We can learn a thing or two from international students

“Does your home university have a student cafeteria for lunch? Of course, but only the international students go there.” I have often heard this question and answer asked at UvA when it comes to international students. In other words, those who are not us, the outsiders.

Likewise, I, too, looked down on the swarm of far too serious students who every semester can be distinguished from miles away by their bulging backpacks and driven looks. “They should just do their own thing here, as long as it’s not in my regular pub.” That is the attitude of many a UvA student, and I, too, was guilty of such statements, until I myself went on exchange to Berlin and became an international student. I made many friends in the German capital recently, but within the walls of the university, I did not shake hands with a single German student. So it seems like Berlin’s student culture is the same as Amsterdam’s.

Highlighters in eight colors

Amsterdam students, national students that is, can be recognized by the sweat on their foreheads from having jumped on their bicycles late and, instead of the backpack, by an almost empty canvas bag slung over the shoulder. Appearing as casual as possible is the goal of Amsterdam students. Study is important, but not important enough to sit in the University Library with eight colors of highlighters and an iPad to write out aesthetic summaries with an Apple pen, as you see exchange students do. No, Amsterdam students use a crumpled notepad which has already been used for three other subjects and still succumb to a last – minute summary – aware that this tactic has never led to a high grade.

Next year

In Amsterdam, I feel we take a lot longer on our bachelor’s than the prescribed three years. I’ve heard the statement “I am going to do those courses properly next year,” more often than I care to admit. It’s considered cool if you don’t take your studies too seriously – so just join us for a beer on the Friday before the exam. Eventually, one inevitably recoils from this indifferent mentality and, of course, the study delay incurred has not been worth the beers.

The international student seems impervious to this. They spend longer days in the University Library than any Dutch student in the study hall and always go to class. They eat their lunch in the student cafeteria on campus, while the Amsterdam student skips the second lecture of the day to have lunch at home. So I’ve wondered if it’s not a bit of jealousy, this looking down on international students. Wouldn’t we secretly just want to be as driven and ordered as well? Is envy the reason we don’t welcome the international student with open arms and include them in our own social lives?

Complicated German

I have come back to that hypothesis now that I am in Berlin. German students are as orderly as the exchange students in Holland, but they, too, want nothing to do with international students, I now know from experience. I am one of the few non-German students taking a course in German, and after college, I thought I would have a chat with my potential new study friends. Suddenly only incredibly complicated German was spoken, whereupon the group of female students excused themselves and ended the conversation with me. The fact that German university students still don't speak English is beyond me.

So the attitude that international students should just do their own thing on campus seems to be shared by students in both Berlin and Amsterdam. In Amsterdam, however, internationals are expected to keep to themselves even on weekends. None of the foreign exchange students in Amsterdam should show up at “our” pub and certainly not at “our” house parties. The few times someone brings an international subtenant or an Erasmus exchange friend to a party, they are not exactly welcomed with open arms. Pretending we don’t speak English, not quite, but after a brief chat, Amsterdam students, including myself and my girlfriends, prefer to have fun with their own people on Friday nights.

Shaking hands

Then Berlin. Here every student, tourist, mother, teacher, lawyer and retiree goes out on Fridays. Your clothes may be thoroughly assessed at the entrance to the club, but your nationality is of little importance to both the bouncer and the people inside. While I failed to connect with German peers in class, the nightlife is open to all. So no, within the walls of my university, I have not shaken hands with a German student, but the exclusion of international students evaporates in Berlin as soon as night falls.

A light

I never ran into the students in my group on a Berlin Friday night, but if I had seen them, we would have danced together, I’m sure. I experienced my most memorable nights here with Germans – and any other random nationality – in the nightlife. In a week, I’m going back to Amsterdam but I’m taking with me what I’ve seen. I no longer shy away from the international students because I now know that I can have just as great an evening with them.

I first had to be an international student myself for six months to realize that. But I hope that a light will also shine for UvA students who are not going on an exchange and that foreign exchange students receive a warmer welcome than I have experienced so far. Perhaps they will also teach us some discipline and we will dare to sit in the University Library with an extensive selection of highlighters. Or have lunch with foreign students in the cafeteria on campus instead of at home.