By Alice Lunakova, Columnist
My stay at Laurentian is rapidly coming to an end, and so it is time to look back and evaluate. Since September, I’ve shared with you my points of view on several experiences in Sudbury, which gave you insight into the life of an international student. I am taking this very last article as an opportunity to express my overall impressions of the exchange.
Spending two semesters abroad is generally considered very positive and advantageous: it’s understood to be all about meeting new people from all over the world, getting to know local culture, learning in a different language, discovering new places, and last but not least, broadening your horizons. But how does that all work in the reality?
During the past eight months I went through lots of ups and downs, which made me think about the whole sense of exchange programs. Since my program is teaching English and French, studying at a bilingual institution seemed to be a perfect experience for two main reasons: first, it was an opportunity to improve my language skills, and secondly, an opportunity to find out more about Canadian history, people, culture, as well as everyday norms and struggles.
The mission to improve my grasp on the languages was definitely a success. Whether you are making small talk in a lift or a with a bus driver, writing essays for your classes (or articles for Lambda!), reading menus in the cafeteria or calling customer service when your flight is cancelled, everything counts and leads to gradual enhancing your language level. Moreover, being in immediate contact with native speakers becomes like a living textbook of useful phrases and expressions.
In particular, the question, “What’s up?“ has stuck in my mind. Even today, I am not entirely certain what I am supposed to respond back, because I first thought that people only asked the question if there was a problem.
However, if you asked me what I learned about Canada and Canadians, I would have to hesitate a bit more. Don’t get me wrong, I did learn a lot. After all, living in another country for several months must leave you with some impressions. My point is, to what extent are my observations authentic?
The biggest difficulty of any exchange stay is that you live in a certain “bubble”, somewhere between your room, classes, cafeteria and library, so that you do not see much of the real world outside. Even if you go to visit Toronto or Montreal for a few days, you take pictures with the local attractions, but you do not learn much about the everyday life of locals.
What’s more, there is a very strong tendency to spend time with other exchange students, because you simply understand each other’s situations. It might be difficult to sometimes leave this circle of friends and try to integrate among the locals.
My integration among Canadians was not always easy. Many of them do not have much interest in paying attention to exchange students and helping them to get to know more about the country. They do not need to practice languages and they also seem to be less curious about learning of your homeland. Canadians are certainly very polite; but in most cases, I meet them once, they add me on Facebook, and unfortunately that is the end of the relationship. You can see them posting pictures from parties they had or road trips they made, and you ask yourself why they do not invite you to join. Even an invitation to a seemingly ordinary family lunch on Sunday could be a perfect way to discover more about customs of a Canadian family. It would be unfair to blame anyone, of course; Canadians simply need to understand what it is that exchange students are looking for.
All in all, I came up to an interesting conclusion. It was easier to integrate with the Francophones than the Anglophones. It might be thanks to the shared feeling of isolation that Franco-Ontarians, as a language minority, experience.
It is also pity that the presence of exchange students is not well known at the university. Even though several trips and events are organized by the international office, there are always only exchange students who participate, which brings us back to the root of the problem: being stuck within the same group of people. Therefore, better cooperation between the office and other student associations could create stronger links among the international and the local students.
The purpose of this article is certainly not to point fingers or to de-motivate those students who are thinking about going to study abroad. This experience is certainly an eye-opener, which will change your perception of the world. The purpose is rather to point out some of the struggles we international students feel, and at the same time, to open a discussion about possible changes that could be made for exchange students of the future.