International Education Week is a time when students can explore other cultures by tasting, saying or seeing things they've never tried before.
During its fifth annual celebration, this year's International Education Week is complete with dancing, music, language classes, food, film, lectures and other educational activities.
Global Plate is a new addition to International Education Week, and students will be served Italian, Middle Eastern and Spanish cuisine for dinner in most of the residence halls.
A study abroad resource table also will be present to provide students with information about their international learning options.
Telecommunication, information studies and media and marketing senior Kevin Rowe was a peer adviser for the resource table in Phillips Hall during dinner on Tuesday.
Rowe said his Thailand study abroad experience was eye-opening.
"It's a 12-hour time difference - it's literally halfway around the world," he said. "I wasn't narrow-minded before, but it certainly broadened my horizons."
Jay Rodman, the special projects coordinator in International Studies and Programs, said it's important for students on the verge of becoming world citizens to have a global perspective as part of a solid education.
"It's important to know what's going on in the rest of the world and how it has an effect on our lives," he said. "Being a citizen in the most powerful country in the world, you have a responsibility to behave in a manner that is fair to the rest of the world."
The week kicked off with Language Briefs, a newly formed open house that showcased the basics of 14 different languages taught at MSU.
Hebrew, French, Ojibwe, Arabic, Swahili, Russian and Twi were some of the language options offered at the open house.
It's important to expose the students to their options at MSU because they might otherwise limit their studies to languages they took in high school, said Bethany Judge, the assistant to the dean of the College of Arts & Letters and a member of the Language Briefs organizing committee.
"A lot of students found out some languages they thought they would like to take, but were intimidated by," she said. "But they realized it's not so hard and there isn't a reason to be intimidated."
Judge said language education is a vital part of cultural education.
"There's much more to learning a language than just verbal communication," she said. "Part of learning a language is learning about the culture and history of other people."
Rowe said the experiential learning he acquired during study abroad taught him the importance of acquiring global knowledge.
"You can hear about things all you want, but until you actually see something, it's not going to have nearly the same impact," he said.
Rowe described visiting Cambodia while abroad, and said the way children were so happy with how little they had really taught him how lucky he is.
"Pencils to them are like gold, because it means they can go to school and they can write," he said.
"We're really spoiled here, we're all really fortunate, and I don't think we realize that."
