The experience in St. Johns is the first one I have had in which I have been in touch with people coming from as many countries and cultures. Job has demanded me to travel and work in several countries, mostly in Latin America, but always playing the role of "the stranger", the only one.
We are tourists in New York, but not just a few of us, everyone. The situation encourages to act as a group, take decisions together, work together... have fun together. Even when the decisions can be irrelevant, we are able to reach agreements and understand each other.
Maybe it is natural to be opened and interested on learning a work of knowledge, not from the teachers, but from the students around us; given that we are here because we decided so. But thinking about it just leads me to infer that people expectations are quite similar everywhere.
Yes, it must be fun to learn about each other's differences but see how similar all of you are in many ways. I'm impressed how quickly you all seem to have become a unified group. When you leave, you'll have friends all over the U.S.
ReplyDeleteI have had a similar experience but I truly believe that each time is considered unique. It's amazing that we all speak more than one language, we came from all over the world and we are spreading all over the U.S.
ReplyDeleteLike Mrs. Soffer says "we'll have friends all over the U.S." but in about two years or so it will be all over the world.
It's quite interesting to learn that the simple things about our country could be so diverse in others. We are learning to be tolerant with each other and that's the quality that is most important.
I feel like the objective of this program was not well defined. It started as being just a pre-academic English refinement program but I am seeing it way bigger than this. It's not only an orientation or introducing us to the United States; it's about introducing us to many cultures and different people with different backgrounds and ideals.
We are learning way beyond the classrooms walls. Just sitting with on of you is a learning and enriching process.