It feels strange being international. The stereotype is that large groups of foreign students from a single country tend to stick together rather than blend in with the rest of the student body. I admit that I hang out with other Chinese students a lot — but not exclusively. Some international students even try to avoid these groups and hang out exclusively with domestic students. It is never easy to decide.
If you look closely, each international student represents a different level of multiculturalism. There are people like me who lived in the same city in China for 18 years before coming to Brown. Others have lived in more than two countries and speak four languages fluently. Those who attended an international high school or have alums in their family have a totally different experience than people who have signed a work contract with their government to get a scholarship.
Our worries are different from those of American students. One of the first challenges I encountered at Brown was ordering a salad at Josiah's. It is just tough to remember the names of 36 toppings and 11 dressings, especially when they are lined up like the periodic table of elements.
Another challenge was being the only foreigner in a group of domestic students. When excited first-years sit in the Sharpe Refectory together, school is not the only topic of conversation. When people start talking about newly released albums or favorite vampire movies, I do not have anything to say. I sit there and smile awkwardly. I know getting to know local people and talking to them is supposed to be the best way to learn about a culture, but sometimes I feel that is not really what I want to be doing at the end of a long day.
The stereotype about international students in the U.S. also applies to American students when they go abroad. At the beginning of my semester abroad in Berlin, there were six of us who stayed together, but I thought we would each find our own niche in the social scene. A couple weeks later we did split off, but I noticed that I was still hanging out with English-speaking people most of the time.
International students were sticking together, but not just because of their limited language ability. First, as excited non-Europeans who suddenly found ourselves in Europe — the traveler's equivalent of a kid in a candy store — there was little reason for us to stay at school every weekend. Let's go to Barcelona! Rome! Amsterdam! We would book tickets together, stay there for a whole weekend, come back and start planning for the next trip. Second, the locals could be aloof, and we were supposed to actively make friends with them. But simply going to their parties was not enough. It took time, effort and luck.
For students from some countries, staying in an international setting is not even an option. My friend Earth is one of those students who is financially supported by the Thai government and therefore needs to return to Thailand to work when he graduates. Unlike most of us, who are still uncertain about our futures, Earth and other Thai students on government scholarships know exactly what degree to get, how much they will get paid and even which building they will work in.
Their futures are already mapped out. The Thai government gives them $1,500 per month for accommodation and meals, which means they have had to live off campus and without a meal plan since their first day of college to minimize costs. They did not have the opportunity to live with a domestic student, hang out with people on their floor or have a Minority Peer Counselor or Resident Counselor to listen to their problems.
You might think it would be wonderful not to worry about grade point average, resumes, cover letters and interviews. You graduate, and there is a job waiting for you. But at the same time, it is more difficult to blend in and almost impossible to take advantage of all Brown has to offer. You better not fall in love with visual art or archaeology if you should be getting a doctoral degree in chemistry.
Despite all the obstacles, we international students are determined to leave home, step out of our comfort zones and explore. It can feel strange to be international, but it never feels strange to say that we love Brown.
Jan Cao '13 is a comparative literature and German studies concentrator who wrote "civil engineering" as a potential concentration in her college application.
