Plagiarism Project

Rebekah Nathan describes the international students’ perspectives on cultural norms in US university academic settings in her book. She touches on different issues that are amazing to international students beginning with the freedom and informality seen in the classes here. Students from various countries that confided in her in the chapter mentioned that the comings and goings of students during class as well as students eating in class were ignored by professors. These instances were seen by most as causal, open and friendly along with the general informality of the class. Nathan mentioned that some students from the middle east, i.e. UAE and Somalia, saw this as liberating since they were not forced to act in certain ways in the native countries’ classrooms. Others from Asia thought that the American teachers were very helpful to the point of assisting students both inside and outside of class as opposed to teachers in their countries who are not enthusiastic with their jobs but their personal research or income.
Nathan mentions that course content in the States was not viewed as very challenging overall. Most students mentioned in the passage stated that they were treated as “school child” especially in their first few years of study. Examples that were given revolved around the explicit urgings of teachers to focus on certain points in their readings and studies; the plethora of small chunks of readings and quizzes that some had thought could lead to quickly forgetting the material after the tests; the scripted helps that the advisors give in arranging courses and approving schedules; and the multiple choice quizzes and tests that one could easily pass with minimal study. On the other hand, Nathan stated that many students saw the grading system here as something that was comforting in knowing what to expect. Some students mentioned that grades in their home countries were “a mystery.”
The writer went on to show that some international students thought of the teacher as “an entertainer” here in the states. By this they meant that teachers put great effort into keeping the students engaged though multiple tools and techniques used in the classroom. They described their teachers back home to be more in the lecturing mode. One student from France mentioned American teachers tell jokes, do PowerPoint and that there were no teacher evaluations back home in his country, alluding to the fact that the professors there were not teaching useful knowledge in the lecture.
Again, Nathan showed the variety of views that international students had of US academic life, depending in the origin if the student. Mexican students saw the classes here as more formal whereas most of the others saw the informality. UAE and Somalian students saw US students as performing very seriously due to the fact that their futures depended on their studies whereas most other students saw the American students as lazy .The fact that group work and presentations were the norm in the classrooms here surprise most students and they viewed this as great preparation for presenting in front of others. Additionally, one Japanese student mentioned that the individualism in the US was a factor that benefited US students in knowing their “boundaries” and enabled them to “negotiate the demands” required to function in group work.
Finally, most students mentioned in Nathan’s article noted that the amount of choice available to students here in the US dwarfed that in their countries. Students mentioned the limited choices they had in their native country due to the specific majors they were bound to because of test scores. They noted that the choices for elective courses of interest as well as club or extra curricular choices were readily available here for any to take. One Korean woman mentioned that the freedom of choice could also be seen in the preferences asked of children raised in American culture. Children who are asked, “Do you want French fries or potato chips?” may answer I like green beans but not spinach, I like vanilla but not chocolate, and my favorite color is blue, which seems to be rooted in the nurturing of individualistic freedoms here. Nathan mentioned that the “downside” to these choices were seen by some as causing more “complication” in the education process and that students could easily end up being less specialized. In addition, one foreign born teacher was surprised that the ease of dropping classes seemed to make students here less likely to take his advice and improve.