Foreign bodies

“How many of you have never seen a female police officer before?” campus police officer Corinne Beck asked a small, attentive group gathered in a Chico State classroom.

Nearly half of the college-age and older students raised their hands—another first to add to a growing list.

While for most students, the words “back to school” imply a return to the relentless routine of academic life, for many students at Chico State’s American Language and Culture Institute (ALCI), back to school takes on an entirely different meaning. They are attending school here for the very first time.

In fact, to them, Chico and the country itself is foreign. Literally.

The ALCI program offers international students intensive English language classes and the opportunity for those with English proficiency to attend Chico State classes. Students starting the program this semester come from Saudi Arabia, South Korea, Guatemala and Taiwan. The newest students arrived only days ago for a quick campus orientation and a crash course on daily life in the United States before their first day of school.

Fighting the lingering effects of jet lag and the challenge of a language barrier, they are quickly getting to know their new home. ALCI director Yuki Rojas, a former exchange student from Japan, knows how to help. She sets up useful tours and meetings, like the one where Officer Beck explained “the rules” in California. Rojas even practices the art of check writing with the newcomers.

The week before real classes start, students absorbed all of the presentations and filed away bits of wisdom: Don’t leave anything unattended, no bike riding while under the influence and always remember to use an envelope when depositing cash into an ATM.

Even more lessons will continue to come when they step out of the classroom, where daily cultural differences, like American food, are obvious.

“There is a big difference between our food and [the food] here,” said 20-year-old Saudi Arabian Almuhannad Adous. “The main food here is fast food. Back home it’s rice and chicken and beef, something like that. Here it’s like hamburgers, and hot dogs and Subway sandwiches.”

While that may be a stereotype he’ll later overcome, Adous, here on a scholarship from the Saudi government, says Americans have stereotypes for Saudis, too. “There is a bad idea in the American mind about Saudi citizens,” he says, though he can’t quite find the right words in English to express the thought. He finally settles on, “I think there is really a bad idea that Americans think about Saudi Arabia.”

But by coming to live here and interacting with other students, Adous says, “I’m trying to change it.”

He hopes that studying in the United States he will help him change his country, too. “The culture here is very good,” he said after one of Rojas’ presentations. “[When] I come here, I see a really good foreign culture. When I finish my studies here, I’ll try to transport some of the good culture to my country.”

American culture has made an impression on Enrique Amurrio as well. Amurrio works as a director in the public relations office of Guatemala’s Central Bank, “like the Federal Reserve,” he explains.

He was surprised to meet the nine Saudi Arabian students at the ACLI orientation. With the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks not long past, he said he took their reception in California as a good sign. “They show the beautiful of this country. The U.S.A. is not perfect, but [there are] so many good things, like the people. The tolerance is good.”

Amurrio hopes he can absorb some of what he calls “the American spirit, the American community” during the seven weeks he’ll be living in Chico and taking classes with ACLI. His time in California also serves as his first vacation in seven years, so he enjoys Chico’s slow pace. “Here, I think, life is quiet,” he said.

Then again, once all of Chico’s students have come back to school, he just might change his mind about that.