My group has addressed cultural frustrations, especially since I have asked about them many times. I came into chat cafe wanting to be able to ease those frustrations and be a guide for international students who may need a space to vent or ask questions. Common frustrations include: understanding what the professor is saying/what exam questions are asking, knowing common lingo or knowing about annual events at the university, and being able to make friends with non-international students.
1) Breaking barriers between students: I think that international students should be able to have special office hours or meeting times with professors so that they can get one-on-one time with them. Exams written in simpler English or access to a dictionary/ more time during an exam could help students understand what the questions are asking. Students could also be buddied up with another student or have a special study group for international students through the SLC/ other tutoring orgs so that they don't feel pressured and unable to ask questions.
2) Knowing about campus events/ locations: I've noticed that many of my participants are not aware of things such as 'tailgating', cider mills, the arb, thanksgiving, etc. I think chat cafe is a great way for students to learn about these terms/things to do. The university could have a calendar or some kind of infographic for each month to explain what kinds of activities occur on campus at that time. Students would know what events they have access to and would be able to participate and learn.
3)Being able to make friends with non-international students: Professors should make an effort to pair international students with native students so that they can learn from one another in group projects/study sessions, etc. Chat cafe is also a great way for this to happen.
Overall, I think the university needs to recognize that more resources or better accessibility to existing resources needs to be implemented. Chat cafe is one of the best ways to do this. Professors and other university institutions will need to be involved to make UMich more welcoming to international students.
Prachi,
ReplyDeleteI love that you've provided some concrete solutions/ideas of how to ease international students' transition to UM and life in Ann Arbor--as someone who is much better at pointing out flaws than suggesting ways of fixing them, I'm always fascinated by people's ability to find creative answers to problems. I particularly like your suggestion about providing non-native English speakers extra time or a dictionary on exams. I've noticed how concerned many members of my Chat Cafe group are about doing well in class and on exams, and providing resources that would even the playing field for international students I think could do a great deal in alleviating some of their anxiety. I also agree with you that Chat Cafe is a good way for students to pick up colloquial language, and I like the idea of the University providing other resources that could teach local vernacular and slang to students. One question would be how UM could get this information out to international students--would it come on some sort of listserv exclusively for them, or would it be posted around residence halls/academic buildings/in school publications? I feel that having it directed at international students (through emails only for them, for example) would be more productive and would have a better chance of reaching students, but also might make them feel isolated from the rest of the student body.
Thanks for your insights and solutions! This post was a fun and interesting read.
Hey Prachi,
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed reading your blog post. You bring up very interesting solutions to the problems you discovered during Chat Cafe. One difficulty that you point out is the difficulty that international students have making native friends. Reading your post I wish I had delved more into this difficulty with my group. You bring a very creative solution to the forefront. The solution of having teachers make an effort to pair international students with native students I think would help alleviate some of the awkwardness of first meeting someone. One of my brother's good friends is an international student and they first met through being group members for a class assignment. I also think university directed programs and institutions could help bridge the gap between international and native students as you suggested. While talking with my group I found that certain countries have support groups on campus, for example a Malaysian student in my group meets regularly with a large group of other Malaysian students. If there is an email list for that group the university could easily reach out and connect these students to events and programs that focus on bringing students together.