Advice For Interacting With International Students: Don’t Compliment Their English
We’ve gotten to the point where even an honest compliment can be read as offensive.
Areeba Kamal at USA Today offers up this and other advice for interacting with international students:
“But your English is so good!” and other things you shouldn’t say to an international student
“When I tell people that I am an international student from Mexico I often receive skeptical looks. People will often say ‘But you look too white to be Mexican,’ or ‘but you speak English so well’. There is a great misconception that international students look and speak a certain way,” says Andrea Sosa, a junior at Goucher College, studying international relations and French. “It shouldn’t have to surprise people that I am well spoken and knowledgeable about the world,” says Sosa.
Nearly 820,000 international students from every corner of the globe are enrolled in U.S. colleges and universities today, contributing a global perspective and fostering cultural awareness across educational spaces from classrooms to student clubs. Compared to just a decade ago, the number of international students has grown by 40% — a record high, according to statistics.
However, foreign students in U.S. colleges and universities continue to face stereotypical remarks, even as more and more of them adapt to the culture and requirements of American higher education. “I try hard to represent my culture, but people often make assumptions or ask ignorant questions,” says Giang Nguyen, a Vietnamese gender studies major at Hendrix College. “I was once asked if there is television in Vietnam!”
“But your English is so good!” and other things you shouldn’t say to an international student (USA Today)
Comments
“I was once asked if there is television in Vietnam!”
Well, is there?
These micro-aggressions seem like MEGAs to me.
Well, not micro aggression, but certainly maxi ignorance. I believe that it is wrong to conflate aggression at any point on the scale with ignorance. Willful or feigned ignorance is a different matter, though.
The ignorance of geography by Americans is astounding. An example, having recently repatriated to the US from Shanghai, I was twice told by mature middle-aged Americans, “Oh, they speak Japanese in Shanghai. Do you speak Japanese?” It was an act of supreme charity that I didn’t react badly to either of them.
Another example, while living and working in Penang, Malaysia, my W-2 was delayed. Eventually it reached me in its original envelope which was addressed to “Penang, China”.
And a last example, before moving to Penang to set up a factory there, two other colleagues were in the process of setting up operations in Shanghai and in Mexico. At a meeting at the home office which included the three of us, an addled staffer looked at me and the guy setting up in Shanghai saying, “Oh! You’ll be close to each other!” The straight line distance between Shanghai and Penang is about the same as from Boston to Los Angeles, not close at all. Same time zone, though.
And I’ll bet everybody in Shanghai knows all the cultural and geographic differences between Montreal and Miami.
Pardon me if I don’t find either case offensive.
What kind of person tries to “represent” their culture? What kind of person then gets mad that everybody isn’t perfectly familiar with it?
Get over yourself.
Will the prog drones never cease finding something to be offended about? What a pathetic group of self-aggrieved idiots.
I’ve been complimented plenty of times on my German while visiting Germany. Should I be offended?
Grow the fuck up.