A Program

There is a program for international students and local citizens to learn each other`s cultures in a better way, called international friends. Susan is my international friend here, and I joined a reception for international friends last week on campus with her. It was fantastic because I met a bunch of local citizens with their student friends in an art gallery hall. And it was also a great opportunity to get to know their thoughts about the program.

Why do the local citizens want to make friends with international students? The majority of those people, who joined the program, are holding positive idea about the international friends program. The hosts consider their relationships with students are more than just friends. They curious different cultures they don`t have, or they don`t know. The cool part is exchanging the ideas about different social customs and manners. Jenny gave me the idea of “people need to know the good information from other countries.”

Indeed, the best way to decrease misunderstanding is people provide correct information. People argue political issues or social problems since they are holding different opinions on something. The principle of making friends in the United States is avoiding talking about some of the sensitive stuff, like politics or religion. I actively reduce discrepancy in different culture.

Jenny made friends with international students, because she had the experiences of exchange to some other countries, such as New Zealand, Ireland and South Africa. She knows the feeling of being an international student is not easy, who has to confront the culture and language challenges alone, especially, in an unfamiliar country. She also experienced made friends with local families in those countries. “Knowing people is fun,” she said.

Her husband knew she is enthusiastic about the international friends program, so that`s why he forwarded the commercial of the program to her. They treat the program as part of their family activities, not just because they are members of the organization, and they have to finish the mission, which has been assigned. The feeling of hang out with an American family is hard to be described. For one thing, it is nice and warm. I hang out with them in their family day sometimes. I have been seeking the feeling of family like that for more than a year. Life is hard since I stepped on the way to study abroad. For the other thing, I am stranger though. We have different culture, and we are from different places. We met because of the program.

Becoming friends with local citizens can help the international students improving their quality of English and homework, which must be the chief attraction for the program. We are interested in getting some informal help with our homework (in particular, English-related homework). It is true that there are various reasons for people joining the program. No matter what the reason it is for those people, the family has become bigger than it was last year. The program bridges among our cultures.