World's Clashing

Saturday, October 13th, 2007



I’ve noticed it before but never really wrote about it…at least I don’t think I have yet. Sitting in class today I realized how diverse our class was; Americans, Chinese, Mexican, and Swedish. Since we all grew up in different area’s, of course we’re not all the same. I’m not pointing anyone out in particular, but as a group. So today in International Political Economy, our Mexican professor decided to change his syllabus, yet again. It’s been more than a month into the semester and we still seem not to be doing much. He doesn’t seem to have control of his class, or it’s just not well organized. It just doesn’t seem as structured as I am use to back in the states. And I also noticed that the Mexicans are what I consider rude. Not all, but some. A lot of them would be holding their own conversations and not paying attention to the point where it was hard to hear the professor because conversations overrode his voice. They don’t seem to pay attention, it’s more of a social event. In that kind of atmosphere it’s hard to pay attention and be concentrated. The Chinese students are rather quiet, some falling asleep. They don’t seem worried about the class at all. I on the other hand, I’m trying to listen to what he has to say…but at times I can’t make sense of it. Overall, there doesn’t seem to be much structure in the day to day classroom.

I also have a lot of respect for all students except for the Americans. It seems like all the other students are at least bilingual, not perfect, but proficient enough. If I was in…say France and I had a choice of taking a class that was taught in French or English, I would definitely take the one in English. Here, the Chinese students take the English classes to improve their understanding. I’m very impressed with the vocabulary that they know of in the English language. I took French for 6 years and there’s no way that I could sit in an economics class in France and understand what was going on. Not only the Chinese, but the Mexicans and Swedish as well. They know their own languages very well and they know English. Some struggle but overall, everything is understandable. To fully know and understand multiple languages is quite impressive. Yea I can understand Chinese pretty well I think, but my reading and writing doesn’t nearly compare. I wish I realized at a younger age how much learning would benefit me now. So for all you youngsters out there, if any are reading, my advice is to soak up as much as possible!