Language Partner Program

At the beginning of my second semester, I participated in the Language Partners Program. This program pairs students enrolled at MSU with international students from the University's Intensive English program. The goal of the program is to develop cross-cultural communication skills and support each other academically. I was a part of the introductory program and met with two students separately, once per week for three weeks. Because of the global pandemic, I met with the students on zoom while they remained in China. In addition to discussing their homework assignments, I got to know the students and learn more about their culture. Prior to meeting with my language partners, I did not know much about Chinese culture, so I was eager to talk with the students and learn from them. My only concern heading into it was finding a time to meet that worked for both of us because of the time difference. Overall, I was very excited to meet the students. 

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Some different aspects of culture that we discussed included food, education, hobbies, traditions, and our daily lives. Going into this, I did not know much about true Chinese culture. The limited information I had was from Americanized Chines food and culture, such as typical orange chicken, Chinatowns, and Chinese New Year celebrations. I had tried this Americanized Chinese food, but that was about as close as I came to experiencing their culture. 

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As we met on zoom, we were able to share our screens and show each other what our hometowns and universities looked like. Both of my partners were from cities and said they wished there was more nature throughout their cities and campuses. They were surprised to see how much greenery there was in my hometown and admired the green corn fields. I found this interesting because I am just used to having nature all around me, but they made a good point. Before beginning this program, I was not expecting to gain a new perspective on cornfields. 

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One aspect of their culture that I was surprised about was their transportation. A primary way of traveling in their cities was by modern trains. Although we have similar trains in the U.S., I am not very familiar with them since I have never lived in a big enough city. I realized this was something our countries had in common. Another thing I noticed when talking with my partners was their eagerness to learn more about my culture and my daily life. As I showed them pictures from my high school and college, they asked lots of questions, and I did the same as they were sharing. This led me to consider how similar we are despite having such different backgrounds. We were all eager and curious to learn about a culture different than our own. 

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Another activity we did was watch a Disney movie together and discuss it afterwards. We watched The Little Mermaid and talked about what it would be like to live in a completely different world. We also talked about how this is like our situation of growing up in different cultures. Just as Ariel was fascinated by the human world, we also shared how we are fascinated by other cultures. We enjoy learning about how other people live and hope to experience other cultures someday. The movie also led us to compare aspects of our cultures. I learned that the three of us grew up watching the same Disney movies that we still love today. This was surprising to me because I figured the movies were only available in English. Yet again, I realized more similarities among us. They also shared that they had to wake up early to start their classes and that their weeks were busy with school and other activities. 

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As I reflected on the experience, I realized I had a lot more in common with my partners than I had previously thought. We also discussed some differences between our lives. One difference was that my language partners did not have social media. This was not due to choice, though. This was due to government censorship. I was somewhat familiar with this before, but talking with people who experienced that firsthand gave me a greater understanding of what it is like. Our primary form of communication was over email. This made me grateful that I can have social media to stay connected with friends and use it how I wish. Another difference I noticed was that my partners asked lots of questions to get to know me. They wanted to know many details about my life, and I was happy to share them. I was able to ask questions as well, but they seemed to especially enjoy asking me questions. After learning more about their culture, I learned this is common, as humility is a prevalent aspect of Chinese culture. Rather than speaking about themselves the majority of the time, they ask questions and listen to others. I did not ask them directly, but afterwards researched this myself and found this can be common in their culture. 

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I had some misconceptions coming into this experience, the main one being that Chinese individuals are usually quiet. This misconception was likely due to my limited interactions with Chinese people. As I have only interacted with a few Chinese Americans, I unintentionally formed opinions and assumptions about the entire culture just based on these few interactions. This gave me greater insight into how biases can often develop. We are quick to make assumptions about others based on just one or two encounters, especially if they are negative. In this case, this was not a negative thing, but it was still an unfair misconception because I had such limited information and made a significant generalization. This taught me to recognize when I begin making assumptions about others and to take a moment to reflect on why I am making this assumption and then challenge the assumption to determine if it is even valid. I hope that in the future this helps prevent me from judging people or generalizing based on misinformation. 

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Prior to coming to college, I did not even know that this program existed. After participating in it though, I can say that it has been one of my favorite activities that I have been involved in. I enjoyed getting to know both students, and I thought it was amazing that I was able to talk to students living across the world and learn more about their culture. We faced the challenge of scheduling our meetings with different time zones, but the whole experience was fun and rewarding. 

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A big takeaway from participating in this organization is that despite cultural differences, we have more similarities than differences. I learned that I am more similar to students across the world than I would have guessed. We all have a desire to do our best in school to achieve our goals. We all have a curiosity for the world around us. I have gained more insight into this as I study Spanish as well. I notice that we have similar basic principles in life, despite cultural differences. I have learned that most people want to live a meaningful life in communion with others whom they care about. Most want to do meaningful work and feel that they have a purpose. These ideas are not just bound to one culture. They are common themes that I continue to see as I learn more about different cultures. 

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One thing I would do differently to enrich this experience would be to ask more questions about the students’ backgrounds and what their childhood was like. I think learning more about this would give me a better understanding of each person. Oftentimes, the way someone is raised shapes them into the person they are. This would help me get to know each person better, but I would probably learn more about their culture as well. This will also apply to my future career. As a speech language pathologist, I will need to ask questions and get to know my clients before working with them to provide services that best meet their needs. Getting to know them beforehand will be an important part of my practice. 

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This experience made me more curious to learn about other cultures. After realizing how many similarities we had, I am interested in continuing to explore similarities among other cultures that I have not yet learned about. This experience will lead me to continue seeking out opportunities to learn about other cultures. In these future experiences, I hope to ask more questions about social norms in their culture and how they differ from those of my culture. I think doing this will allow me to better understand the individual. Learning about their culture and history will give me a better insight into why they act or speak the way they do. The same is true for them learning about my culture.