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I laughed at my Kuwait student who claimed he put his hands over his head the first time an American demanded, "What's up?" and the Italian student that wanted to show pictures of Michelangelo's sculpture of David housed in his country to the elementary school sharing-of-culture day. I thought of the impression of dinner-table rudeness an Idaho family had when a Korean didn't say "Please pass.." because in his culture it is more polite to remain quiet and serve yourself than to interrupt with a request to be served. I wonder how I would function socially in a foreign country. What would it be like to study in a in a second language in a new culture? I similar problems would I have to those of my foreign students because of cultural or language differences? I began to considered the things I would want to help me become successful in such a situation. It didn't take long to make my list. I wanted these five things:
#1. A LANGUAGE GYMNASIUM
Language is much like the muscles of the body. When worked regularly, they remain strong or even improve in strength, but when not worked, they lose fitness. While my preparational to study in the new language helped my pass the test to get in, I would want to remain strong and secure by having a language work-out as soon as I arrived, so that I could keep my skills in peak shape until I could build ties with native speakers and converse regularly and freely with them. An APPLIED LANGUAGE CLASS would serve this purpose. It would be here that I could practice oral skills as opposed to listening skills in the classroom. It would be here that I could ask questions of a trained instructor native to the new culture, and have access to immediate friendships of other newcomers who need acculturation. It would be here that I could ask questions about the tacet things that often are supposed to automatically be understood in relationships, but which I would need to gain reflective insight if a difficult or frustrating situation occurred in or out of the classroom. I would want to understand the new languages conversational style, pitch, frequency, and rate, with gestures and how to solve conflicts because these are the things learning word meanings doesn't teach. I would want the class to be small enough that much interaction with the language could take place. I would want a WRITING CLASS to supplement this application class. I would want to practice expressing my opinions appropriately with proper language flow in writing. I would want to be sure I was powerful but not offensive since this would be my first time to use my opinions in the new language.
As I wish for this bridge to my new language/culture, I appreciate the effort here at Ricks to open a gymnasium for our new students--that is, to implant some classroom services into the curricula with foreigners in mind. I include language with culture because many of our students are English first language speakers, but they are from parts of the world that are under British influence which carries a whole different set of idioms and informal expressions. The births of both the English 108 (concentrating on oral skills), and the English 106 (concentrating on writing skills) stemmed from needs of such students. I hope I would find such equivalent classes in my foreign country, but I would want the courses to count toward my academic progress. After all, that would be the reason for my study in a strange country. I wish the 108 class would be considered a group filler the same as the Communications class which is equivalent in content. Ricks international students sometimes bypass taking 106 and 108 for the very reason that they do not count as core classes. These students rely on supportive services from the writing lab on individual papers which only works until junior level transfer jerks the services out from under them, and they are still inefficient in language flow. BYU contacts with the English department have indicated that the foreign student transfers often are not properly prepared with language flow in writing. Only extra writing practice can achieve that, but the 106 is not called "Introductions to Writing" such as "Introduction to Chemistry", or "Introduction to Geology". "Introduction to Writing" is considered a high school responsibility so the American student arrives prepared with this skill. The Toefl test measures this for an international student, but it is a wise international student who will take this extra writing course.
I wish advisors would realize that counseling the international student not to take two English classes at the same time does not apply to 106 and 108. I hope all the international students in my new country have THE SAME ADVISOR so there is familiarity with the courses where the incoming student would be most successful. Once I am in a class, I would want to stay there rather than have to drop out after one week which is what happens to many of my 108 students. I have also used the 108 class as a sort of homeroom period where I make announcements and give options that international students often miss about campus or community activities. I have announced things such as how to donate service to the local rest home or when to winterize the car. I have explained why heavy potato laden trucks hug the middle of the road during harvest, and that the last day of class schedule does not mean to plan you airfare ticket that day because we still have test week. These are things usually passed on by roommate groups, but foreign students often live together and miss such things. I would want a place to hear such news in my new country until I formed the communications lines with others, so I would not be left out of such things.
#2. A BRIDGE DIRECTOR
Of course, I wouldn't want to start out in a new country expecting problems, but I would need a little time to build a bridge to the new culture and native speakers. My first interest would be to get settled-in properly to the new routine. Naturally, any student going to college has the same anxieties starting college: admission, housing, roommates, and homesickness. But my anxieties would be intensified by my lack of experience in the new country. I would depend heavily on someone to check to be sure I had followed all the rules and government idiosyncracies, gathered what signatures I needed, learned my way around campus, and had selected a good schedule.
Brother Olsen and Sister Searcey do most of that settling-in service here at Ricks, but the load is tremendous. Settling-in often includes excursions around campus for those whose visas don't come through on time, counseling on various matters such as money management, or helping a student rework a schedule because they didn't consult an advisor (telephone registration from home country).
Sometimes the student just doesn't apply the system correctly even when informed of it. At the orientation meeting, when asked if everyone had their schedules set, I heard a new Russian student respond , "Well, I haven't decided some classes, but I have until the 19th to do so." Never having been to college, this student had no feeling at all that if he missed class even until the 10th, he would probably never catch up--if an instructor would let him in at all. The late-add date is advertised, but the teacher-let-in date is just another one of those tacet things everybody seems to find out in a hurry from a roommate--except a foreign student.
Foreign students accept the idea that they do not have money (work) privileges as other students so they fail to realize that scholarship funds go to ANYONE above a 3.6 GPA. While the application dates are advertised, foreign students somehow don't associate with eligibility because they have been so indoctrinated in the fact that they have to show access to money before they arrive and cannot work because the are not to compete with the native economy. Being able to apply for scholarships is just another of those tacet things they needs to be made verbal. I hope my new country provides me with someone like Sister Searcey to expound to me these types of tacet things in the new country.
Associating with native speakers would help me with acculturation, to develop some judgment as to what is acceptable and unacceptable in my new culture. In my migrant work, I discovered my teen-age Mexicans would not give volunteer service. When I suggested being a candy stripper at a hospital, the concept was totally rejected because working without pay is not their cultural thing to do. They had to be taught that it is part of the American culture to give service without pay. Once they formed friendships and witnessed their native friends doing such things, acculturation increased.
I hope there is somebody provided to help me expand my friendships to more than the others from my part of the world. I hope there is somebody to coordinate my meeting of other students who will give me practice using the language. Attending courses is almost always a LISTENING situation. I need to SPEAK to improve my language skills. I would even like to speak to a native family as well as my college friends. I feel protected staying on campus, but I would bond better to the culture if I could see how the language is used at all levels of age and situations. Bridges to native speakers would help me bond to the culture and learn the tacit things. I hope my new country has programs such as "Friends" and "Pals" to help me acculturate.