By Alexandra Cortes
The University’s award-winning Office of Multicultural Events hosted “True Life: I’m a Hofstra International Student” Wednesday, in which five international students discussed their life and experiences at the University to an audience of about 100 students.
“We’ve had about seven of these ‘True Life’ events so far and they’ve been hugely successful,” said Sean Dowd, assistant director at the University’s Office of Residential Programs. “This particular one is an opportunity to engage students in a low-key multi-cultural dialogue.”
The five students, sitting behind a table in front of the audience, answered questions from Dowd and Pamela Phayne, assistant director at the Office of Multicultural and International Student Programs and the audience. They covered topics about culture, residence, perceptions and day-to-day life. As curious as American students were about getting to know them, they too wanted to break down barriers and see what the world was talking about when it came to the U.S.
“Like Americans have perceptions about us, we have perceptions about Americans,” said Aparne Mohla, a marketing major from India. “When I told my grandmother I was coming here to study, she became very anxious and said to me, ‘I just saw this horrible American movie flicking channels-it was called ‘Juno.'”
Apart from films about pregnant teenagers many other factors, including American arrogance, ignorance and in-your-face attitude were apparently enough to make the unfamiliar international students cringe.
“One of my professors here actually stopped the lesson on my first day and asked if I knew what a word meant,” said Koromone Koroye, an English and creative writing major from Lagos, Nigeria. “People ask stupid questions!”
“Yeah, most people think being Jamaican, we automatically smoke,” chimed in Novia Whyte, a graduate student in education. She laughed and told the audience, “What you guys don’t realize is we just provide it for you!”
But aside from the negative stereotypes, the fact remained that most people around the world want to live there.
“If [people] thought Americans just walked around saying, ‘Eff this and eff that,’ nobody would want to come here,” said Omar Jagne, a political science major from Gambia. “People like to be ignorant about Americans too!”
The subject moved from perception towards day-to-day life and even the trouble of obtaining H-1B visas-work visas for international students usually sponsored by individual companies through the government-in such an all-time-low economy.
“[The difficulty] definitely impacts international students, especially when an individual learns to love the country so much and adopt the culture,” said Whyte. “If you’ve lived here and worked so hard to get your degree, you want to believe you can work here too.”
“But I also believe despite the issue of loving the country, it is definitely possible to find work outside the country if you’ve got a degree,” said Jagne.
Most of the students said they wanted to remain living in the United States, or at the very least return often.
The seminar lasted about an hour, and for the last 15 minutes the panelists offered advice and support to the audience, encouraging open-mindedness, courageousness and acceptance in cross-cultural interactions.
“I’ve had so much fun here, and I encourage everyone to travel and study abroad if they can,” said Mohla. “For both you and the community of which you enter, it can make the education very meaningful.”
In the University’s “True Life (Sabriana Raco)