Small
World Coffee Hour – Malaysian event
Like every other
Friday, I go to Yudoff hall for work, set up everything and wait for people to
come to our Small World Coffee Hour event. Small World Coffee Hour (SWCH) is a
student-ran organization belonging to the ISSS (International Student Scholar
Services), which is administered by the University of Minnesota. So all the
funding come from our tuition and fundraising activities. Last year, SWCH
needed one more person on the board, and my friend recommended me. I then had
an interview, which turned out to be a whole intercultural experience. Alex
Cleberg, the advisor, asked me a lot of questions about the way I interact with
the diversity, and if I had different ideas about future possible event. He
also asked me if I knew what the social butterfly was, which is engaging a
small, short talk to several people and find interest among these people, so
that they can meet one another. After the interview, I got the job, and that’s
why I now film and capture captivating moments during our events. The video I
made on Friday, March thirst was really challenging. It is really challenging
for international to speak in front of a camera in English. I’m only showing
the takes that turned out well, but I’ve asked many more people, and had to
take multiple takes with some people. I recall these lecture we had about the
importance of body language. Many students who join SMCH events just arrived
this semester, and have a very limited English. Therefore, they can’t really
talk to anybody outside of their own culture. That’s where I use the “social
butterfly”, and try to break the ice. I found two students who just arrived
here last January and it turned out that they were both good tennis players. It
took me some time to make them communicate, but they eventually got to know
each other and found some enjoyment in their small conversation, by doing lots
of forehands and backhands miming.
Another
thing we do at every coffee hour event is to host a different student group to
serve food for the attendees, prepare a presentation, and play cultural games.
That Friday, we hosted the Malaysian Student Association. I got the chance to
work with the board, and also to meet new freshman international student from
Malaysia. It turned out that they really didn’t like some of the food that was
supposed to be authentic. They told one of my coworker that it does not taste
anything like food at home in Malaysia, and for some reason, that little
accident did not help make them get closer to the Malaysian board member. It
was clearly a sign of culture shock. Another thing that I witnessed is the
clear barrier between Asian American and Asian students. Not only because of
the language barrier, these Malaysian international students along with other
Asian international students can’t identify with Asian Americans really easily.
Another
big theme that occasionally becomes a little problem is the amount of jokes
about stereotypes. I’m going to combine this with different activities student
groups host decide to do. For instance, we can clearly see that when we have an
African student group coming, or even a South East Asian group, they usually
perform a traditional dance, and then invite people to join it. So few people
actually join the dance, and I often hear comments like “why do these people
always dance like that?”, or “I feel like they always play the same music!”. Stereotypes
are so powerful that they don’t leave anybody impartial. I think it’s just so
easy to think about our own and other people stereotypes, but we don’t think
always think about them when we encounter a situation we don’t want to be or
where we’re not really comfortable in.
This
leads to intercultural acculturation. Concerning international students, I
would assume that their goals and motivation to come to the United States are
pretty much the same. They want to get a good education, and for many, find a
job here. However, the acculturation process is really different for all of us.
Most international students on this campus are Asian, and mainly Chinese and
Korean. When I compare their adaptation to the American culture to Middle
Eastern students, African or European, it is really different. The process is
much slower, and I think this is due to the fact that they are numerous, and it
gets difficult for them to “get out” of their comfort zone. We can easily notice
that on throughout campus, but also at SMCH. It happens, but it’s fairly rare
to see a Chinese or Korean international student hang out with someone from
another culture. I believe that cultures also play a main role in the
transition process too. For example, Korea is a very conservative country, and
people pay a very close attention to their appearances. Confrontations are not
good, and people should not lose face. They have a strong degree of tolerance
toward the new culture they go into, and there’s a gap between the local
culture and how their culture is being represented in that country.
To
conclude my reflection, SMCH does a good job in gathering different cultures in
the same room. However, cultural differences are sometimes really hard to overcome,
even in such a situation, and each individual are not always responsible for
the difficulty of their own adaptation.
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