MSU journalism students have created a book to help answer some of the questions international students have once they arrive on the banks of the Red Cedar River.
For the past semester, MSU journalism students in JRN 492, Seminar in Journalism, have been working to help generate conversations among the growing crowd of international students. Their book, called ‘100 Questions and Answers about Americans,’ is available online for purchase.
Journalism professor Joe Grimm started the course last spring and said the course was designed with the goal of generating conversation between different cultures. He said students sometimes have questions about different cultures, but often, they are too embarrassed to ask.
Every semester, the topic of the guide changes — this semester, the focus was to help international students learn more about Americans, covering topics of race, religion, social behavior, slang, idioms and language.
“It’s not easy to go to college in a different country, and wouldn’t it be nice to understand how things get done?” Grimm said.
According to the 2013 Open Doors report from the Office for International Students and Scholars, there are roughly 7,000 international students who attend MSU, and the numbers are increasing every year.
To find out which questions and answers to publish, students in Grimm’s class asked international students what they wanted to know about the U.S.
The questions were asked from about 50 students who came to MSU from countries as varied as China, South Korea, Japan, Estonia, Ghana and Nigeria.
Journalism junior Aaron Jordan returned to take the course for a second time after helping publish the guide about Indian Americans.
He said he had a really interesting experience.
“Last year, it was interesting learning about (Indian-American) culture because you had to do a lot of research,” Jordan said. “This year, it made me stop and think about our culture in a way we haven’t done before.”
The guide is meant as an eye-opener for international students to see that MSU’s domestic students are not as scary or intimated as often portrayed, said journalism junior Marlee Delaney, who served as one of the editors in the class.
The guide took 70 days to complete and was officially put up for sale a few weeks ago on Amazon, Grimm said. The guide costs $9.95.
To thank the international students who helped, there will be a launch party Friday in the lower level of McDonel Hall during the weekly coffee hour put on by the Office for International Students and Scholars.
“All we’re trying to do is get people to start conversations with people,” Grimm said. “It’s not like you read the guide and you’ll have all the answers or anything, it’s just a start.”
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