Old World Views of The New

August 19, 1999

SEARCH THE GAZETTE

HARVARD GAZETTE ARCHIVES

By Ana Znidar
Special to the Gazette

Ana Znidar of Slovenia writes about her experiences as well as those of other international students at Harvard this summer.

If you’ve ever been in a situation where you cannot figure out how to operate the faucet in the shower or need help opening a door because you are not used to the handles, then you know a little bit about what the first days of the summer were like for international students.

Along with nearly 2,000 other international students – almost half of the students in the Summer School – I found myself experiencing this summer at Harvard, the name of which makes people raise their eyebrows respectfully, even back in Europe.

On my plane trip from Vienna, through Brussels and to Boston, I wondered what my first impressions would be of the country of freedom and unlimited possibilities, and whether other foreign students would feel the same.

Early on, the amazing friendliness of people impressed me. Of course, one can argue that people at the airport, in the hotel, and at the university are paid to be friendly, but so are people in Europe, who still have a long way to go in the direction of smiling.

Though Harvard Summer School students from Europe seem to share many similarities, they don’t all agree about American culture.

"The all-day-long smile is artificial," said Denys Kytsenko, 20, a student of law from Ukraine, of his impression of the typical American. "They put it on in the morning as they put on their T-shirts."

Gum in the Library, But Perfect Organization
A common observation by Europeans is that Americans are more relaxed – even chewing gum in the library. "In libraries in Germany you won’t find people with their legs on tables, and in general, you won’t see so many people wearing casual clothes, like jeans and T-shirts," said Silke Schmidt-Akrens, 21, a law student from Germany who is taking classes at the Institute for English Language Programs.

But she said that Americans are also more outgoing. "Here it is easier to begin talking with strangers," Schmidt-Akrens said. "If you come alone to a public place here, you will end up meeting new people, which is interesting and fascinating, while you will probably stay alone in Europe."

About the university system itself, Europeans are especially impressed by the perfect organization of such huge institutions. Students are provided with tons of informational material even before coming to the United States. Once they are here, they are optimally prepared, and still there are people to help them.

In my own case, I never imagined being welcomed so warmly and treated as an individual by an institution with as many people as the whole community of Vienna, Austria.

Small class sizes, famous lecturers, and the respectful treatment of students have impressed most students. Many European students are used to receiving their homework back all red and crossed out, without explanation, while many professors at Harvard prefer to praise the work of students and suggest improvements only.

International Understanding?
While European students obviously enjoy their classes and studying at Harvard, they are at the same time distressed by the lack of understanding of international economic or political issues among young Americans. Thomas Kremar, 23, a sophomore at the United Business Institutes in Brussels, Belgium, says that Europeans are used to thinking internationally. "Here, they think they are the center of the world" is his reaction to American students’ ignorance of his country and the fact that Brussels is the center of the European Union. "It is true that the university system in the U.S. is much better than ours, since the competition here forces the universities to be attractive," he said, but wondered, "why do students have so little general knowledge?" It was a question many other Europeans were asking, too.

Kytsenko, who took the courses War Crimes and Ukrainian Politics at the Summer School, said, "I say I am from the Soviet Union because people don’t know where Ukraine is. They keep saying to me that I am from Siberia. Frankly, I don’t want to know what Americans think of Ukrainian people, since some people here really believe the French do not use toilet paper." He said he found it hard to discuss topics like the former Yugoslavia or the economic crisis in Asia with Americans because of their lack of interest in events beyond U.S. borders.

An American Summer School student, Carrie Chang, 29, who graduated in journalism from the University of California at Berkeley last year, can confirms Kytsenko’s criticism: "It’s true that the least popular section in U.S. newspapers is the international section." She thinks it is sad that Americans find international topics boring, and said that Americans are isolated.

Chang thinks Americans have a general feeling of self-sufficiency and of superiority over the rest of the world. "Many Americans look down on other countries, but it is amazing how little they know about them," Chang said. "When they travel abroad, they just see that the people there are watching American movies, drinking Coke, etc., but these are not real reasons" for assuming cultural superiority.

A student of psychology, Jesse Wilson, 19, from California, said that Americans take most pride in their Constitution and in the American economy. "It is true that we don’t consider international affairs important enough, but that is because so much is going on here," said Wilson, who took Introduction to American Government this summer. "If Americans do not think internationally, if they do not speak other languages, it is because they feel they do not need to. We may have narrowed horizons because of that, but you have to consider that with the U.S. being such a huge territory and America being the first superpower in the world, Americans are in a different situation than Europeans."

Taking the size of the country into consideration, Stephanie Liner, 21, from North Carolina, and Thomas Kremar from Belgium agreed that while Americans know little about individual countries in Europe, European students know little about individual U.S. states. "There is a balance," Liner said.

Dodge Fernald, a senior lecturer of psychology, said that the difference in attitudes between Europeans and Americans reflects the size of the United States. "The phenomenon we are talking about is an odd provincialism. But again, the country is too big to be called a province."