<p>I'm favouring a US education becoz i wanted to hv greater interactions with people from different cultures and backgrds. I'm wondering if asians can fully integrate into the social circles of US students? I've heard of stories where foreigners usually group together and all...</p>
<p>Here is an older thread that discusses the issue of making friends in the US:</p>
<p><a href=“http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/international-students/612172-how-get-along-local-students.html?highlight=happymomof1[/url]”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/international-students/612172-how-get-along-local-students.html?highlight=happymomof1</a></p>
<p>Yes you can, but only if you make an effort. I’m not going to lie, most Asian students (not Asian Americans) at my University stick together, and make little (perceived) effort to integrate. </p>
<p>But it seems that you are choosing a U.S. education to experience the culture of another nation, make sure you continue with that goal, and make an effort to integrate yourself. You only get out of the experience what you put in.</p>
<p>what’s the difference between Asian American and Asian?</p>
<p>In that context, I think Asian-American = American-born+raised or brought to the country at a very young age, you couldn’t tell they were Asian if they covered their faces (accent, body language etc.), while Asian = international students from Asia and easily identified as such</p>
<p>Yes 10char</p>
<p>It depends on the person. I’m an international (not Asian) but I hang out with mostly Asian people. From my experience there are basically two types:</p>
<p>People who hang out with people from their own country only:
There are A LOT of Asian-only groups. They speak their language, go out together, drink together, eat together, study together, and so on. They don’t accept other people into their group. If you talk to them they are very nice and polite but still, they wouldn’t actually socialize/hang out with you. I see a lot (not all) Chinese and Koreans being like that.</p>
<p>People who almost(!) never hang out with people from their own country:
These people try to find different groups, mostly other international students, sometimes Americans. They make a lot of international friends and tend to be more outgoing but in return they sacrifice the relationship with people from their own country (who form groups, type 1 above). From what I’ve seen these people are mostly Japanese, sometimes Taiwanese, Korean or Thai. I haven’t met Chinese people like that.</p>
<p>It seems very difficult for Asian people to strike a balance between those too. For some of my Korean friends I’ve seen that they were no longer “accepted” by the Korean groups once they started hanging out with too many non-Koreans. Must have something to do with Korean culture and their pure-blood obsession but that’s off-topic. The people I’ve seen striking a pretty good balance (having mostly international friends but also attending their own countries gatherings) are mostly Japanese or Taiwanese.</p>
<p>Everything also heavily depends on the environment. The more people from your own country are around you the more difficult it will be to not form any country-specific groups. At my universities there were A LOT of Chinese and Koreans. </p>
<p>Of course everything I’m saying is a little generalized and there are always exceptions. But so far I’ve made the same experiences over and over again.</p>
<p>Thomas_ your so true I’m Korean-American and thats how Koreans actually hang around, even at LSE its the same. But all point aside, it really depends on the people and your attitude :)</p>
<p>Indian and Pakistani people are also Asians. Why do people forget them in the Asian Talk?! :(</p>
<p>Whats your opinion about them? :)</p>
<p>its just different really, when the Brits talk about asians they talk about Indian and Pakistani and when the American talk about Asians they talk about East Asian (Chinese, Korean, Japanese etc)</p>
<p>The common misconception that Asians hang out with mostly Asians is very incorrect. I am an Asian, but almost none of my friends are Asians. I live in Canada, and most of my friends are white, but I also have a Mexican friend…that is the only ‘other-country’ friends that I can think of.</p>
<p>I only have a few friends from the same country background as me (China). In fact, most of my Asian friends are Korean.</p>
<p>Of course, this condition of mine may be mostly due to the fact that I cannot really speak Chinese. I was born in Canada, and although I have a competent understanding of Chinese, my ability to speak is not great. Plus I do not like how they always have to yell to each other.</p>
<p>I have to admit that most Asians tend to stick to people from their own country.</p>
<p>Just to clarify, when I say Asian I don’t mean Asian-American (or Asian-Canadian, etc, you get the idea). I’m talking about international students born and raised in their own country.</p>
<p>Gaoez, I don’t think it’s because you can’t speak Chinese. I have many Asian American friends who speak Chinese perfectly/native-like but still don’t fit in with the Chinese crowd. Same for Korean-Americans. I think it’s more of a culture than language thing. Cultures are just too different…</p>