International students faced with learning a new language

Having to leave their own countries with their individual cultures and languages is a very challenging situation that the “courageous” international students have to face.

According to the GCSU International Club’s Web site, there are more than 100 international students from more than 50 countries enrolled at GCSU. International students that come to an American university often have to deal with embarrassing situations because of their lack of knowledge of the English language.

“I had a lot of trouble with the language when I first came to America,” said Marcelo Ferreira, a senior physical education major from Brazil. “I have put myself into some really outrageous situations during my freshman and maybe sophomore years because of not knowing English very well.”

Ferreira said that during his first month in the United States, he went to eat chicken wings at The Brick, one of the restaurants in downtown Milledgeville. The server asked him if he wanted them mild, hot or very hot.

“Of course I wanted them very hot, Ferreira said. “This waitress must be crazy or something.”

Ferreira thought that the waitress asked him what temperature he would like his wings, as he had no idea that when she said “hot”, she meant “spicy”.

The server brought Ferreira the “Triple X” chicken wings (the hottest in the house) and Ferreira was not able to finish his lunch.

“I just wanted some warm food,” Ferreira said.

For an international student to be eligible to study in an American university, they have to pass the TOEFL (Test of English as a Foreign Language) test, in addition to the SAT (Scholastic Aptitude Test). International students need a minimum score of 173 points (computer-based) on the TOEFL exam in order to be accepted in a university in the United States.

“I made 200 points in my TOEFL exam but that did not mean I had experience in talking properly and understanding in English,” said Erick Siqueira, a sophomore exercise science major from Brazil.

“Before I take the TOEFL exam, I studied English exercises specifically for that test, what helped me a lot to get a good score,” Siqueira said.

Siqueira also has been through some embarrassing circumstances during his first semester as a student in America. As he went to pay one of his monthly utility bills, the clerk was trying to explain the expenses to him.

“I was lost; I could not understand a word that was coming out of that lady’s mouth,” Siqueira said. “So I kept on saying huh, what, when all the sudden she raised her voice and started to yell at me as if I was mentally retarded or something.”

Siqueira said that learning English in Brazil with a Brazilian English professor is very different from learning it in America.

“The ‘y’all’ Southern accent turned things even harder for me,” Siqueira said. “Now I am getting good at it.”

Professors do the best they can to make international students with language problems feel more comfortable in the classroom.

“Asian and Spanish students are usually the ones that have more trouble with English,” said Spanish professor Juan Alcarria. “In class I do not treat the students differently. What I do is to explain a lesson as many times as a student needs to. I have no problem with repeating what I am saying and being patient with these students.”

Alcarria also said that he strongly recommends the use of dictionary during classes for students with problems with the language.

All in all, international students think that going through some embarrassing situations during the process of learning a language, in a country other than their native one, is a totally positive experience.

“It is by doing mistakes that we can actually learn something,” Ferreira said.

Posted by Colonnade Archives on Apr 14 2006. Filed under News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry