What hit me most was the sense of passion and urgency, as I visited each presentation at the IMI conference. Those two key ingredients were motivating at the same time validating to all of us who are advocates for multiculturalism. All of the presentations I’ve attended, including the key note presentations, were outstanding but I will choose a few to reflect upon.
Dr. Richard Harris presented the cultural differences in perceptions of space. His goal was to inform people of the importance of physical space in intercultural encounters and how we can reduce the potential for misunderstanding by understanding them. He talked about how the physical space, or interpersonal distance, manifests itself in six different frameworks: cosmological, geographical, environmental, communal, residential, and personal, and how it influences our perceptions to respond in various culturally conditioned ways. It was particularly interesting how even a geographical map and communal and residential layout can reflect how we interact with others.
I would venture to guess that this topic is of great interest and passion to Dr. Harris since he has lived and worked in Japan as a person from another country. I met him during luncheon and it was actually our conversation that triggered me to visit his presentation. Without going into details, he immediately asked me a question when he found out that I had spent my youth in Japan as a foreigner (as a person of Korean ethnicity), and his reaction immediately led me to believe that he personally and fully understood my experience as a foreigner in Japan. His presentation was enlightening in that he was able to open our eyes to the unconscious ways in which we do interact with people from outside our own cultures, as it relates to a physical space. It validates the importance of non-verbal behavior and brings up another important factor in our intercultural communication which can be overlooked but influences how we perceive others and behave. It is a positive lesson in that physical space is something that we all can alter and learn and understand more readily; yet it brings us another step closer to a successful intercultural communication and relationships.
The presentation on current international education by Fanta Aw, Shoshanna Sumka and Kristina Thompson was another presentation that stood out for me. I walked into the room in the middle of Ms. Aw’s presentation since I was doing a sort of “presentation-hopping”. It wasn’t easy to choose which presentation to go into due to so many choices.
The topic on U.S. style campuses overseas that Ms. Aw presented was of particular interest to me since its role and implications in international education was something that I wasn’t fully aware of in my own professional experience working with international students. Ms. Aw’s presentation was so full of in-depth information and passion that I am not fully able to reflect here, but in a nutshell, the U.S. style campuses overseas provide an American education opportunity for the students in their own countries. The campuses can take different forms such as curriculum that is an exact or modeled copy of a particular university that may or may not lead to an American education degree to those that only constitute international focused studies. Barriers that results from government regulations in the U.S. and overseas, visa dilemmas, possibility of losing number of incoming foreign students due to the availability of U.S. style campuses overseas were discussed. As a person who has personally experienced education systems in three different countries and worked with the same, I know all the dilemmas and struggles that are faced by the foreign students and those who work with them. Despite some negatives, I still do believe there is nothing that can be as truly growing and enriching experience as actually being a foreign student in the U.S. or even being an American student in a foreign country; however, taking advantage of good U.S. style campuses in other countries, and perhaps even an existing or future international -style campuses within U.S. may be a great substitute.
I appreciate Karen Santiago (and Jennifer) for inviting me to attend as a scholarship recipient as well as Gary Weaver, all the speakers, and the staff for making all of this possible.
Chilly Jill Lee
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