improvement of cultural education
Growing up in a well-developed town, attending very decent schools throughout my lower education career, and living in an increasingly globalized nation and world, one would expect for me to have received adequate education regarding the world beyond the United States: exposure to global cultures, other nations’ histories, international literature, and world geography. However, I entered my years at university with little knowledge about the world, aside from what I had learned from my own travels and experiences, and from media. Not only did this lack of knowledge hinder me in my understanding of nearly all of my classes, where professors would reference cultures, languages, geography, and literature from around the globe that I did not even have a reference for, but also caused a level of humiliation in the face of my peers. Living in an international dorm my first year, I was surrounded by students who have traveled the world, know several languages, and understand not only their own culture and history but also that of the United States and many other parts of the world. I discovered that I knew practically nothing about the world after 12 years. I had been exposed throughout most of my growing up to American news, as the large majority of us are limited to in the states, learning about the history of the United States or its role in other nations during international events, and learning absolutely nothing about culture.
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Throughout my four years at the University of South Carolina, the large majority of my close friends have been international students from all over the world, encompassing different cultures, continents, and languages. Despite these large differences, I hear the same stories about their interactions with other American students: "they had never heard of my country", "they did not know what language I speak", "they thought my country was on the other side of the world from where it is", and the list goes on... The saddest of them all being one of two impressions I hear all too often coming from two very distinct parts of the world.
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Firstly, the majority of students coming from nations in Europe, South America, and Oceania to the University of South Carolina state sometime during their experience here that they felt like zoo animals. These students have said that the Americans they met at UofSC are incredibly friendly, ask them almost instantaneously where they are from, want to hear all about their home country and most importantly, check if their country lives up to the stereotypes that we have all heard about it in the US at one time or another. Although this interaction may sound like a lovely thing for these students, with Americans sounding so interested in them, it has been said to quickly become exhausting to deal with for an entire semester. After all, these students typically want to blend into the university and experience the “American dream”. The international students in this category have expressed that they meet Americans who appear to be so interested in their lives, going so far to exchange numbers with them yet ultimately never receive a response. In most public education programs in United States, we are shown photos of France most likely displaying a person with a beret on in front of the Eiffel tower eating a macaroon and other photos of Australia in the Outback with kangaroos all around. Therefore, it makes complete sense that Americans would only know to expect these characteristics from someone from one of these countries and not their culture, history, or language.
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Secondly and far more disheartening, students coming from nations in Asia, the Middle East, and parts of Africa to UofSC state that most of the American students they encountered gave them the impression of being aliens. These students all expressed to me a deep desire to make many American friends and to live the American life, both of which they had difficulty with. Most of the nations in the parts of the world listed above are either ones that we do not speak about in our American school system or nations that we are taught to fear from an early age. All throughout my schooling before university, I heard only negative aspects of so many nations, each mention mainly dealing with their stance against the United States in war or other conflicts. I do not recollect hearing one positive aspect of Russia, China, or the Middle East during my education before university or a teaching that personifies each nation and the people in them. The American youth’s lack and inaccuracy of knowledge of these large and notable parts of the world has created the anti-Eastern sentiment that exists today and consequently, an incredibly ignorant population. This population affects the future of America in the world and our current position as a global power. The effect of this lack of education places a strain on Americans' relationships with the citizens of these nations. Our perception of these citizens is restricted by the American opinion on their country’s stance during past and current conflicts, explaining the difficulty that these international students face during their search for American friends and desire to live out the “American Dream”.
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After hearing the same things in conversation with international students over my first two years at the University of South Carolina, I decided to take initiative in a space that I felt safe to express these criticisms of the American education system and its effect on the people of America in: my philosophy class. Our grade for this course was made up of three speeches given by each student on a topic that they feel strongly about and could be controversial, each with increasing detail of our stance on the issue chosen. For my in-class artifact, I have included my third speech from the philosophy class PHIL213: Communicating Moral Issues on the lack of cultural education in the United States. To my dismay, all three of my speeches were received with backlash from both my professor and fellow classmates as well as grades that did not reflect the time, effort, or serious thought that went into creating my argument, defenses for it, and the speeches themselves. Despite the difficulties of the experience, the response to my argument further displayed the great need that we have to increase our cultural education here in the United States. Not only is it evident through interactions with internationals and through my own story but the majority of Americans in university today are unaware of what they do not know, including myself.
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I attended a cultural education course during my training to become a buddy for the program “Buddies Beyond Borders”, where a UofSC student is paired with an international student as a means of showing them around Columbia, making them comfortable and introducing them to American culture. I looked forward to this course due in part to it being the only culture-based course that I am aware of at UofSC, which is an important topic and one that I am incredibly interested in. I was highly surprised to be the only person attending this course, one that I expected the entire student body to want to learn about seeing as we do not gain this exposure throughout our lower education. With our world becoming increasingly globalized each day, it is essential that each student, no matter their area of study or future career, understand how to communicate and work across cultures. Therefore, there has been presented a need in our schooling before university, for cultural education and yet, university and the students in these universities are lacking to fill that need to this day, whether through these types of courses being non-mandatory and not widely promoted or students having little interest in them. How will the United States combat this growing and ever-present need?
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One of the most influential courses during my four years in university was a course named Intercultural Communication and Management which I took during my time studying at the Copenhagen Business School. The course discussed the importance of being able to communicate within cultures and what that communication entails such as eye movements, physical space between people when conversing, and time perceptions. The course has had an incredible effect on how I communicate with different cultures, perceive peoples’ actions in relation to their culture, and how I think about Danish and American culture specifically. Not only would this sort of cultural education be a massive success if translated to the United States in regard to Americans understanding other cultures but also to allow us to understand that of our own and the limitations that exist within one’s culture. As an American, we are taught to perceive the United States as the best: the loveliest place to live, the most important language, the biggest world power, and the list goes on. Imagine the US’ power in the world if the children of the United States understood both the strengths and the limitations of our nation and culture as well as what we can learn from that of others.
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It is incredible the profound effect that this type of education has had on the people of Denmark, how open minded, culturally knowledgeable, multilingual, and constantly searching to learn more about the world everyone that I met during my time in Copenhagen is. My kitchen in Denmark, made up of twelve Danish students and I, had many film nights where we would often watch documentaries about different parts of the world or sectors of work that we were not previously knowledgeable about to help each of us understand others better. Given that Denmark is in the multi-cultural continent of Europe and is far smaller than the United States, I still left the country in awe of their cultural understanding and their constant yearning to learn more about the world. Additionally, the people of Denmark that I met were very open to hearing about my experience with the American culture, made relatively few assumptions about my life in South Carolina, and wanted to broaden their horizons on what they observed about the US through travels and media, all of which I think us at the University of South Carolina can learn something from.
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Upon my return to Columbia, South Carolina, I signed up to be an Education Abroad Ambassador. The main duty of this position is to give a presentation on your time studying abroad to classes of first year students to encourage them to go abroad during their time in university. Three of the main reasons that I typically provide for the reason students should go abroad is to broaden one’s perception of the world, to understand what is beyond our very limited worldview, and to use this to understand those around us better. For my beyond-the-classroom artifact, I have attached the U101 Presentation used for the presentations that I gave to students.
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All of the above experiences and more have led me to my passion and urgency for improving cultural education around the world and specifically, in the United States. This need has been presented in a great deal of literature such as The Culture Map by Erin Meyer as well as articles such as Americans Need to Learn More about the World Outside America and heavily effects international perceptions of the United States. America, lets learn more about the world… it is approaching us closer each day.