International
students find home with others
By Yi-Fang Vicky Lin
On-line Forty-Niner
Some
international students at Cal State Long
Beach said they believe language barriers,
culture and background differences are the
main stumbling blocks causing the segregation
between different ethnic groups on campus.
“You always see the same ethnic group of
people gathered together on campus. Chinese
and Chinese, American and American or European
and European,” said Dat Pham, a Vietnamese
American student who was sitting with a
group of Vietnamese friends on campus. He
said he hangs out with his Vietnamese friends
for most of the time, and has never hung
out with Americans even though he is been
in the United State for more than 12 years.
“It’s much easier. We share the same language,
same thinking, same culture and sometimes
the same story,” said Hieu Nguyen, another
Vietnamese American student from the group.
The only opportunity for Pham to interact
closely with domestic students is during
group projects. He said he believes the
professors should mix up different ethnic
students together when assigning a group
project to gain more communication between
foreign and domestic students.
The president of the Chinese American Student
Association at CSULB, Pei-Ying Huang, said
he believes that cultural differences are
the main reason causing the difficulty for
foreign and domestic students to interact.
He said this kind of segregation not only
occurs in CSULB, but in all parts of the
world.
“ It is not a new issue. As everyone knows,
American society is based on the combination
or mixture of cultures,” Huang said. “Even
though Asian culture has become more important
in American society due to the increase
of the Asian and Asian-American populations,
I still think Americans prefer to be themselves
rather than to totally accept the different
culture. I think it is because of ethnocentrism.”
Pham said that foreign students would need
domestic students’ assistance in many ways
in order for them to adapt into American
society. Unfortunately, that doesn’t seem
to be the case.
“If they are open, I’m open,” Pham said.
“If they don’t open up, you want me to talk
to them all of the time? No. It doesn’t
work one way.”
Karen Fox, a teacher of the American Language
Institute, who has spent many years teaching
international students, suggested ways to
overcome this problem. She encourages foreign
students actively participate in activities
that involve Americans.
“A club, a religious group, whatever, [it]
will bring them together with American students
on an equal footing and centered on an interest
they both share,” Fox said.
The concentration to the interest often
so great they regardless of language and
cultural barriers.
“I don’t think it is a problem for me so
far,” said Erwin Tien, an international
student from Taiwan. “Maybe I am so lucky.
We live in a good and kindly neighborhood.
People there are so nice and often invite
us to eat dinner with their families.”
Tien met many American friends by getting
involved in several campus activities and
organizations such as the Student Access
to Science and Math Center. With their assistance,
Tien said he quickly adapted into the American
environment and culture. Although Tien has
only been here for five months, his interaction
between domestic students is frequent.
“To find a part-time job on campus is also
a good idea for our international students
to accommodate this environment,” Tien said.
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