University of Virginia Library

International Club: Exchanging Cultural Evaluations Over Coffee

By DARLENE SPRINKLE

A certain classification of
students exists here at the
University of which most
people are unaware. These
students are extremely bright,
outgoing, and aggressive: they
are leaders. International
students "are literally the best
their countries have to offer,"
said International Student
Counselor Lucy Hale.

Their intelligence and
eagerness to talk was apparent
during a visit with the
international Club at their
weekly coffee hour.

The International Center is
used by many individuals and
groups; the International Club
is just one of these. Chairman
Ray Clarke of the membership
committee stressed this point:
"The house itself is for
anybody the club merely
makes use of the house. It's
called the International Center.
Any groups that want to use it
can use it. The Chinese
Association uses it, the Indian
Association uses it. This is not
the International Club's
headquarters. We're just one
group that uses it."

Understanding

The congeniality of the
coffee hour is impressive.
There was quite a crowd,
almost half of which were
Americans. As Mr. Clarke said,
"The club is edging a little but
probably is 50-50 in percentage
of American students." The
club now has over 140
members representing about 24
countries.

CD/Larry Mann

Hasmukh:

American Women Are "Rather Arrogant, But Very Exciting"

Many Americans come
simply because they are
interested in internationals.
"Usually I divide Americans
into two groups," observed
Club treasurer, Mehmet
Certoglu, "the ones that come
into contact with other
cultures and the ones that do
not. These(the former) are
more liberal...their angle is
wider. The Americans who
come to the club are liberal."
Mehmet is from Istanbul,
Turkey, and is studying
Electrical Engineering.

Club President Kemal
Goksel emphasized the open
membership of the group.
"Most Americans feel that the
Club is only for foreigners.
They're sort of reluctant to try
it."

To explain the purpose of
the International Club, Mr.
Clarke quoted their
constitution; "Our purpose is
to promote international
understanding and cooperation
between students and
non-students...to learn more
about other countries and
other ways of living," he
added smiling, "and to have a
good time."

"We are trying to direct
things in the cultural area,"
said Club Vice President
Beverly Whitlock. "We try to
get slides and presentations of
students here that are traveling.
We've had Mexico, we're going
to have Turkey, and some
other areas.

"Then as far as traveling we
try to get the students to see
some areas of the state," he

continued. "We try to get to
the mountains. We have gone
up to Big Meadows camping,
we've planned on going to
Cass, W.Va., and then we try to
go down to the outer banks of
N.C. in the summer. We try to
give them as much a view of
this area as cheaply as
possible."

Freedom

The club has invested in
tents and camping equipment
and they try to keep costs
down to $10 per week end.
Other activities include hiking,
volleyball, soccer, bridge, and
chess.

According to Mr. Whitlock
the club would like to add
some new members, "because
if we get new people, then
we're going to get new ideas
coming in."

A major concern of the
Center is the poor condition of
the furniture bequeathed along
with the house. Club President
Kemal Goksel, also from
Turkey, said, "The first thing
we need is furniture. The
furniture we have is in pretty
bad shape. They're falling
apart. From the donations we
try to come up with little items
like curtains and chairs."

"Although we don't have
enough furniture and there are
a lot of deficiencies," he
added, "it's a pleasant place to
be." Much of the furniture has
been donated by the
community. The Club also
receives $1200 in funds from
the Student Allocations
Committee.

The large rooms on the
ground floor of the Center
became crowded and noisy. I
sat with Hasmukh Shah, a
student of nuclear medicine
technology from Kenya. His
comments upon life in the
states were both negative and
positive. "The greatest thing I
enjoy in America is freedom,"
he said. He remarked that he
had accumulated a stack of
visas in Europe and was able to
throw them all away when he
arrived in the U.S. "But," he
said, "it grieves me to see
people abuse their freedom."

Hasmukh's parents are
Indian, his family has British
citizenship, he grew up in
Kenya, but he says "I consider
myself more of an American
than anything else."

Before coming to
Charlottesville, he lived in
Missouri. To compare the two
states he said, "Education-wise
most of the people are very
well-educated here." He
stopped for a moment to ask if
he could be candid, then
added, "This place also is full
of intellectual snobs."

Hasmukh talked about
racism in the U.S. "The black
person in the U.S. has got it
better here than anywhere else
in the world that I know." He
described how he had
experienced more racial insults
in Europe in two weeks than
he had in three years here in
Charlottesville.

American Women

Hasmukh's family is
considered upper class in
Kenya, yet his mother would
feed the entire family of eight
on a dollar a day. Each day she
would go to the market place
to buy fresh produce, but
Hasmukh said he had never
tasted meat until he had come
abroad, according to religious
practices in Kenya. His first
exposure came with a baloney
sandwich on a plane over
Chicago.

Automobiles, on the other
hand, cost twice as much in
Kenya than in the U.S.
Hasmukh's brother drives a
three-year-old Mustang, a
$6,000 car in Kenya.

He expressed his
amazement at government
health programs in the states.
"You're taking care of your
blind people," he said
excitedly. Braille is unheard of
in Kenya, as are any programs
for the handicapped.

Hasmukh had some
unfavorable comments about
American women. He thought
they were, "rather arrogant,
selfish, and stupid, but very
exciting." When asked how he
came to this conclusion, he
answered it was "just
observing."

It took him 2½ years to
adjust to the American sense of
humor. "My classmates used to
enjoy getting me embarrassed."
He said no one would explain
the dirty jokes to him.

Host Student

He became interested in
America when he first read
about President Kennedy and
our democratic system. He is
not sure about renaububg here,
however, because he feels the
future of the U.S. is too
uncertain. Club President
Kemal had similar feelings
about staying in America: "I
have no specific plans yet. It's
hard to tell. If you can't get a
job it's hard to stay."

Hasmukh mentioned one
idea brought up by the other
students, that "It takes a long
time to get to know an
American person here." One
international attributed the
difficulty of developing
relationships to the
competitive atmosphere in his
classes.

Another unassuming male
felt that girls were easier to get
to know. Mehmet said, as
many of the others did, that
the social success of the
international "all depends on
the person.... You have to
know how to adapt."

International Student
Counselor Lucy Hale perceives
in many of the Internationals
the desire to establish deep,
lasting friendships, She
understands the different
perspectives of the students.

Mrs. Hale hopes to see a
"host student" program in
addition to the host family,
(All new foreign students are
placed with a host family
during their first year),
because of the generation gap
that invariably exists between a
youthful student and a
middle-aged couple.

Resentment

I learned something about
international opinions toward
Americans that I hadn't been
aware of before. As Hasmukh
said, "America is not the most
loved country in the world."
There is much resentment
toward Americans because of
the great wealth we enjoy here
in comparison. Mehmet said,
"Americans are known to be
someone who is sucking the
blood out of the world."

The International Center is
located at 21 University Circle,
an area reminiscent of
aristocratic Georgetown. The
house itself is a venerable
mansion erected in 1919,
seemingly modeled after the
Jeffersonian tradition of the
University.

Center manager Brad
Stillman exhibited the Master
Suite reserved for distinguished
foreign visitors to the
University. The suite doesn't
have a bed yet, but they plan
to find one soon.

The center has been in
operation only since
September, 1972, Mrs. Hale
had previously anticipated the
house as an international "club
house" after the Thornton
daughters bequeathed the house
to the University. Their father
was a professor of Engineering
and Applied Mathematics
around the turn of the century.

The Board of Visitors
subsequently established it as
the International Center. For
anyone interested in becoming
acquainted with this club or
the Center, the Center is open
from 4 to 10 on Sunday
through Friday, and from 12
to 12 on Saturdays. Coffee
hour is 5 to 7 every Thursday
afternoon.