A dozen students from various countries attended the I am scared to talk to him/her: Authority Across Cultures Oct. 5 workshop, and each was eager to participate in activities and discussion.

“It’s so easy when people come to these kinds of things to feel like you should just talk,” Lee said. “But what I try to do is engage people — try to create situations where people are sharing their experience and interacting with one another.”

Although psychology sophomore Xinyi Dai said she attended the first workshop for extra credit for a class, upon leaving, she said she will attend this Friday’s discussion because the topics are relevant to a paper she’s writing.

“This is a great event, and I’ll keep going,” Dai said. “I’m very interested in any cultural or any psychology issues.”

Students seemed gained information from one another, and listened to Lee’s teachings aimed to help bridge cultural gaps.

Graduate student Zhiyu Qua, an international student from Bejing, said he attends the workshops just to learn from Lee’s style of speaking.

“I first met him at the (Office for International Students and Scholars) resource fair,” Qua said. “I found that he was a really outstanding guy.”

Qua said from his experiences, some Chinese students felt asking course instructors for assistance was “showing weakness,” but from American concepts addressed in the workshops, he now feels comfortable approaching his professors.

Lee said his goal for the workshops is to have students gain an appreciation for other students and their cultures.

The next two workshops are titled, It is difficult to make new friends: Friendship Across Cultures, and Something is lost in translation: Intercultural Communication.