Service-learning and English Language Orientation Program students feasted on international foods and shared their cultures with others Wednesday night at the University’s International Cultural Center.
Students shared the native foods of more than a dozen countries. Representing the United States, students from English instructor Denise Jacobs’ English 2002 service-learning class brought gumbo and boiled crawfish.
Adrie Gist, a dental hygiene sophomore and native of South Africa, said the cross-cultural experience is important to students.
“I wish I had it,” Gist said referring to the opportunity to study American culture with American students. “It would have made it easier to feel comfortable in a different country.”
Gist said when she moved to Texas from South Africa, she had trouble making friends. She said it would not have been a problem if she had opportunities like the one at the ICC.
“It gives the international students an opportunity to converse and interact with Americans,” Jacobs said.
ELOP conversation leader Chaney Ferguson, a general studies junior, said international students often have a hard time making friends in America because of language and culture barriers.
She and fellow conversation leader Michael Mayes, an international studies senior, meet with their individual groups of four ELOP students three to five times a week, conversing with them and teaching them about American culture. Chaney said she learns from the ELOP students just as much as they learn from her.
“I didn’t grow up [exposed to] a lot of culture, so they can teach me something,” Chaney said. “They take nothing for granted.”
Margaret Jo Borland, coordinator of the ELOP conversation programs, said the ELOP program, a division of the linguistics department in the College of Arts and Sciences, not only teaches international students the English language, but also American culture.
“The program provides an opportunity for wonderful cultural expansion,” Borland said. “People need to be aware of all of the different cultures in our midst here at LSU.”
The ELOP dinner was not the first cross-cultural exchange Jacobs’ class. In a recent assignment, her students wrote a business memo telling their bosses about international culture. For the project, they had to interview ELOP students to learn about the etiquette of their cultures.
“It’s a global marketplace, and they’ll often have to interact with people from other countries,” Jacobs said.