Foreign Exchange Roommate
So, for my first semester living on campus ever, my roommate is a Japanese Exchange Student.
Now, I've always loved Japan, I'm a fan of the anime, the culture, the whole nine. That's not what I'm going to have an issue with, I think.
But I'm a bit nervous about the cultural/language barrier.
Her English is pretty good from what I've seen, we've talked on Facebook, but never on the phone or in person. Which is cool. But my extensive knowledge of the words "yes" "no" "thank you" and "giraffe" might not be enough to help.
Not to mention some of the cultural stuff.
Has anyone here ever roomed with an exchange student? What's it like? What kind of problems did you run into?
Some advice would warm my dear ol' heart!
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Lee Ann Quinn on -
Never had an exchange student, but I have lived overseas most of my life. I'm fairly familiar with the cultural and language barriers. As such, I can tell you this: If she's coming to the US to go to college? Her English is going to be very good. She may take an ESL (English as a Second Language) course while at your college. I can't be positive on this of course, but if you say her English on FB is "pretty good" then she is most likely fairly fluent in the language. However, she may question certain American-only words or slang that she may not be familar with. If that comes up, just try and explain what it is until she understands.
As for the cultural portion of your worries, I will advise you now: Do not assume your future roommate will enjoy the same anime you do, or the genre of TV at all. Assumptions can be fatal in this type of relationship. A good friend of mine for two years was a Japanese student (spoke fluent English with an accent, took an ESL class in school.) I never assumed she liked anything in particular and just learned about her as we spoke. One time in art class we were chatting and just got on the topic of Pokemon for 20 minutes. One of our inside-jokes was a quote from Detective Conan (aka Meitantei Conan; a widely-known anime & manga in Japan.) However, we never really discussed anime much at all. Just find something in common with her. If it is anime or drawing, awesome! If not, don't be surprised. People are people and should never be defined by their culture's common traits. If anything, look at her interests on her Facebook page. Her favorite shows, her favorite activities, etc., and try to do some of those things together to see if a friendship will form!
Good luck! :)
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Permalink Reply by Lora Elliott -
This may be a little late, but I actually had a Japanese exchange as my roommate for the first semester of my freshman year. It was an interesting experience, to say the least. Admittedly, we got along pretty well, though she was pretty much never there because she was always spending time with her friends who were all other Japanese exchange students.
I guess the only problems I ever really ran into were language barrier-related. It was difficult to explain to her recycling and some other things. But we always made it work out in the end with her nifty little Japanese-English electronic dictionary she always carried with her.
We weren't best friends, and I haven't actually heard from her since she left. But we were good roommates. So it'll be fine.
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