Not Going Native
With a new school year almost upon us, some college students will be preparing to spend portions of it in a foreign land.
There was a time (during my youth to be precise and predictable) when students who spent a semester abroad did so in a country in which they had a passing interest if not fluency in the language and culture. No more. Today, students select destinations for their sojourns having nothing at all to do with their majors, minors or anything in between including family history.
It is difficult to know, for instance, what factors are at work when English-speaking students elect to spend a semester abroad in Australia unless, of course, they like to swim, hike, shear sheep or just be as far away from home as possible. Nor does the attitude at the home universities and colleges of these students offer any insight into this trend. These institutions are often equally complicit in this ironically insular approach to study abroad by demanding little if anything in the way of language skills outbound and no demonstrations of proficiency inbound.
Most student travelers invariably spend their time exclusively in the company of fellow countrymen, living as far apart from the natives as possible. The idea of living with a local family seems so repugnant to them one would think that such circumstances might obligate them to wash the dishes or clean up their rooms. Given they don’t do that at home, one could hardly expect such behavior abroad. Nevertheless, living alone or in an apartment with three or four fellow Americans is the default arrangement.
Contact with the domestic population normally consists of ordering meals or bartering with shop keepers. The students feel no compulsion to learn the names of political leaders and even less to know which party currently controls the government. Friendships with their foreign counterparts is eschewed in all but rare cases. Classes are usually taken separately and, when taught by native instructors, are more often than not conducted in English.
This nearly absolute disconnect does not extend to keeping in touch with friends and family on the home front, however. Many students insist on renting cell phones for the entire semester and using them far more liberally than they do at home. In this regard they definitely go native as cell phone usage in, say, Italy or Spain is far more widespread and intrusive than in the United States.
In the end, many American students return to their native shores far less newly-minted members of the global village than earlier generations. They, and we, are poorer for it.
There was a time (during my youth to be precise and predictable) when students who spent a semester abroad did so in a country in which they had a passing interest if not fluency in the language and culture. No more. Today, students select destinations for their sojourns having nothing at all to do with their majors, minors or anything in between including family history.
It is difficult to know, for instance, what factors are at work when English-speaking students elect to spend a semester abroad in Australia unless, of course, they like to swim, hike, shear sheep or just be as far away from home as possible. Nor does the attitude at the home universities and colleges of these students offer any insight into this trend. These institutions are often equally complicit in this ironically insular approach to study abroad by demanding little if anything in the way of language skills outbound and no demonstrations of proficiency inbound.
Most student travelers invariably spend their time exclusively in the company of fellow countrymen, living as far apart from the natives as possible. The idea of living with a local family seems so repugnant to them one would think that such circumstances might obligate them to wash the dishes or clean up their rooms. Given they don’t do that at home, one could hardly expect such behavior abroad. Nevertheless, living alone or in an apartment with three or four fellow Americans is the default arrangement.
Contact with the domestic population normally consists of ordering meals or bartering with shop keepers. The students feel no compulsion to learn the names of political leaders and even less to know which party currently controls the government. Friendships with their foreign counterparts is eschewed in all but rare cases. Classes are usually taken separately and, when taught by native instructors, are more often than not conducted in English.
This nearly absolute disconnect does not extend to keeping in touch with friends and family on the home front, however. Many students insist on renting cell phones for the entire semester and using them far more liberally than they do at home. In this regard they definitely go native as cell phone usage in, say, Italy or Spain is far more widespread and intrusive than in the United States.
In the end, many American students return to their native shores far less newly-minted members of the global village than earlier generations. They, and we, are poorer for it.
posted by Tom Goodman at 2:37 PM
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