2008 Woodie Awards
French students struggle to mix up
Hanna Meyer
Issue date: 3/12/08 Section: International News
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"I understand about 60 percent of the content of the class after a few weeks in the United States," said Julie Morere, exchange student from France. "I appreciate that the professors speak clearly and slowly. They also help us whenever they can, so I never feel lost."
She also said that sometimes it's difficult to mingle with Americans.
"Outside class it's hard to integrate but in class Americans are nice and polite with us," Morere said. "They also speak slowly, so we can understand them"
Morere is one of the 57 French students who came to America in January. French students have come to Winthrop since 1986. They get ready to come to the United States at USCOM and Mercure, private schools for communications, in Montpellier, France.
Not knowing how the French students prepared themselves back home may be a problem for Winthrop professors when planning the class content.
"We don't know where to start with the program because we don't know their level," said Padmini Patwardhan, mass communication professor.
At Winthrop, the French students were split into different classes. A maximum of five of them is in the same class.
"French stick in their own group and don't try to mix up at the beginning," Patwardhan said. "But group work helps them to integrate in the class."
The language barrier might be the main cause for the integration difficulties, said Diane Hockett, business communication professor.
"A French student who speaks English well can integrate easily," she said.
Those who are not so fluent may face difficulties to mix up with Americans because of misunderstanding due to the language barrier, Hockett said.
She said this is the reason why Americans are sometimes not really nice to some French students and ignore simply everything they say.
Aside language barriers are other cultural differences.
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