International Student Experiences

Looking Within

“The study of intercultural communication begins as a journey into another culture and reality and ends as a journey into one’s own culture.”

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              -----   Peter Adler

 

I first encountered this quote in one of the reading materials for my very first class at DU. I remembered myself laughing at the idea of coming to the States and ending up learning about my own culture.

Now, when reflecting on this three-year journey to the west, I found myself kept coming back to my own culture or culture groups that I belong to, no matter it is my research focuses, career choices, or personal interests.

Frankly, it took me quite a while to finally and fully embrace the fact that it is what I truly want.

At first, I resisted the idea of writing my papers on anything that is related to China. I wanted to learn about other countries and culture groups by doing research and building up arguments. “Isn’t that why I am here in the States, to learn about everything else but what I am familiar with already?” I thought to myself. Therefore, I tried to write about undocumented immigrants, women in politics, the transgender community, and the attitude towards Muslim after 9/11. It almost felt like that I have made serious efforts deliberately to avoid writing something that I thought I know well or have previous knowledge on.

It was not until I wrote an article on Feminism in China that I was amazed by how there was so much more to learn and discover on the topic than I thought. When human rights issues are sometimes tabooed in the society, it is absolutely surprising to learn about the huge and organized social movement that is happening nationwide. Then, I realized that before learning and trying to connect to other cultures and groups, I should understand my own first.

At the same time, I became aware of a very strong emotional reaction, which was not the same when doing research on other cultures and groups. That reaction is deeply rooted in my belief that development of social changes needs to start from the community within. It is emotionally charged to write about topics that I care deeply and could impact me directly, and to predict what could happen because of what is happening now. 

Continually, I still read, write and learn about another culture and other culture groups as I aspire to become a “conscious citizen of this terrible and beautiful world” (Ta-Nehisi Coates, Between the World and Me), but I know I will always go back to those spaces and groups where I can proudly swipe my in-group membership card.

My journey of studying intercultural communication echoes Peter Alder’s words. It starts with the passion and curiosity to look into another culture and reality, and ends with the motivation and desire to understand myself and my culture groups. 

I have to say, I am pretty content about where I end up being now.

(Note: The definition of culture in this article is beyond nationality. It also includes age, gender, food, music, political views, religion, sexual orientation, and so on and on.  As you all know, culture is everything :) )

Xiaoyi Zhu - M.A. candidate in International and Intercultural Communication; concentrations: Intercultural Training and Conflict Resolution     

Being International

After coming to the U.S, I feel my identity as a foreigner has become stronger and stronger. Wherever I go, I can tell the differences between others and myself. For example, the classes I have had are mostly with American domestic students. Sometimes when given a specific topic, I tend to think in a way different from most of my classmates. Since I grew up in China, my ways of thinking are more related to Eastern culture. While my professors and classmates appreciate my contributions to the discussion, I realize that I am still so rooted in being Chinese. The cultural differences in my daily life have caused me to rethink my identity. The way people greet one another, their shopping differences, food habits, the way I dress up, differences in our appreciation of music, and political views are just some examples of these differences.

However, I don’t view being different as something that I need to change. Instead, I highly value the uniqueness that I have as an international student and I really enjoy providing different perspectives.

I still remember last quarter I joined a potluck dinner with lots of international students. A potluck dinner is basically a food exhibition: each of us brought lots of drinks and food made by ourselves. There was authentic Italian pasta, English lasagna, Chinese stir fry, fried dumplings, Gong Bao chicken, Tibetan food, chow mien, Japanese gyoza, KFC, Turkish beef stew, Greek meatball and awesome deserts, Indian food, Georgian food, German beers... When I got there, I was surprised at the amount of food and how great the varieties were. The party went very well and all the people who came to the party enjoyed it so much. Even more important is the harmony we enjoyed between one another. Although we come from different cultures, we have no difficulties understanding each other. We appreciate each other's food, culture, and chat with each other to know more. It’s as if the real global village is here! To many of us we are not different from each other. I think, no matter where people are from or what they look like, people are people, right? Sometimes differences can open a whole new world and create unique experiences.

In all, I love the openness and I feel grateful to have met such a great group of international friends. I am still me, and I love being international.

(Some of the international food we had for the potluck dinner.)

Lia (Shuyan) Li - 4th year UG student; major: Communication Studies and minor: Theater & Marketing 

The Good Life

“Shem! Shem!” I hear the professor calling out my name. “Could you give us a brief explanation of what you know about Quantum Mechanics?” The question has caught me off-guard because I have been thinking about my other drone design project. But as I stammer through my answer, I get a light bulb moment – I realize that the weekend starts tomorrow. At that moment in time, I regain my confidence and answer the question with vigor because I have the weekend to look forward to.

Denver has a lot of fun recreational activities to take part in. Therefore as an engineering student, I am always eagerly looking forward to the weekends, when I have all the time in the world, to take part in the fun. Since the school campus is 15 minutes away from Downtown-Denver by light rail, I have easy access to the many amenities that the city can offer.

Since I am a sports fan, the city caters for my fanatic needs with a variety of established world-renown teams. These include the Denver Nuggets (Basketball), Colorado Avalanche (Hockey), Broncos (American “football”), Rapids (real football). I have been to at least one of the games for each team. But when I am interested in supporting my class-mates, I go to the school sports center since the school has a lot of college teams. There are also many international teams that tour through Denver.

(Author in Man Utd VS AS Roma game)

The city also hosts a variety of concerts from both international and local music artistes. I personally go for “Reggae on the Rocks” every year, but there are other artistes that tour the city. For example, whenever my friend’s inner Taylor Swift wants to “shake it off”, she goes to the Taylor Swift concert every year.

Whenever I want to enjoy the outdoors to the fullest, I always take a trip up the mountains to enjoy the fantastic and beautiful view. During the winter, I go skiing but I prefer the fall and spring, where I can go and enjoy the green scenery plus the hot springs.

(Author at Maroon Bells)

For me, the University is situated in the perfect location. If I want life to be loud, I go to either a house party or a club. If I need some peace, I walk through the campus or I chill at my apartment. If I want to eat, I have a wide range of restaurants I can choose from. The Japanese, Chinese, Thai, Lebanese and Mexican restaurants are within walking distance. Plus I can order a pizza if I am too lazy to walk. If I want to study, the library is close by. When I am down to business, the wide variety of classes offered provide me with the skills I need to make a difference in the world when I graduate. I, for one, think that this is the perfect college life.

Shem Kikamaze – Senior UG student; major: Electrical Engineering and minor: Computer Science & Mathematics