International Experience

MSU's international students arrive to whole new world in East Lansing

He’s soft spoken, studious and usually finds his seat in the front row of his giant freshman lectures. Unless you really made the effort, there’s a good chance you’d never even learn Jiajun Zhou’s name. Finding a good friend at MSU has proved challenging for the first-year international student from China.

“When I miss my family, when I’m trying to talk to someone, maybe they don’t understand that kind of thing,” Zhou said of making friends. “Sometimes I think I do need some time to find (a good friend).”

Zhou, a biochemistry freshman from Zhuhai, China, is one several thousand international students at MSU coping with the cultural differences of America while earning a degree away from their home country.

In 2008, MSU had about 4,509 students from countries throughout the world enrolled in classes, accounting for almost 10 percent of the total student population. That year, MSU ranked 15th in the country for its number of foreign students and consistently has ranked in the top 25 for the past five years, according to the Institute of International Education.

Despite international students’ prevalence on campus, few American students ever take the time to get to know their fellow Spartans, said Peter Briggs, the director for MSU’s Office for International Students and Scholars, or OISS.

Two years ago, American and foreign students at MSU took a survey about how well they interact on campus. The results showed Americans were very willing to welcome the international community, but when asked if they’ve made friends with any students from another country, both sides had similar results.

“Very few did,” Briggs said.

Lost In Translation

Before any international student sets foot on campus, they’re already at a disadvantage, Briggs said.

Many make the transition to the United States with limited knowledge of the culture. Some have never visited the U.S. and many have little practice with conversational English. They arrive hoping for the best, bringing only what pieces of home they could fit into a suitcase.

Accounting graduate student Chuqiao Zeng came to Michigan five years ago from Foshan, China, only knowing that the state was home to Detroit and was surrounded by the Great Lakes.

“You come to an environment you don’t know at all,” she said. “You walk out of your comfort zone. You say, ‘Wow, this is college.’”

The difficulty of being a freshman at college is enough to make some American students long for home, but it doesn’t compare to what first-year international students face, Briggs said.

“International students have the same disadvantages American students have, and then a whole other layer,” he said. “They’re that much farther away from home. There’s language issues, there’s just a lot of other mountains that they have to climb that are just a little bit higher than the mountains you climb.”

Culture shock

MSU has established one of the best international programs in the country, said Ravi Ammigan, the assistant director of OISS. Ammigan moved from Mauritius — a small African island chain off the eastern coast of Madagascar — to study business and data management at Chicago’s Kendall College.

Despite being in America for 12 years and becoming a permanent resident, Ammigan still remembers how important his international orientation at Kendall was in helping him to adjust.

“Just having somebody there and having that personal touch in the welcoming process is key,” he said. “A smile on your face welcoming an international student can make that entry a lot smoother.”

Now Ammigan works with OISS to offer a similar welcome to MSU’s international students.

As part of their orientation, new students arrive a week earlier than their American counterparts to get accustomed to life at MSU. During the week, OISS helps them set up bank accounts, understand Social Security numbers, get driver’s licenses and sign up for classes. The office also holds numerous social events where students can get to know foreign students.

Zhou said without that resource, he would be lost.

“Some of my friends didn’t attend the lectures and have no idea what to do,” he said. “But I know. I learned a lot of things.”

Finding common ground

Although MSU strives to ease international students’ transition, their success in a different culture is up to them, Zeng said.

For many, the challenge of socializing with students from another culture is difficult to overcome, she said, but the social experience of an international education should be embraced as much as earning a degree.

“I was more of a studier,” she said. “That’s why I want to give that advice.”

As he begins his first week of classes at MSU, Zhou said he has been trying to embrace American life.

“It’s easy for me to meet a lot of Chinese (students) because there’s a lot of Chinese students living here,” he said.

“I did not pay to come here and meet Chinese people. I want to know the American students and what their life is like.”

To Briggs, working at OISS isn’t just about making sure students know how to register for classes; it’s about something much more important.

“(It’s) the idea of connecting people and what a friendship across a culture can do to transform your life and how to create international understanding in this great age of globalization,” Briggs said. “It can really be life changing.”