International student as an outsider - Essay Example

International student as an outsider In most cases, when the people hear of an international student, they envision a person who from outside the United States, and even though defining some outsiders using words may be difficult, majority of the people conjure the same images. They picture people who come from different nations or whose cultures totally differ to the cultures to which they are associated (Montgomery, 2010). If this definition is used, the Aidah will not be considered as an international student as he was born in the US even though his parents were born and grew up in Pakistan. His passport shows that he is a citizen of the US and he lives like any other person who can be considered an American citizen. Throughout his life, he has studied in the US and has not once gone to any foreign institution of learning apart from the public schools and a unity within the country. Nonetheless, when the definition of an outsider is a person who does not fully fit in or is new, Aidah sometimes feels as though he is an outsider, in the nation of his birth, and has resided in for his entire life. I am a woman who follows the Islamic faith, I have brown skill and makes people fail to look at me as a typical American. Undeniably, the US is a nation that is full of immigrants and I hold it very dearly, however, this does not remove the fact that the US, together with all other nations in the globe have a hegemonic system inherent in the social structures and citizens’’ perception of the society. Therefore, numerous US citizens like me Aidah feel out of place in situations where the phrase “typical American” is employed in reference to the citizens who are Christian and white, among others. It is extremely easy to feel out of place especially when one does not appear or have the feeling of the “typical” American. Aidah always feels like she is an international student in regards to being associated to two settings that are completely different, in that she is a citizen of the US and on the other hand, her ethnicity, language, family and customs are associated with an impoverished nation that is a long distance from the US. More often than note, the international students are forced to contend with dealing with two very dissimilar cultures and this has its advantages and disadvantages. Similar to most of the immigrants or the first generation Americans, they have to begin experiencing and living more than one identity and culture. Even though it is pleasing to be able to experience more than one culture, living the cultures on a daily basis in some cases may make a person such as Aidah to prefer to belong fully to one culture and forfeit the other one. This would get rid of the confusion as well as the apprehension in Aidah’s mind as sometimes she finds herself feeling too American to consider herself as completely Pakistani, but having too many Pakistani characteristics to be a typical American. In her case, she often wonders of how pleasant it is to be somewhere and have the feeling of total belonging. A sense of belonging as well as a wholesome feeling is in most cases a big intricacy that develops for immigrants, or their children, along with the international students. The intricacies entail living in a state of confusion since the international students are not aware of the actions to take or their identities. This is worsened when the international find that their proficiency in the English language is better compared to their mother tongues. Aidah is aware of how it feels to seek to honor and respect customs and traditions, while to the same time being considered and branded westernized by the family. Human beings, as you would expect, seek to achieve wholeness and this is extremely challenging when an individual is identified with two cultures that are completely different. Aidah is forced to balance and straddle her being part of more than one culture, and she empathizes with other international students around her how are in the country on foreign visas as the attempt to fit in and succeed in the learning institutions. In some way, international student visas, demonstrate to the local students, particularly the ones who have to balance between different cultures the same way Aidah does, ways of navigating and succeeding as an outsider, while at the same time being divided. In Aidah’s case, the positives of her double identity are a progressive aspect as she is able to communicate in her native language as well as English fluently. Aidah is able to dress in both the western attire and the traditional dressing worn by her community with ease and comfort and this is the reason, regardless of the confusion created by sharing cultures, she had remained appreciative of having two cultures that have provided her with numerous advantages. In the situations where Aidah is confused, she has the liberty to take aspects from the two cultures and blend them into one; this implies that the children of parents were immigrants have developed their own hybrid cultures and through the dissimilarities, they learn more and adapt in a more efficient manner. This is likely to provide them with a wider and more open perception of the world. If international students could learn to stop considering themselves as outsiders and start looking at themselves as individuals who have varied experience and knowledge, they would have more pride in themselves. Being self-confident is imperative for any person who wishes to become successful, particularly the people who are not entirely accepted as a consequence of one challenge or the other. For instance, Aidah as an international student did not always have an awareness of the dissimilarities that she currently experiences on a daily basis, however, she started realizing these differences more profoundly after the 9/11 occurrence that changed the world completely. The day this terrorist event took place was the first day of school for Aidah after summer and she had been reluctant to get out of bed in the morning since it signified the end of the long holiday. She was oblivious of what the events of that day would result in and the terrible aftermath that followed the occurrence. As she sat in class, and the announcement of the attacks came through, she did not comprehend the news, as for her, the Twin Towers had been two tall building that she had the opportunity to visit when she was a smaller. Nonetheless, when her parents came to pick her from school, and went home to find images of the collapse of the building being recurred on the television, she started dreading that things were likely to get worse. At the time, she was too young to have any comprehension of the amount of terror that this would cause on people as well as the repercussions that would affect the Muslims who resided in the US and the rest of the globe. Being a Muslim from Pakistan is not a random aspect about Aidah since this is her identity and id what she is and who she is. She became aware of this identity, she has been protective of it; the need to become protective emanated from the fact that since the events of 9/11, she has always been filling that she has something to prove to the people who are considered typical Americans. It creates the pressure to prove that not all the Muslims are bad, that they are not all associated with attack that occurred in 9/11, and the Al Qaeda terrorist group does not reflect the views of all the People of the Muslim faith in the entire globe. Aidah constants finds herself in a situation where she feels that she should defend her religion and there have been occurrences where her classmates have made jokes about explosions to her, and even though her response to this was giggles or a grin, she has cursed them on the inside for doing this. All this aspects have made her consider her religion from a deeper perspective so that she can be able to show that she belongs to a reputable religion, and the need to be defensive of her religion and fellow Muslims inspired an interest in her to learn and acquire more knowledge. All these aspects have assisted Aidah in her academic endeavors since it conjured her interest in various aspects that led to a significant interest in her own religion. She has researched various aspects of her religion and read the Islamic holy book with an aim of learning as much as she can, this does not imply that she has gained sufficient awareness as she considers learning to be a never-ending process. All the events that occurred inspired her interest in becoming a better Muslim, and a role model for other human beings. She has also become aware that the current world is yet to unshackle itself from the chains of racism and that the numerous massacres take place all over the world under the guise of revenge, religion and war. She is appreciative of the fact that she has been able to attain a good education and the fact that she has had the opportunity to conduct further research in aspects that she was interested in based in her passion for politics as well as religion. On numerous occasions, she has sat in a classroom and developed the feeling of not belonging there, but she has harnessed this to become her inspiration to learn more. Therefore, when she studies and interacts with other international students from all over the globe in the university, she is able to relate to the misunderstandings and experiences of being outsiders felt by these students. At the same time, is able to relate to their capacity and will to learn and embrace intricacies concerning their experiences, awareness and identity in the world in which they live. Reference Montgomery, C. (2010). Understanding the international student experience. Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan. Read More