 |
Visit Fulbrightonline.org |
 |
Fulbright Foreign Student
|
Fulbrighters in the Classroom
|
Submitting Photos to the Fulbright Student Photo GalleryWe are now collecting photos from the entire current cohort of Foreign, FLTA and U.S. Fulbright student grantees.
-- Please indicate your grant year and the country in which you are engaged in your Fulbright program. Photos from non-U.S. Fulbrighters are organized by home country; photos from U.S. Fulbrighters are organized by the country in which they are conducting grant activities. When in doubt, please send us an email with your questions. --
With all submitted photos, you
must include a caption that clearly indicates
your name, country and a brief
description (i.e., the title of the event
attended, location where the photo was
taken, etc.) of the content of the photo.
-- Click on the link below to enter photo gallery's home page: http://photos.fulbrightonline.org Enjoy using the Fulbright Student Photo Gallery! |
My Experience at the University of Oregonby Nguyet Nguyen, 2007-2008, VietnamI am studying Journalism at the University of Oregon in Eugene, Oregon. The city is very green, safe and the people are friendly and very sensitive about environmental problems. I love the idea of recycling, organic food and preserving natural resources. Almost everywhere, I see signs that remind people about environmental preservation. Students are encouraged to reuse paper. Secondhand shops, goodwill stores and official bike routes are everywhere. I wish many of the cities in Vietnam could be as green and safe as Eugene.
The University of Oregon has a special program which I am participating in; the International Cultural Service Program (ICSP), which promotes cultural exchange between international students and local communities. Students are equipped with presentation skills by attending a 2-credit class taught by the program director. After this class, students are then sent to schools or community centers to give presentations about their home countries as frequently as once a week. This program is contributing a great deal to the mutual understanding between Eugenians and foreign students who are equally representatives of their nations and of U. of Oregon's international students. The students are excited about meeting people and talking about their countries. Local residents are eager to learn about a new cultures. This is a fantastic program as there can be a lot of stereotyping and misunderstanding among Americans about different cultures and vice versa. Not to mention the fact that there are innumerable invisible cultural differences among peoples and nations. I remember having my first very embarrassing experience in a restaurant where my host family took me to in Port Townsend. They tried to call the waitress several times but she didn’t seem to take any notice because she was busy checking a bill. I thought they were too quiet and I wanted to help them by calling her. They suddenly shook and looked embarrassed, “Nguyet, we don’t do like that. We don’t shout." But for me, it’s not shouting. In my language and culture, shouting is completely normal. The Vietnamese are known to be noisy because we love making noise. But here in the U.S., I must be careful not to be so “Vietnamese." I was also told several times by my mentor that my speaking is choppy and not smooth because of the influence of my Vietnamese accent, thus making me sound aggressive although I do not mean to. There are always various interpretations of one phenomenon, action or object due to our own personalities, cultural background, local and subjective international experiences. Learning and sharing by being open-hearted is therefore always essential in order for humans to live in sustainable harmony.
|
||||
A Call for Articles |