Ah, my first post

It's about 9:30 in the morning and I seem to be the only one awake in this dorm building. Well, except for those guys down the hall trying to build a loft. They were drilling holes all night, which, you know, made it really easy to fall asleep. Oh well. I need the experience of the dorm, or so everyone tells me.

The other day I went to the International Students Reception at the Union. Of course, I'm paying in-state tuition here at the university, so it my seem a bit out of place for me to be at a function for international students. But I've made friends with a grad student from China, and she invited me. It was very interesting to meet so many different people from so many different cultures, but there was one thing that just irked me.

All of the Americans there talked down to the foreigners. Even the employees of the International Student Services department talked to the foreign students like they were little kids. And they talked very loudly. It's as if they were trying to have a conversation with a deaf 5-year-old. The conversations would go something like this:

"HI! WHERE ARE YOU FROM?!"

"I'm from China."

"OH! ARE YOU SAD THAT YOU ARE MISSING THE OLYMPICS?!"

"I'm not from Beijing."

"WHERE IN CHINA ARE YOU FROM?!"

"I'm from Shanghai."

"OH! DID YOU SEE THE MOVIE SHANGHAI KNIGHTS?!"

It's almost as good when the American students talk to the internationals.

"HI! WHERE ARE YOU FROM?!

"I'm from India."

"OH! MY ROOMMATE'S FROM INDIA! DO YOU KNOW HER?!"

India's one of the most populated countries in the world. And we don't know everyone in America, or even in our state.

A good number of these international students are engineering majors. They'd probably beat most Americans on any standardized test you hand them. Yet somehow, we think that because they don't know every word in Webster's dictionary, they're below us in intellect. A few thoughts on that.

First, most Americans don't speak proper English either. How many times has someone asked you how you're doing and you say, "Good." We've all done it. I've even done it before, and if I've made a mistake... Just kidding. The correct word usage is, "Well."

Second, it's very difficult to learn to speak another language. It's very intimidating to go into a culture where you don't speak the language. About three years ago, I went to Italy. I didn't speak a word of Italian. It was very difficult to function, even though most of the people I met spoke English. Just being immersed in a setting where you don't understand what people are saying is difficult. By the end of the six day trip, I had started to pick up on the basics of Italian. So given some time, the International Students will pick up on our culture. That doesn't mean they're dumb, Only human.

Well, I'm done for today. If something else interesting enough for me to ramble on about happens, I'll post it.