made me a bigger person, more mature and wise; and in fact all of this also made me grateful for the extra year I spent home, for now I know that probably I wasn’t ready for all this changes the first time.

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Happy new year everyone!  Hope you had a wonderful transition from 2010 to 2011, however and wherever you celebrated it.  Did you make a new year’s resolution for 2011?

What have you learned in 2010 that you will use to make 2011 a better year?  What mistakes have you made in 2010 that you won’t repeat in 2011? What successes have you had in 2010 that you hope to replicate in 2011?  Any big plans brewing for the upcoming year?

Inspired by this comment:

This week’s Question of the Week was about how you choose where to apply, and where to ultimately go. What factors are important? How do you research different colleges to make a decision?

The question dovetailed with this week’s CollegeWeekLive International Day, a virtual college fair for international students, put on in partnership with EducationUSA. Students who attended could get information from over 200 colleges in the U.S., chat live with admissions representatives, and attend live lectures with EducationUSA representatives on topics like choosing a college and finding financial aid.

What is a virtual fair?
Here are some screencaps of the event, to give you an idea of what it’s like:

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This week’s question of the week is inspired by Tuesday’s virtual college fair for international students, and the fact that early decision applicants are getting their first acceptance letters.

What is/was your main criteria for picking a university?  How did you decide where you wanted to apply and where you wanted to go?  What made one university a better option than another?  What made you decide to go where you did (and did you make the right choice)?

As always, leave your answer on Facebook, or in the comments by clicking “Read the rest of this entry,” and check back later in the week to see the answers.  And if you’re answering, be sure to tell us where you went to school (or at least in what country).

If the avatar wasn't so smiley, we might quarrel over favourite (British) v. favorite (American), but who could argue with such a happy tweet?

This week’s Question of the Week was about keeping up academically, especially when English is not your native language.  How difficult is it to compete with your American classmates?  What’s been the hardest part about taking classes in English?  How can you make sure your English is good enough when you arrive?

We got so many good responses to this question.  Here’s what some of you had to say:

Kaze (posted to recom.org):

I’m currently studying engineering in the US. One thing I love about engineers is that we don’t care that much about language structure. As long as the project reports / lab reports can be understood by the one who’s grading it, it is good enough. Of course I have to write essays for my liberal arts classes. I realized that it took me longer than my fellow American classmates to write a piece of essay. But I still manage to do it before due dates. During summer, I had native speakers to tutor me one-on-one on English writing. Basically we focus on how to organize the contents, facts, and arguments when writing a paper. The results had been wonderful but I’m still learning.
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Inspired by a question on our Facebook page, and Tara’s recent post with tips for writing papers and giving oral exams, this week’s question is about studying in English when it’s not your native language.

How hard (or not) is it to keep up academically with American classmates?  What’s the most difficult part about studying in a non-native language?  If you’re currently in the US, did you find that you knew English well enough when you arrived to keep up?  If you’re thinking about studying here, do you think you speak well enough to get by?

Leave your answer in the comments by clicking “Read the rest of this entry.”

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