Washington -- When educators from 37 countries
met in Washington December 15, they were eager to discuss
their experiences as teachers of their native languages
at colleges across the United States.
The teachers, all recent university graduates
themselves, were participants in the Fulbright Foreign
Language Teaching Assistants (FLTA) program, which allows
them to spend a year at a U.S. college or university helping
to teach 21 languages -- including Arabic, Persian, Chinese,
Korean, Bahasa Indonesia (a modified form of Malay), Russian,
German and Swahili -- to American students. They also
serve as cultural ambassadors to students and host communities.
Several teaching assistants said their
preconceptions about the United States were wildly inaccurate.
Roswitha Damian Gowela, a native of Tanzania who is teaching
Swahili at Marshall University in Huntington, West Virginia,
said she initially was afraid that Americans might be
unfriendly. But she discovered that Americans are receptive
to meeting people from different backgrounds, she said.
“I was homesick at first,”
she admitted, “but after two weeks, I met students
from Nigeria and Somalia, and we shared African dances
with American students who were enthusiastic” about
learning African customs.
Gowela’s students have made steady
progress under a method that minimizes the use of English.
“After three months [of instruction], my students
can now write essays in Swahili,” she said.
Milood S. Al-Omrani, a Libyan native who
teaches Arabic at Hawaii Pacific University in Honolulu,
said the U.S. educational system offers flexibility that
surprises newcomers. In U.S. universities, “you
can transfer [credits] and change majors; you can’t
do this in my country,” he said. However, undergraduate
education in Libya is free, and even graduate studies
“are not expensive,” compared to U.S. graduate
programs, he pointed out.
Al-Omrani made his first visit to the
United States under the auspices of the FLTA program,
but said he did not arrive with distorted ideas gleaned
from media images. “I don’t believe media
accounts,” he added. “If you want to understand
the United States, you have to see it in context.”
Americans are sometimes intrigued to learn
that he is from Libya, said Al-Omrani. “Once they
know you’re from the Middle East, they think you’re
an exotic creature,” he said, “but we have
a lot in common.”
Noor Astutiningtyas, a native of Indonesia
who assists an Indonesian professor at Johns Hopkins School
of Advanced International Studies in Washington, agreed
with Al-Omrani that the flexibility of the U.S. educational
system is attractive. “In Indonesia, you have to
choose your area of study very early,” she said.
Astutiningtyas indicated that she enjoys
lively exchanges with students at Johns Hopkins. “My
students are definitely interested in learning about Indonesia’s
language and culture,” she said, “and we also
have good discussions about American culture.”
Other FLTA program participants said interaction
with U.S. students has helped to dispel stereotypes on
all sides. Zahida Sharmin, of Bangladesh, who teaches
Bengali at the University of Texas in Austin, said she
has been surprised by Americans’ misconceptions
about Bangladesh. “They think Bangladesh is very
backward and conservative and that women can’t go
out,” she said. “So my very presence [in the
United States] gives people a truer idea of Bangladesh.”
“It’s very multicultural in
Texas,” she said, “with many Mexican immigrants,
African Americans, whites, Asians from India, Pakistan
and Bangladesh, and everybody appears to be friendly toward
each other.”
Russia’s Boris Penkov, currently
teaching Russian at DePauw University in Greencastle,
Indiana, said he is impressed by students’ drive
and self-discipline. “American students work really
hard, willing to memorize 500 vocabulary words a week,”
he said.
Penkov expressed gratitude for the kindness
of his U.S. hosts. “The university and local community
have been so warm and supportive in helping me adapt to
the American way of life,” he said. He hopes to
pass it on “by helping Fulbrighters who are coming
to Russia, or by sharing this warmth with my students
[in Russia] and giving them a better understanding of
American culture.”
Payenda Seddiqi, an Afghan native teaching
Dari/Pashto at Fayetteville State University in Fayetteville
, North Carolina, said many Afghans “think Americans
don’t like Afghans or Muslims. But anyone can be
anything they want here.” He explained that he arrived
in North Carolina at the beginning of the Muslim holy
month Ramadan and initially was worried about how he would
be able to meet his religious obligations but discovered
there was a mosque near the university.
“I came here to learn things I can
implement back home, such as [developing] the close relationship
between students and teachers” commonly found in
U.S. universities, said Seddiqi. He also hopes to establish
a Web site for his school in Afghanistan similar to those
of many U.S. schools.
The FLTA participants said they expect
to continue teaching when they return to their countries,
armed with new skills, greater confidence and an enhanced
appreciation for cross-cultural outreach.
For more
information about the FLTA program, including eligibility
requirements for applicants, see the U.S. State Department
Web site.
For more information about U.S. society,
see Education
and Population
and Diversity.
Lauren Monsen
USINFO Staff Writer
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