International Relations

The international aspect of this school is an endless sense of wonder. There are something like 80 separate countries represented here and it never ceases to amaze me how different things are…well, perhaps I’ve gone on enough about differences. But there are some things that do tend to stand out.

One trap (I feel) that is easy to fall into is judging (judging? Maybe “typing” or some word like that)…judging a nationality by a small sample of their residents. On top of that the students here are much younger than I so that throws more sand in the gears when it comes to trying to figure people out.

Of course I do try to focus more on the person vs. the race or nationality…but commonalities abound.

And now…the disclaimer: Of course I am not saying ALL students of Country X or Nationality Y are the same world round. But I can say with confidence that the judgments I am making here do fit with what I’ve seen as far as the “general” students go.

Does that make any sense?

Anyway… In my section, HOIII, there is no one in the class that I am “friends” with. I mean I don’t spend time outside of school with any of those students. I’ll say hi, ask how it is going, give ‘em a beer if I have extra…but they aren’t the usual room/bar/whatever hanger-outers.

The predominant races/nationalities in my class are Indian, Mexican, and Chinese. There is a mix of others too…Russian, Danish, American, South Korean, Japanese, UAE, South American, etc. But those groups stand out a lot.

The Chinese in my class talk a LOT with each other…only in Chinese. They seem to avoid speaking English at all costs. But when class is in session they are silent, attentive and never speak unless spoken to. They rarely (if ever) lend anything to class discussion.

The Indians are LOUD. They sit in the back of the class and are CONSTANTLY talking to each other (when they can get away with it). They participate in class but mostly just babble to each other in the back.

The Mexicans…they talk constantly. To each other, to everyone else, to the teacher…babble babble babble. They don’t raise their hands, they just talk. And talk. And talk some more.

Yeah…that does sound a bit “racist” on my part…or “nationality-ist” I suppose. But people…it’s true! Sure not ALL the students of those races in all classes are like that…but damn the ones in mine sure are.

On a similar note…we had Contemporary Issues today…and we are currently in the International Relations section. The instructor is a really good guy, British, friendly and extremely knowledgeable. Some of the students don’t treat him with a lot of respect sadly…primarily (it seems) because he isn’t giving them information they can directly use to open their 5 star hotel. Hmmm…more on that later.

But I dig him, and dig the class. And today was an interesting conversation.

We were talking about Asia and how the countries today are facing issues that primarily result from what happened to them pre, during and post WWII. To make a long story short I was sitting next to the Russian girl today. She’s not Lithuanian, or Siberian, or from a Baltic state…but a “true” Russian. She’s quiet but the Mexican boys sure dig her it seems.

Anyway…I didn’t think much of this until the teacher started lecturing about the USSR and USA at the end of WWII with regards to Japan. All of a sudden it sort of dawned on me…I’m American. I’m sitting next to a Russian. We are being lectured on aspects of the Cold War. How odd! I could tell she sort of picked up on it too…shifting around in her seat, blushing slightly at times.

Today was the 60^th anniversary of the US dropping The Bomb on Nagasaki. The teacher asked the class why they felt the Americans did it (which made me a touch uncomfortable…no biggie). The first response was, by a German (funny to me), that we wanted to flex our muscles in front of the Russians.

Whoa! She turned BEET red. I fell back in my seat and let loose a low whistle…and a sigh.

I turned to her…

“Sorry!”

And she laughed.

I guess relations have improved over the past 60 years.

Thank freaking GOD.