DISCLAIMER- This project was done using only an iPad and my compter was only allowed to be used to type. This was my final for a multimedia journalism class.
International students adjust to Nebraskan life
When Rushi Ou looks down at her phone to check the time, she must remember which of the two clocks to trust. One shows Nebraska time while the other shows the time in her home province Fujian - a 13 hour difference.
As an international student, she has found this and many other ways to adjust to living in the center of America instead of southern China.
Both Ou and her roommate Yuting Yang are studying at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln as first year transfer students.
Ou, an advertising major from Fujian studied for two years at the Taihu University of Wuxi in China and transferred here for the Advertising and Public Relations major offered by the College of Journalism and Mass Communications.
“It is just so safe here,” she said.
To research, she asked her cousin, who was a senior getting ready to graduate high school, to help her decide between UNL, The Ohio State University and Michigan State.
“I don’t know if it’s true,” Ou said. “But I saw online that this program is one of the top 15 in the country.”
On the other hand, Yang’s decision to come to UNL was made when she decided to attend the Partnership Degree Program in Hangzhou Zhejiang City College for her finance degree.
Yang is from Zhejiang and knew that this program started there and would transfer to UNL after two years.
“My parents thought the program looked really great and so did I,” Yang said. “They were really supportive.”
However, as President Donald Trump issued differing travel bans, Ou worried at home that the work she put into getting accepted and making her decision to study abroad had been for nothing.
“I asked my parents, ‘what if they don’t allow me to go?’” she said. “I would have been so disappointed.”
While the politics in America made things more difficult, the two made it over with no issues and say they have enjoyed their time in the States.
Both said they kept an open mind before coming to America, and were mostly surprised by Nebraska’s weather.
“The hot in Nebraska is not that hot,” Yang said. “But cold is very cold.”
The most confusing aspect of Nebraskan culture that the women could not seem to wrap their minds around was how Nebraskans wear t-shirts and shorts year-round.
“I saw someone wearing shorts with a heavy coat,” Ou said. “It just didn’t make sense.”
The women arrived in Lincoln in August and understood the shorts, but the continuation makes them laugh.
While the weather surprised them, the women said the adjustment to Nebraska did not take long.
“It’s just another city,” Ou said.
Ou credited her ability to adjust to her knowledge of the English language and history of studying far from home for her first two years in China.
She claims Chinese students first “touch on English in the third grade” and then revisit it with more detail and focus again in seventh.
Yang was also happy upon arrival knowing one of her roommates was also from China, as they had not signed up to live together.
Originally there were two Chinese and two domestic students in their room in East Side Suites.
Ou said this was a good way to acclimate into the university because it allowed her to feel comfortable in her skin.
“I did not feel that I was alone,” she said. “But I could also get to know people that are very different than me.”
This stranded feeling is something that people like International Business Lecturer Chandra Schwab aims to help alleviate.
“I don’t think they get out into the community enough,” Schwab said. “I have worked hard this year to help them do so mostly through group volunteer events.”
Schwab has a heart for international students and claims she is “surprised the variety of backgrounds and experiences that the students brought with them.”
“Even within China there are students from all over the country from many different types of schools and family backgrounds,” she said. “It is definitely impossible to categorize the students.”
This is the case for Ou and Yang. While both are from China, Ou is from a much more southern region than Yang, which leads to them speaking with different dialects. However, both speak and understand Mandarin.
According to Ou, when Yang speaks on the phone with her family, Ou can understand Yang’s dialect, but this is not true vice versa.
These are some examples of the Ou speaking her native language:
Hi, my name is Rushi Ou My favorite animal is a lion. This is my first year at UNL.
“As you go more north, the languages get closer and closer to Mandarin,” Ou said.
This can make the experience of living in a foreign country more difficult, but also more rewarding, according to the two.
While there are many people in their shoes, no two experiences are the same.
According to the UNL Factbook, there are currently 105 countries represented in undergraduate courses and 904 students from just China.
Nonetheless, the stories and events in each person’s life will differ.
The one thing that hasn’t been argued about so far? The American food nobody can avoid.
“For Chinese food, I let me roommate cook,” Yang said. “But I like French fries.”
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