every year around 130 million people are
born around the world with every new
person that comes is someone that will
affect the environment and impact
someone else’s future in some way
cultures do not have to be assimilated
and or destroyed but they should be
learned and appreciated this last fall
Arkansas State University had around 900
international students come from all
around the world 85 from Japan 178 from
Asia and and I’m proud to say that I’ve
met someone from all the areas listed
behind me and the cool thing is I never
changed my schedule or went too far to
my way to meet them when I met one I met
another and another and another and it
turned out to be really cool because it
allowed me to learn more about the world
so around high school our principal got
on the intercom and he made this
announcement that we had a foreign
exchange student here from France and
then we should talk to him and make him
feel as welcome as we can so I went up
to him in one day I asked I asked I
asked him a pretty basic question of
what to do and he say like to go to
bullfights now at the time I didn’t know
what a bullfight was so when he told me
that a bullfight is when a person called
a matador is in a big circular arena and
fights a board to the death with a pink
and yellow cape and a sword it caught me
off guard it seemed almost impossible
for a matador to kill a bull a live
Raging Bull with only those two things
yet he swore that it was exciting and
that the matador really gets hurt he
said that he knew all the names of the
Matadors and that when he gets when he
leaves the United States he can he’s
gonna go to another event and he’s gonna
go see the specific Matador because to
him that was the best and the way he was
explaining bullfighting to me
bullfighting to him was as important as
basketball football or baseball is to us
he was you could just tell he was
excited about it so the font so
unfortunately he had to go back over and
the following semester another guy came
over and he was from he was also and he
was from France and he was here for a
little bit longer than the previous
students so I got to talk to him a
little bit more
but we do really have much to say to one
another because we were from such
different areas so so I started I talked
to him and like all things I wanted to
learn about his language so I was I
don’t remember exactly what but I was
one day I was asking him how to say this
and that and one thing led to another
and I started we started talking about
animals interestingly enough animals
make different sounds based on where
you’re from a dog outside the US does
not go bark bark but depending on where
you are in the world it says something
else so in his case a dog doesn’t say
bark bark but goes wah wah cows don’t
say Moo they say murder and pixels say
oink oink
but Guan Guan and I made the obvious
observation that people are different
cultures hear different things and are
taught different things it’s not
necessarily wrong it’s just something
different than what they’re accustomed
to French people are also more reserved
than Americans are we as Americans are
very expressive people we’re very we
show our emotions and you can normally
tell how you’re feeling it just by
looking at them meanwhile there’s more
reserved so that he encountered a
problem later that semester and there
was there was one day he came walking
into the classroom and as a big scar on
his face it looked like he was mad or
something now say hey what’s going on he
said man I don’t know what’s going on
all these people who I don’t know are or
smile at me and they’re waving at me and
it’s like they know me but I don’t think
I know them as well that’s fine
Americans are just a very expressive
people we we were told that you were
here and so we wanted to welcome you and
do our high school I said well okay
that’s fine and all but when I did see
someone that I knew I would say hey
how’s it going and they respond with hey
what’s up and they keep walking and they
wouldn’t reciprocate the the response
that he was looking for we as Americans
are very busy people we have a we have a
lot to do but we don’t have enough time
in the day to do it the French and the
Spanish are a go-with-the-flow culture
there they have stuff to do but they can
do it tomorrow or they can just skip it
it doesn’t even matter sometimes so we
as Americans we’ve changed our English
language around so that how ru has
become the how ru has become the
equivalent of a good fine or it’s
alright so you can go up to someone say
hey how are you and they can respond
with hey what’s up and
the same thing so he just had a couple
little problems there you know what I
mean so the following so after high
school it was high school as a fun time
but after high school I want to continue
learning about the world Arkansas State
University offers an on-campus rooming
option where you can choose to live
alongside international students so I
thought how cool would it be to live
with an international student and get to
know them even better so without any
hesitation I signed up to live in that
floor and was roommates with the guy
from South Korea and a guy from India
and one of the first things asked the
south korean guy was how long are you
gonna be here for and he said that he
was only gonna be here for one semester
and I said well that’s for such a short
time are you only here for one semester
and he said that he was forced to go
back because all Koreans are required to
go into the military when they are
between 20 and 30 years old
it must be enrolled for at least 21
months for us going into the military
it’s a choice it’s a huge life decision
and it can impact us in different ways
for the Koreans going into the for the
male Korean going into the mood to is
this something that happens they’ve got
to do it and if they don’t the Korean
government will get onto them and they
could go to prison for a number of years
if they’re caught for not going to into
the military and no not for not going
into the military
so for it’s just something that happens
as I mentioned earlier I also had
someone from India as a suitemate
Colter’s can surprise you amaze you or
astonish you because you just don’t hear
about things unless it gets brought up
or at scene firsthand
India is home to 330 million gods and
it’s one of the most diverse countries
in the world and with so many gods they
hope they almost have a celebration or a
party for each God so throughout the
entire year in some part of India
there’s a party and I was able to
witness a couple of the festivals that
he celebrated and one of them is called
Diwali
and they celebrate things that you and I
wouldn’t think would be celebratory but
to them they’ve got to celebrate so
Diwali is the festival of light so they
celebrate the existence that we have
electricity we have our flashlights we
have our phones we have follow it has
light they love light and in order to
celebrate it
there they decorate their houses like we
do like we did about a month ago
so about Christmas stuff their houses
are filled and on the outside of them
are just covered with a little electric
lights or little candles and it looks
very harmonious and unfortunately his
room didn’t look like ours like it would
back in India but there were little
candles all over the place and it was
really pretty to see another festival is
the festival of Holi and Holi is the
festival of colour so festival of colour
is there celebrating the existence we
have red yellow orange blue chartreuse
we have all these different colors and
that’s what they’re celebrating and to
celebrate that they all stand in this
big arena this big arena plaza looking
thing and they all got this big bucket
or big however pail or whatever of
different colors and on the count of
three they all throw the colors high up
in the air and the colors just shatter
amongst all the people so you’ll walk in
there with your regular color hair you
could walk out with blue green red
colored hair because you’re celebrating
Holi as I mentioned earlier cultures can
surprise you and amaze you in some parts
of India they don’t always like they
don’t believe in the use of toilet paper
and so without going into many details
and without grossing you out instead of
using toilet paper they’ll use a bucket
and a cup of water instead to cleanse
themselves so I was on the international
floor and down the hall were a bunch of
people who were Chinese and so that we
eventually became friends and we had
this we made this deal that I would
teach them something English if they
would teach me something about China so
I thought it appropriate if I teach them
the famous Mary Poppins word
supercalifragilistic expialidocious and
in exchange for that they taught me that
they count on their fingers differently
than what we do so we have our same
numbers we have 1 2 3 4 5 and that’s and
that’s universal but 6 through 10 it
gets a little fuzzy so 6 looks as is
like the letter Y it’s that 6 that’s 7 8
9 and that’s 10 but that’s only 10 in
the north if you want to go to the south
of China and do 10 it’s this you can’t
do this as 10 because this is 55 this is
not 7 this is 52 or 25 and they just
have a different number system
so there was one weekend where the giant
where they want to go out to eat they
were like let’s go let’s go get some
chicken I was like cool all right
there’s Popeyes two chick-fil-a there’s
Slim’s there’s KFC there’s all these
cool places and they were like man let’s
go to KFC it’s like hard well I mean we
can go to KFC if you want so we took him
to KFC and as they were eating it they
weren’t as excited about what they were
getting
and it’s because KFC and China is
spectacular it is the freshest one of
the freshest foods that you can get over
there because they’re seasoning it’s
juicier and it overall just tastes
better over there and it’s so good in
fact the kids have birthday parties and
KFC restaurants they’re also a lot more
independent from their parents something
that a lot of American teenagers beg for
it here is independence we want to get
away from our parents we want to go do
our own thing well for them it’s just
something that happens and from a young
age they’re starting to be weaned off
and they get to do their own thing
I really saw or heard my Chinese friends
talk to or about their parents and it’s
not because they didn’t like them but
it’s because that by the time they’ve
reached college they’ve already been
very independent and they can just do
their own thing so after so the next
semester I moved in with the Japanese
guy because I wanted something to I
wanted some something else to learn and
I was met with just as many surprises as
there was before and when I first walked
in the room I was I still had my
backpack of stuff and I walked into the
room he said hey hey stop because my I
was wearing my shoes and he said take
off your shoes and I said well that’s
weird why and he said well because in
order to keep the room dirt free and as
clean as possible we have to keep our
shoes at the door so throughout the day
our shoes have walked on different
services substances little gums leaves
and it’s not as in our shoes are kind of
dirty
so throughout the day to pick up
bacterial and pneumonia diseases so to
keep it clean be at the door and I’ve
never had to clean a room because he was
so tall though they also love to say yes
Japanese people are a very giving
culture they in fact it’s even
considered rude to say no to a friend in
need there would be times I’d be working
really hard on a homework assignment at
my desk and I just couldn’t get away for
that ten minutes worth of eating and I’d
send him a little message hey can you go
pick something up for me from the
and he would without a problem because
it’s considered rude to say no and there
would be times I’d run out toothpaste he
let me borrow his toothpaste and they
were very giving culture Japan is home
to 120 7.3 million people and it’s
roughly around one hundred forty six
thousand square miles which is around
the size of Montana so was so many
people and so little of a space they’re
forced to be nice to each other for the
betterment of the entire culture I’m
actually friends with the older staff
and he’s got here on campus and he told
me that he is the alpha male he’s he is
the most respected Japanese person on
campus because he’s older age in Japan
is a high thing you have to if you’re
older you deserve the utmost respect
he’s he told me that he’s older by only
two years but even that two years gives
him the respect that we would give our
parents or our grandparents so after all
that being said I was still at Arkansas
State I was still learning everything I
could in or console’ state so it was
time for me to go experience the culture
firsthand Henry Miller said once
destination is never a place but a new
way of seeing things so when I heard
that I could go over to Spain and
experience the culture firsthand with no
way of avoiding it I was like yeah let’s
go so I went over to Spain and I went to
a small village in the south of Spain
and there was virtually like our small
cities there was virtually no outside
influence so it was pure Spanish and I
was able to notice a couple of the key
things and learn about a couple stuff
and one of the things I noticed is that
they like they have a thing called a
siesta so in the middle of the day about
from 2:00 to 5:00 if you want to go buy
something at the supermarket to go get
something to eat
you can’t do it because they’ve closed
everything off for the heat of the day
back when we they didn’t have air
conditioning in order to avoid the heat
they would close the stores closest to
close it up go sleep and pick it back up
about five to seven or eight o’clock at
night so and they still did that and it
was a it took a while to get accustomed
to that because for us we have our 24/7
stores we’ve got our Walmart we’ve got
our Walgreens we’ve got all these places
that are open for soul
and but it’s just not it’s not the same
thing
there’s no they’re also like the public
transportation system Spain there’s a
company in Spain called
alsa a si LSA and also goes to more than
170 destinations throughout the country
and so it’s the it’s the best best way
to get around the country so when I
would ride a bus and I would go
somewhere the buses were never empty or
never half-empty
they were always they were always full –
halfway full – halfway and we as we’re
very private people we Americans we did
we liked our public space we are unless
we’re friends with you so riding on a
packed bus with someone next to you at
first it wasn’t it wasn’t the best way
go around but it turned out to be cool
because I was allowed to hear his
stories and advice on how he grew up in
Spain and one of the things that I had
to explain to the Spanier multiple times
was refills and ice Spaniards aren’t
very big on refills so once you buy it
once you buy a drink you have to drink
it with moderation so even even water or
sodas has to be drink with moderation
unless you want to buy another drink ice
is also not used in drinks as commonly
as it is for us so we’ll go get a drink
is at a restaurant or something and our
ice goes to about half the cup if not a
quarter of the cup and it and it takes
up a lot of space so when I explained to
the Spaniards that goes about halfway
there like what be serious
so because to them that takes up too
much space and they don’t want to buy
that other drink so they had they don’t
they just don’t get that doesn’t click
so since you were since I was in Spain I
figured that it was a requirement to go
visit other countries the European Union
was first founded in about 1951 and the
idea of it was to help make the region
more peaceful and to stop the to
frequent wars that were going on between
the countries so and one of the things
that led to that was the dropping of the
borders to allow free trade between the
countries and and which eventually led
to us tourists going to different
countries and visiting the different
countries which turned out to be really
good thing so since I was in Spain
I thought it
closest countries Portugal and Portugal
and I would and I thought it’s gonna be
so similar to exactly explain it’s not
it’s incredible how different the
Portuguese culture is from the Spanish
culture there when you first get in it
when we first got into the city me and a
group of people we went up to a roof we
went up to a rooftop and we took a
picture and the entire city looks like a
giant art museum all the roofs are
different shades of red yellow and
orange and white and it just blends
together like a giant art picture the
walls are the wall is in between our top
to bottom with different colors of
graffiti and with different pictures and
it’s a really pretty city to go visit
and it’s a lot different than America
and there’s no we’re trying to and
there’s it’s a lot different because
there’s no one trying to erase her to
clean it up it’s a it’s a pretty
graffiti and the United States graffiti
has almost become a sign of poverty
dangerous neighborhoods or seen on the
railroad cars passing by on those
annoying railroad crossings and it’s
it’s a very pretty city it’s a it’s just
a gorgeous City to go visit so with all
that being said I’ve only experienced a
speck of all the cultures in the world
and I’ve talked to you guys about even
fewer cultures the world is comprised of
196 countries and Arkansas State has
been gifted enough to been visited by
students from a lot of those countries
mother Teresa said I alone cannot change
the world but I can cast the stone
across the waters to create many ripples
international students are more than
just an accent they are representative
of their representatives of their
country and there are representatives of
their languages their parties and the
different things that they do that we
just don’t pick up so it’s part of our
human duty to meet them talk to them and
maybe learn something of our own
having the opportunity to live with
international students has granted me
the ability in the end the pleasure of
learning more about the culture which
has given me access to the world at my
fingertips thank you [Applause]