<p>Hi everyone, I'm new to this community...I have a little question to ask...</p>
<p>We foreign students are a minor in the university. It's easy to get along with people coming from the same origin, so we see people gathering in small groups based on country or culture. How can we break the bounds and get along with the local students?</p>
<p>co-ask(10 char)</p>
<p>I don’t know how it is with colleges, but when i did a high school exchange, it just happened. sure, i talked, i smiled, and all those things, but really, people are people. i did, however, make an effort to spend a lot of time with my american friends. as a result, when i went back to my home country, i had loads of american friends but not so many exchange student friends. but since i was in america, that was totally cool with me.</p>
<p>Just be yourself and that’s all!!! Be happy and be ready to have fun!!! We are all the same in the end~</p>
<p>Making friends with local students requires two things: you have to be willing to step out of your comfort zone (the international student community), and they have to be willing to step out of their comfort zone (the local student community). This is not always easy to do. You need to find natural places for you to interact with the local students.</p>
<p>Here are some more specific suggestions:
Join a study group or lab group that is mostly local students. In class, don’t automatically sit with other international students.
Don’t live off campus, and don’t pick your roommate. Let the housing office randomly assign you to a residence, and to a roommate. OK, so you don’t like that random roommate bit, well then at least become active in your residence hall. Is there a program committee you could join? What about your hall’s intramural ice hockey or basketball or soccer team?
Join a club that is interesting to you. What about the school newspaper, do they need a photographer? Are there any clubs related to your major?
When you are eligible, get a job on campus. Food service will put you in contact with lots of people. So will working in the reserve room of the library. If you have water-safety training, find out if you can be a lifeguard at the campus pool.
Participate in a drama production. You don’t have to act, or sing, or know much about costumes, light, or sound in order to help get the sets painted and the advertising organized.
Is your language offered on campus? Can you tutor a local student in that language or act as a conversation partner?
If you aren’t on the college meal plan and cook in the residence hall instead, ask the local students who are also doing this for their shopping and cooking tips. This is especially important if the local ingredients are new to you. Can you set up a meal swap - you cook Monday someone else cooks Tuesday?
Ask that cute girl or boy to join you for coffee after class. Even if no romance results, you may make a friend.</p>
<p>Wishing you many fine adventures.</p>
<p>Thanks, happymomof1! Those tips will help us this fall:) Nobody wants to end up as a somewhat segregated international…</p>
<p>I don’t know about college, but in high school it seems as if foreign exchange students have a pretty easy time making friends. Maybe its just because I live in Oklahoma, but it always seems as if kids here are interested in how America is different than where they came from and conversation naturally ensues. So as long as you have decent social skills, you really shouldn’t have a hard time making friends at all.</p>
<p>I went on a high school foreign exchange program to US last year. I made a lot of friends, its pretty easy, all you have to is do try to get involved as much as you can, like participate in sports and clubs etc. By the end of the year I had made so many friends that it felt like I had been there for a lot more than just one year.</p>
<p>Just interact - Its that simple! :)</p>
<p>Maybe international has some problems on language…em</p>
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<p>That depends from person to person. In my opinion, your “local friends” would understand this point about you…</p>
<p>If you join a volunteer group like Habitat for Humanity, or something with students against hunger/working at soup kitchens, or Alpha Phi Omega (APO), you will meet nice groups of friends. It is okay if your English is not perfect. They will be glad to have you working on projects with them.</p>
<p>Yea, no one would hate you unless there’s discrimination in the school or states</p>