Saturday, May 10, 2008

Chapters 3 & 4

Chapter 3: Community and Diversity

In chapter 3, our author Rebekah Nathan examines the students over the community and diversity at AnyU. At the beginning of the chapter, Rebakah realizes that instead of wanting to be a part of the community, many of the new students want to keep more to themselves and interact with a few select people. She first observed this practice when the RA set up a bi-weekly activity called "Movie Night." Although many students promised to go, only two students showed up for the first movie, and on the second no one showed up. The RA later canceled "Movie Night." Shorty after these events occurred, the RA scheduled another meeting with students and came up with "rules" to encourage interaction between everyone located in the same hall. Some of these "rules" included:
  • Say "hi" to new people
  • Give warning when flushing the toilet while someone is taking a shower
  • Keep doors open while you're relaxing
One shouldn't be too surprised to discover that none of these "rules" were practiced much. Rebekah noted that 76% of college and university presidents felt that nonparticipation was a problem on campuses. Less than 10% of college students are in a fraternity or a sorority. Some of the students mention to Rebekah they felt it was unneeded to devote so much time to one organization.

Rebekah also noted that when students selected friends, it was usually by the same ethnicity or gender. Other reasons may have been because of religious views. An important thing to note is that students were more interested in becoming friends with a small group of people, rather than being open to a lot of new people. Many of the students like to be seen as an individual, and not "conform" or be seen as part of a crowd. While sometimes this isn't a bad thing, it leads to some students feeling alienated.

Chapter 4: As Others See Us

In this chapter Rebekah Nathan interviews a lot of foreign students and tries to get their opinions on American schools and compare them to the schools from the country they originated from. She asked about various subject such as making friends, student life, classwork and instructors. Rebekah interacted with a Japanese student named Toshi, whom she got to know within the first few days of school. She explained she was puzzled by American customs when it came to seeing or meeting each other again. For example, many of us will say "See you soon," but do we really have the intention of speaking with some people "soon"? Toshi explains that normally she would swap phone numbers in Japan for future contact, but here in America when we say "see you soon," these words are empty.

A German student reported that once a young woman asked "How are you?" and when the German student replied he wasn't feeling too well, the young girl switched subjects and pretended that he never mentioned he felt ill. The German student went on to say that she was probably trying to be caring, but in Germany that would have been escalated into a conversation. Foreign students also found it difficult to make new friends among American students, and usually turned to other foreigners. Most foreign students found Americans to be very friendly in comparison to other students in their own country, but our relationships don't seem as meaningful.

The classroom is also very different from what foreign students are used to. Almost all of the foreign students noted that it was much easier to pass a class than they were used to. One student mentioned that American students could easily not study for a final and still get a decent grade for it. A middle-eastern student tell Rebekah that he was surprised American students can leave the classroom whenever they wanted to, because he was never allowed to do so at his old school. They also noted that some instructors asked for student's opinions, and some foreign students didn't know what to say, because they were never really asked for their opinion before.

A lot of the foreign students complained we were very ignorant to other cultures. Toward the end of the chapter, Rebekah Nathan listed what some students from a particular country thought about American students. She listed several different countries, but here's a few examples:

  • Germany: "American students are much more ignorant of other countries and cultures. I supposed it's because it's so big, and knowing about California for you is like us knowing about France. It's a neighbor. The U.S. is less dependent on other countries, and maybe that's why they need to know less."
  • France: "People here don't know where anything is. For WWII, the teacher had ti bring in a map to show where Germany and England are-- it was incredible!"
  • Japan: "Really, they don't know very much about other countries, but maybe it's just because a country like Japan is so far away. Japanese probably don't know much about the Middle East. Sometimes, student keep asking me about ninjas."
Different foreign students seem to feel the same way about American students: we're very kind, but also very ignorant. They don't think we spend enough time learning about other cultures and countries, but some sort of understand why. Rebekah Nathan mentions that a Somali student summed up all of their hopes for America: " You have so much here, and so many opportunities. I wish America would ask more what this country can do to make the world a better place."

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