When computer science sophomore Okechukwu Okoro lived in Africa, he thought living in America would be like living on easy street.
"The television gives a view that life is so easy and flowery but it's not," he said. "Students here work for their tuition to pay for school by themselves, while at home students either work full time, or have parents pay for school."
Music videos and movies conveyed a false sense of American reality, Okoro said.
"Watching music videos gives the idea of promiscuity," he said. "When you get here, life is nothing like that at all."
In an effort to educate the MSU community on the transition of African students from their countries of origin to the United States, a group of panelists from the MSU African Students Union held a forum in Wells Hall on Wednesday night.
The forum, titled "Know Africa," captured the feelings and experiences of assimilation experiences of some African students at MSU.
"For me, one big difference in college is the way of teaching is more relaxed and personalized here," said Okoro, who moderated the panel. "At home, it's a standard that you must follow in schools, and you must pick up at your own pace.
"Here there is more freedom of speech, and you can say what you want."
Learning the English language was no feat for Okoro, who said it is essential to learn in order to attend universities in his native Nigeria.
"We were a colony of Great Britain, so the colonization forced many people to learn English," he said. "When British people came we picked it up, so I didn't have to learn it before coming here."
Defining American culture is complex because the country is made up of a multitude of ethnicities, according to African Students Union president Emeka Okoro.
"American culture is pretty broad," the electrical engineering junior said. "People are made up of many different things."
In his native Mali, food industry management junior Alassane Beye said there is an emphasis on respect for elders, which isn't as prevalent in America.
"I was surprised at the way people here treat their elders," he said. "Treatment of elders has a shadow of respect from the way you talk to people, to older professors."
In addition to the opportunity to work for their education, Beye said students in America have vast pre-professional opportunities.
"In a regular African university, maybe one or two people would be able to get an internship," he said. "It would be very hard to get an internship, that's why I'm grateful to be here."
