I started off at Longwood University in August of 2016 after graduating from Rustburg High School, a place only 40 minutes away from Farmville. When I was a student there everyone sounded like I did, and we simply found things like driving around to be fun. We embraced that “country” atmosphere and lived our lives that way. When I moved to Farmville, people were very quick to point out my accent, but we all had something in common, we all spoke the English language.

Now, I want you to think from the perspective of an international student. You move to a completely new place, in a small town like Farmville, and are already behind. According to College Factual, there are only 67 international students on Longwood’s campus, and in the 2018-19 academic year according to an article from The Rotunda, 40 of those happened to be athletes. These students are at a disadvantage because they have not lived in the same culture that we have, for the same amount of time here in America. They also may not know the English language, which is something we easily take for granted. Over the course of my first two blog posts, both with friends from Spain, they talked about how important the English language is. On the bright side, there is an organization called Global Leaders on Longwood’s campus which serves as a mentor base for these international students. Organizations like these are why I argue that Global Leaders, and other international help organizations, need to be more promoted on Longwood’s campus to better help the issue of intercultural communication.

Readers of this post should care about this because I feel we would want the same for ourselves if we moved to a different country. We would want others to take us under their wing and hear us out to better acclimate to the culture of that country. Longwood University says that citizen leadership “depends on our active, daily participation.” If we are truly fulfilling the mission of this university then we have to lend a helping hand to organizations who help international students acclimate to our culture, and highlight their own at the same time. I say this because I feel we would want others to do the same for us.

The first way to fix this issue would be for the university to fix the link in which the Global Leaders organization is recognized on the official website. It will be hard for a prospective international student to find that there is an organization which helps the international students better adjust to life in a new place, halfway across the world, if the link doesn’t even work. When we look at the Global Leaders official page on Lancer Link, we see that the organization assigns a  member to 3-5 international students and basically serve as a mentor to assist with the transition in any way possible. The organization also puts on events that highlight cultures other than ours, which I feel is very important. According to The Wall Street Journal, many international students are attending universities that more widely known, such as the University of Southern California, Arizona State University and New York University. Longwood University can possibly attract more students, and also help improve the issue of intercultural communication by showcasing a group like Global Leaders.

According to Martin and Nakayama, identities are created through communication. The article says that presenting our identities is not a simple process. However, I feel if there is an organization that can help an international student show off and embrace their identity, then I think that should be highlighted very brightly. We also see that a minority can face resistance and separatism when moving into a new culture.  This includes discrimination and name calling. I don’t believe any person who comes to a college campus from another country deserves to be called names or face discrimination, and a group like Global Leaders prevents that from happening.

The Global Leaders organization, to me, is an example of Hybridisation, which is an “intimate clash, of ethnicities, cultures, and histories”, according to an article from Nederveen Pieterse. It is a clash because it puts students from other cultures together, to work together. It provides an international student a mentor, and a person who has lived the American life to be a constant support system through this tough transition. I feel Hybridisation is a great way to bring people of other cultures together and help us get to know each other better. Members of Global Leaders are subject to sensitivity training to make sure they understand cultural differences. The organization also helps with different personal items like finances, phone plans, and even provides tours of the local community.

I first found out about the Global Leaders organization, in this, my junior year at Longwood University, during a Student Government Association meeting. I was instantly intrigued by the mission of the organization, and hope to possibly join during my next semester. I say that because I want to be a “citizen leader” and assist in any way possible with these incoming students. Like I mentioned earlier, we would easily want our experiences in a foreign country to be positive, so we should try our best to empower the organizations that promote those values. I hate it that it took almost three years on campus for me to find out about the organization. We live in a world that has taken a weird turn on immigration, and I feel for those who come as students should have the best experience as possible so they can go through the process one day and become legal citizens. More promotion of Global Leaders is key.

In conclusion, Longwood University has to do a better job of promoting the Global Leaders organization because it is a wonderful resource for international students to come to America and have that mentor figure and solid base when beginning in a new place. If we show off organizations like this then there will be more members who will want to join, and therefore there can be more one-on-one interactions with international students to be friendly and build relationships that could possibly last for a lifetime.

 

 

 

For my second blog post, I had an opportunity to speak with another friend of mine, who is also from the country of Spain. His name is Juan Pelaez, and he lives in Madrid, Spain. We became the best of friends when he came to my high school in Rustburg, Virginia as a foreign exchange student in 2015, where he was apart of both the boy’s basketball and tennis programs. I was a student assistant with the boy’s basketball team, so Juan and I had the opportunity to spend a lot of time together as teammates. It was great to finally get the chance to speak with him again, as it had been about four years since we last chatted. We had a conversation for about 20 minutes that put a smile on my face!

Over the course of our chat, I learned that the life of people who live in Spain is one that is much faster than the ones we live here in America and the English language is much more important than what we think it is. The language is truly “universal”.  Since many of you do not know who Juan is, all I can say is that he is one of the most “chill” and genuine people that I know. He is a person that is easy to crack a joke with and really talk about anything. He’s just an overall swell person.

Juan said that a big reason he wanted to come to America is to learn the English language because he felt that he would not be able to get a job anywhere if he didn’t have knowledge of the language. He is currently a junior at La Universidad Politecnica De Madrid and is studying Industrial Engineering. While not knowing what he wants to do at the moment, he said that knowing the English language will only assist in his search for a job one day. Juan also said that getting his masters degree will be a possibility after he completes his undergraduate studies, as that will take two more years of schooling.

Upon first arrival, Juan said that it was very difficult to adjust to American culture. He said that dinner normally takes place in Spain at around 9 p.m. when dinner happens around 5 p.m. here in America. He talked about how he felt alone upon his first arrival with not having a vast knowledge of the English language hampering him. Juan said that he had a hard time expressing himself at first because he simply didn’t know how to speak our native language.

Over time, as Juan got adjusted to school and made new friends both on the athletic field and in the classroom, his knowledge of English and morale grew greatly. Juan and I would always grab a bite to eat from the local Subway or a delicious sandwich restaurant in Rustburg called “The Lunch Box” before practice. We became great friends, and we talked basically every day. His friendship also helped me get through a tough junior year of high school.

As a result, Juan said his experience here in America was highly positive because of the relationships he built also coupled with the fact that his level of English also grew. As he looks back, now being gone for four years from the United States, Juan said he was very thankful for his time in America, and he really misses his host family of whom he built a life-long relationship within his time at Rustburg.

In conclusion, I am thankful for knowing Juan because he’s taught me how to always look for the positives in life, he showed me that teenagers from other countries are pretty much the same as they are here in America: driven and looking to enjoy themselves from time to time. Doing this interview really showed me how lucky I am to have the “universal” language as my first language. It really makes me want to reach out and assist with those who are looking to learn!

 

 

For my first blog post, I could think of no one better to interview than my old friend Nicolas “Nico” Ramos Hermoso. I got to know Nico from my days at Rustburg High School, where he was a foreign exchange student, and we were also teammates on the soccer field. He hails from Madrid, Spain and is currently a college student just like me, while I am at Longwood University in the small town of Farmville, Virginia. Nico attends la Universidad Carlos III de Madrid and is looking studying business law.

Over the course of our conversation, I found it intriguing how much students in Spain, according to Nico, actually study. He said that during the week and weekends students will mostly spend their time studying, while on Friday’s students will be more like to hang out amongst each other, go to clubs, or just find things to do together.

“In the weekends we organize ourselves, maybe on Friday we study, we hang out, we party,  or whatever. Here in Spain, you have to be 18 to go to a club so maybe on Fridays, we go to a club or something like that,” said Hermoso. “But then on the weekend and the rest of the week, we usually spend our time studying.”

Another thing I found interesting was that in Spain there are fewer presentations and more memorization. I asked Nico about the differences in schooling in the two countries since he did live in Virginia for almost one year and has been in the Spanish schooling system his whole life.

“School in the United States is way more practical than here (in Spain). Here we have just study, memorize the stuff. In the United States, you have to study not that much, you do presentations, powerpoints, and stuff from other people,” said Hermoso. “Here in Spain, we mainly study and do tests.”

I did after our conversation find out that students my age do not work during their schooling years. Many times here in America you will find a student who works and also has to balance school, however in Spain that is the opposite.

“Here in Espain, people usually don’t start working until they finish college. Because usually, you don’t have time for that part-time job, because of the time you are not at school, or at college, you are studying for college,” said Hermoso. “You don’t have time for an actual job.”

After hearing things like this I cannot help but think about the Differences-Similarities Dialectic.  We as a class went over different dialectics while studying the article by Martin, Nakayama, and Flores titled “A Dialectic Approach to Intercultural Communication.”This dialectic explains that we have similarities but we also have differences. We can either embrace these similarities and differences or let them draw us apart.

Martin, Flores, and Nakayama Reading

Another difference that I noticed in Spanish culture is that sports and school have no link. Here in America athletics are a big deal and something we pride ourselves on, but in Spain this is different.

“Here in Espain sports and school are not that related, and they are not related at all in college,” said Hermoso. “At school, you only study they kind of don’t care how good you are at your sport.”

For a person who is in American culture, I think that we can take a few things from this: I feel that we should try to transform our culture into the one of Spain by having a higher emphasis on hitting the books and educating ourselves, also I think that flashy things like sports should be of lower importance than a student’s academic performance, which should be on the top of the importance list in my mind.

I really had a great time getting to catch up with Nico, and it was even better to learn a little bit more of what life in Spain, from the perspective of someone who also has experience of living in the United States! I hope to maybe FaceTime him again soon and learn even more information, possibly even visit.

 

 

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