By Adolphe Musanga
“Have you ever experienced an adventure in a place where you are a total stranger?”
I know a category of people named international students who have. As one of them, I know how tough it is to land in a place where everything seems dissimilar from your home, specifically the social life, people’s behaviors and most importantly the language.
Very few of these students find themselves knowing the language of their new resident country. In this case, what usually happens is that they quit. They want to go back to their home country where they think they fit most. However, there are some who make the alternative decision to stay and fight as hard as they can.
As an international student, I’ve decided to stay in the United States despite my lack of language knowledge. Cuyahoga Community College made my decision worthwhile. Tri-C offers a program called, Conversation Group.
One of the benefits of Conversation Group is that us, international students, practice conversating between each other. Most of the time, I was afraid to talk with people and have them think that I won’t be able to do so. However, in the Conversation Group, I saw people practice their English and getting better at it, which motivated me to be a constant member of the group.
Conversation Group is a great place where international students interact and practice English. In the Fall 2017 edition of The Voice, I wrote about my experience as an international student. Now, I would like to ask every native English speaker also to be part of it, to make their fellow international students feel like they belong instead of feeling like outsiders.
