Story By: Justin Janorschke<\/p>\n
Many students are familiar with Missouri Western\u2019s international student community. However, many students don\u2019t know what many of them go through when they arrive in the United States.<\/p>\n
While Western welcomes them with open arms, sometimes this is not the case with the rest of the local populace. To address this, Western\u2019s International Student Services decided to hold a panel where students from around the world shared their struggles in learning a new language and moving to a new place for education. Titled \u201cA Day with an Accent,\u201d it was part of an upcoming series of discussion panels.<\/p>\n
Deir Montiel, an International Studies major who helped set up the panel, explained that the ISS tries to help international students get to Western and provide assistance to them during their stay in America.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe put events up like this specifically to educate the community around us,\u201d Montiel said. \u201cI think there\u2019s a new generation wanting to be able to understand different cultures and new languages, so in that sense we put these programs on to be able to communicate with \u2026 domestic students.\u201d<\/p>\n
The panel of international students talked about issues dealing with their accents, answering prepared questions, but also including questions asked by the audience.<\/p>\n
Javier Paz, a bio-manufacturing and engineering student from Honduras whose native language is Spanish, helped illustrate one of the biggest challenges he faced when learning English.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy biggest challenge was trying to pronounce certain vowels,\u201d Paz said. \u201cThings like \u2018rubber\u2019 and \u2018robber\u2019 sound the same to me. The phonetics of the language was the biggest trouble.\u201d<\/p>\n
Paz stated that even though he has spoken English for many years now, he has still not completely overcome that obstacle.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m making progress \u2026 mostly by adding context to my sentences,\u201d Paz said. \u201cInstead of just saying \u2018rubber,\u2019 I\u2019m saying \u2018a ball made of rubber.\u2019 That\u2019s a way to do it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many of the other students shared similar stories, some of which included being discriminated against back in their home countries for speaking in an American accent. Others spoke of not having an adequate vocabulary when they first arrived, which made some conversations difficult.<\/p>\n
Overall, attendance was fairly good and students were generally pleased with the panel\u2019s discussion.<\/p>\n
Ashley Tidwell, a junior who recently transferred to Western, explained what she thought of the event.<\/p>\n
\u201cI liked [the event] because I like to learn about different countries and how people see America, especially international students,\u201d Tidwell said. \u201cI didn\u2019t know that most of the countries require them to learn English.\u201d<\/p>\n
The event was successful in showing students what international students face when coming to the U.S. Even though they come from all walks of life, the struggles they face are universal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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