International students, including myself, are some of the most passionate advocates of diversity at The College of Wooster. We love showcasing for our culture, our traditions and the rich values that we bring with us. For many international students; the annual Culture Show is perhaps the most exciting event of the year, and why should it not be? As a college community, we take great interest in the International Education Week during which we often take pride in celebrating diversity. But are we really celebrating diversity?
Every culture has material and non-material aspects. Material aspects include dances, dresses, lifestyles and everything that can be seen or performed. Non-material aspects include abstracts such as values, way of thinking or anything that commands your interactions. It is only through direct interactions with ethnically different people that we can truly understand their culture and lifestyles.
Interestingly it becomes easier for us to relate to people if we truly understand their culture. Thus, for internationals to form meaningful friendships and involve in meaningful cultural exchange with American students, it is important to indulge in social interactions with them.
At Wooster, it is quite obvious that international students hang out with other international students. It is fairly uncommon to see an international student in a group of Americans. At Lowry, internationals tend to eat at the table of international students, and perhaps the only special thing about this table is that you hardly ever see an American sitting there. On weekends, international students go to their own room parties which are special in that a vast majority of people there are internationals. Surely there is an acute lack of integration among local Americans and international students. Yet there are a handful of internationals that do not go by this trend of repelling meaningful cultural exchanges.
When I first came to the U.S., I inflicted more of a culture shock than I experienced; in fact, I did not experience a culture shock at all as I had grown up watching American movies and reading English novels. However, I did experience a vast cultural difference between the U.S. and my home country Pakistan once I routinely started hanging out with Americans. Fortunately, I had realized that cultural differences were just differences. It is easy and even instinctual to rate your own culture as better or more reasonable, but in reality, there really is no logical standing for one culture being better than another.
The only reason you feel comfortable with your culture is because it is your default; you grew up that way. Out of experience, I can vouch that it does not take long to get accustomed to another culture. My roots are Pakistani and I take great pride in that, but I am also a little bit American.