With kaleidoscope eyes
Kasper is a former mentor and a current board member in the QA Programme. Currently he is doing a semester abroad in Hong Kong. Read his account about the challenges that you might face as an international student in a foreign environment.
Kasper Schiødt
When the plane hit the asphalt in Hong Kong International Airport, it was my turn to be an exchange student in a foreign new culture. I was excited to see how such a well-established international metropolis as Hong Kong dealt with internationalisation and a multicultural student environment.
Through the past two semesters, I have helped international students in Copenhagen, both by being a mentor and a board member in the QA Programme. Trying my best to better the experience for students coming to a new place and helping to make everyone feel as a part of the local student body. I believed that with my wide perspective on international/local-student milieu, I would easily be able to fit in with the locals. No problem, right? I overestimated myself… of course... I quickly found that my broad experience and insights, my kaleidoscope eyes, were in fact not as far seeing as I had hoped. The problem of integrating into the local student environment is not easy when you have help, every international student in Denmark can tell you that – but it is practically impossible when you do not! Walking around campus, I often found myself the observer, rather than an active participant. One time a couple of international students and myself turned a corner on campus and ran into a huge gathering of local students. They had enacted colourful stalls with food and various mini-games. Local bands were playing and everyone were having fun. That is everyone but the international students, who had no idea what was happening. We were the only westerners in sight. As it turned out, this festival had been in the making for months. Advertised countless times on email, in the dorms and through colourful posters all over campus… But in Cantonese.
A couple of days later I looked closer at an email written in Chinese and it said in the end: international students are welcome too! Cleary the internationals had not taken it to heart. Almost none showed up. A user on Reddit once asked if anyone else had ever been alone in a crowded room. That was basically how we felt. Not surprisingly local students converse in Cantonese and they are not that into speaking English, unless you make them. This is exactly the problem the QA Programme are fighting here in Copenhagen. And for the first time since I started involving myself in the international environment at KUA, I could see how much the programme is helping. It was a mind-blowing realisation for me – hitherto I had been frustrated that we just seemed to create a new international environment instead of integrating the two student populations. Now, I have seen how a university without a mentor organisation deal with international students. In the university’s defence it should be said, they are very good at making sightseeing and hiking trips for international students. However, there is almost no events bringing local and exchange students together. That is what QA Programme is all about! Since that time at the festival, I have come to terms with the fact that I probably won’t be a part of the normal student-body in Hong Kong, but I have found local, mainland and international friends in abundance and I haven’t spoken Danish in about two months.
Seeing the university with my kaleidoscope eyes (The Beatles used drugs, I used the QA ), has brought me great insight and helped me enormously during my stay. Every student should go abroad and in my opinion, every student should be a mentor before going!
Knowing how to deal with a lot of very different people, having an idea of what it feels like to be new in town, and lastly what culture shock really is… All of this is something you will thank yourself for having experienced beforehand. At least I did.
It did not make my stay worse, that I already knew people in Hong Kong, through my former mentee in the QA Programme. Joining the QA Programme and QA Alumni is definitely useful and even more in the future! Have a great international Christmas everyone!