US-born college students’ ideas about other cultures, and how these affect the whole student community
The United States is one of the leading countries in the world with the most significant number of foreign students. “As others see us” is an article by Rebekah Nathan which is part of her ethnographic research. In the article, Rebekah goes back to the class as a freshman to study American students and how other people think about them (Nathan, 18). Nathan addresses the American students under three backgrounds including “the life in the classroom,” “the social life and friendship among the students,” and “how the students from America think about the culture of the other students.” Rebekah investigated a few students about the three issues and noted down her findings. She had the conclusion the U.S. born students did not mind about the international students, and they only care about their businesses. Under her claims, the issue of the U.S. born students not accounting about the foreign students, particularly their culture, seems to be relevant (Nathan, 18). This paper, therefore, discusses the ideas of the U.S. born students about the culture of the foreign students and how it affects the whole student community.
The increasing number of foreign students in the United States of America is making it difficult for colleges and universities to address the issues about the culture. Rebekah’s investigation shows that most of the students born in the United States of America do not respect the culture of the other students, especially for foreign students. Sometimes they force things to go in their favour. On the other hands, international students sometimes are forced to leave behind their culture and switch to America’s culture. Culture is a significant dimension that should be deeply addressed in higher learning institutions (Zhu, 307). In this case, Rebekah argues that the students do not respect one another when it comes to cultural dimensions. U.S. born students feel that they are always superior to foreign students, and their ideas should be prioritized. The issue has been the leading cause of the conflicts existing between the international students and native students.
Rebekah Nathan’s arguments point out clearly that the majority of some foreign students do not feel comfortable while in school because they are not given the freedom to practice their culture. Most of the things they carry on do not follow their usual procedures as they do in their native lands. This has affected the general environment of the colleges and the Universities in the United States of America (Kurpis, 30). As a foreign student, there are things I have so far experienced as long as the culture is concerned. Some of the stuff like religious differences, wearing modes, and the greetings differ with those of the native students. Sometimes native students may feel that you are harassing him or her when you handle them differently. This becomes a challenge when it comes to academics. It is difficult sometimes to cope up in the same classroom because either of the side, American Natives and the foreign students may feel inferior in one way or the other.
The cultural stand between the foreign students and the U.S. born students has affected the general students’ community in different ways. First, there has been an increased number of differences between international students and the U.S. born students (Nathan, 17). The religion and mode of dressing are some of the things I have seen to have a brought most of those differences. The conflicts are transferred in classes where the instructors find it hard to manage the students with the differences in terms of their culture. In most times, the students in class may do things differently depending on their culture hence making it difficult to manage them. Rebekah argues that the U.S. based students have their view that everybody should do like them, and they tend to assume the cultural dimensions of the other students. Sometimes the foreign students are even molested by the U.S. born students in the name of the culture hence affecting their concentration in the classes and education. When the international students are in the same class with the U.S. born students, they do not feel comfortable, and this may affect the general academic performance.
From the Rebekah Nathan’s analysis, it is clear that some U.S. born students are disrespectful to the culture of the foreign students. The differences are based on the religion, dressing codes, the language barriers, holding the ceremonies, and the mode of greetings, among other dimensions. All those issues are making it difficult for foreign students to adapt to the new learning environment. The general students’ community is, therefore, said to have been affected by those issues. That has been one of the main reasons why most of the foreign students have been not graduating with excellent results. The government of the United States of America should, therefore, address this issue and go for equality in the higher learning institutions.
Works Cited
Kurtis, Lada Helen, and James Hunter “Developing students’ cultural intelligence through an experiential learning activity: A cross-cultural consumer behaviour interview” Journal of Marketing Education 39.1 (2017): 30-46.
Nathan, Rebekah. “Understanding Student Culture” Anthropology News, vol. 46, no. 7, 2005, pp. 17-18.
Zhu, Running, and Richard Krever. “Media use and cultural adaptation by foreign students in Chinese universities” Continuum 31.2 (2017): 307-324.