Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, May 1, 1990 TAG: 9004300046
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-2 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: ROBERT RIVENBARK SPECIAL TO THE ROANOKE TIMES & WORLD NEWS
DATELINE: RADFORD LENGTH: Long
According to International Student Services director Jan Aycock, the speakers bureau was organized in October 1989 after her department sent out surveys to 28 elementary, middle, and high school teachers in Radford, Christiansburg, Blacksburg, and Floyd, asking if the teachers were interested in having international students speak to their classes.
"The response was overwhelmingly positive," Aycock said. "We got close to 50 surveys back asking for speakers."
Speakers bureau coordinator Joy Howell teaches in Radford's English Language Institute, which helps foreign students sharpen their English skills. She spoke to teachers who filled out the surveys to find out, among other things, whether they might like a student speaker from a specific country.
"The speakers bureau is something badly needed in this part of Virginia," Howell said.
"Southwest Virginia students sometimes never get any exposure to our global society. So for them to meet and talk with foreign students and find out they're real, and have feelings, and wonder about us, it's just a marvelous experience."
Howell said foreign students in the speakers bureau volunteer for fall and spring semesters each year, speaking without pay to an average of two schools per week.
Umesh Chandra, a master's student is from Madras, India. He said he volunteered as an international speaker because he wanted to spread understanding about global culture.
Americans, he said, are increasingly becoming part of a global economic community that will depend for its success on mutual understanding.
Chandra said his experience as a speaker was immensely rewarding because of the curiosity and enthusiasm of U.S. students he met.
"The students wanted to know everything," he said. "They asked if we had discos, and what type of dating goes on, and everything you can imagine about how Indian people live their daily lives."
Chandra was amused to find so many misconceptions about life in India. Many students were surprised to find he could speak English, until he explained that English is the language of instruction in his native school system, and that he has been learning it since age three.
Chandra said many students were surprised to find out that between 8 and 9 percent of the Indian population is Christian, and that Christmas, Easter, and other Christian holidays are celebrated right along with Hindu festivals.
Catherine Millot is a finance major from Caracas, Venezuela. She said she became an international speaker because she believes that spreading understanding improves international relations.
"Those kids I spoke to may very well have a more open mind about foreign countries than they did before I spoke," she said.
"Now they don't think foreign people are weird. They see us speaking their language, and find out we're human beings like they are. I think that will really help later when they're grown."
Like Chandra, Millot was amused to find out the many misconceptions U.S. students have about Venezuela.
"I think most American students assume that Venezuelans live in a jungle or something," she said. "I had to explain to them that we have washing machines, hot water, Nintendo games, and even American movies with Spanish subtitles."
Hidetoshi Matsuo, an education major from Yokohama, Japan, said he became a foreign speaker to learn how the American school system works. He was fascinated by the American teaching style, and by the way American students approach education.
"Students in the United States are very aggressive about wanting to learn everything," he said.
"They're very honest about their curiosity. They can speak freely and express themselves. In Japan, we're supposed to be very formal in school."
Matsuo said he found American students generally well informed about Japan, attributing this to the attention Japan has gotten in the American media. Nevertheless, he found misconceptions, too.
"American students tend to think we wear traditional Japanese clothes all the time, and that we don't know much about the West," he said. "They don't realize that American culture is well-introduced in Japan, and that Japan is pretty much involved in Western culture."
Tsunfei Chang, a native of Taiwan who lived the last eight years in Brazil, is attending Radford University for three months to brush up on her English.
She said she got interested in the speakers bureau because she wanted to share her experiences in Taiwan and Brazil, and wanted to compare the American school system to those in the other two countries she has lived in.
"Of the three countries, Taiwan is harder for high school students," she said. "We spend about eight hours in class each day, and then have to go to private school to prepare for university entrance exams.
"In Brazil, students go to school six hours and then they're free to enjoy life. America is in the middle in terms of difficulty, I'd say."
Chang said U.S. students tended to confuse Taiwan with Thailand.
Some had the impression that Taiwan is in the Middle East, rather than in Southeast Asia, and that it is a Moslem country, rather than a country that still practices the folk religions of Mainland China.
by CNB