Human Library showcases different international experiences

Alexis Schlesinger / THE GATEPOST

By Francisco Omar Fernandez Rodriguez Arts & Features Editor The inaugural “Human Library” was hosted by the Office of International Student Services and Study Abroad, Center for Inclusive Excellence (CIE), and the Henry Whittemore Library for International Education Week on Nov. 18. A series of short lectures were given by the “Human Books,” in which they shared their experiences related to international education. Biology Professor Sandra Sanchez started with a lecture about her experience as a Colombian in the United States. When her family moved to the United States, they settled in Los Angeles, which doesn’t have a large Colombian population, she said. She went to graduate school at Indiana University and felt like the area was mostly white, she said. “At least in LA, there was a mixture of everyone and everything,” Sanchez said. She said in Indiana, people told her she was “so Latina,” but in LA people told her “you’re so white.” Part of this was because she tried to “temper down” the details people pointed out, she said. “This - talking with the hands - the hands would go in the pocket. I used to wear bandanas and lipstick and earrings, and so all of that tempered down,” Sanchez said. While in graduate school, her grandmother passed away and she had trouble figuring out how to mourn her, she said. She decided to start an altar at her house, even though her family said that’s not how Colombians mourn, she said. She added the way they mourn didn’t fit her very well. “I want to celebrate my loved ones. I want to remember them. I want to think of all the good times,” Sanchez said. Art History Professor Yumi Park Huntington gave a lecture about her experience traveling the world and learning through the different art forms it provides. She grew up in South Korea, she said. Through her undergraduate to her PhD degree, she studied art in museums, where she learned that art should be religious and naturalistic, she said. Park added it’s a “very prejudiced way of evaluating and judging … That’s how I grew up.” When she first saw art from the Aboriginal people of Australia, she was shocked because it was different from what she was used to, she said. She realized this form of art was still beautiful, and it changed her perspective, she said. She said while in Indonesia, she saw a Buddhist temple and a Hindu temple while hearing calls for prayer five times a day because the country consists mostly of Muslims. “Three religious activities are simultaneously practiced, without having any conflict,” Park said. She said it’s important to experience the world and its cultures through its various art forms. “That’s why I’m wandering around the desert every two years in Peru,” Park said. Assistant Director of the Office of International Student Services and Study Abroad Cecilia Reyes Alarcon shared her experience as someone who’s lived in multiple countries throughout her life. She grew up in Chile but moved when she was 17 to Norway, where she lived for over 23 years, she said. The cultures in each place are very different, she added. She experienced some culture shock, such as less hugging and physical affection, she said. The opportunities were different there as well, such as more opportunities for women, she said. In Chile, she felt she and her family had to be Catholic, she said. “It’s like, ‘You have that. You’re born there, this is what you need to believe. This is the way you need to do things,’” Alarcon said. In Norway, she felt more free, she said. “Norwegian culture is very open minded. It’s not very religious,” Alarcon said. In terms of identity and which country she identifies with more, she said she has a “third identity” that isn’t tied to any country. “I think when you have experienced so many places and so many cultures, I think you’re very aware of what you want to keep and who you want to work with,” Alarcon said. Director of the CIE Jerome Burke gave a lecture about growing up as LGBTQ+ in Jamaica. He said he was taught from a young age to love the country and culture of Jamaica. He spent some of his childhood living with his grandparents, who were “extremely religious,” and went to church multiple times a week, he said. From both his community and the church, he was told that boys needed to like girls, he said. “I didn’t necessarily feel guilty at the time, but I just knew that this was what was being preached to me,” Burke said. When his grandmother passed and he went to therapy, the therapist suggested he move in with his parents in the city, he said. He was more exposed to harsh language directed at the LGBTQ+ community at the new school, he said. This attitude was also engrained into their music, especially in their popular songs, he added. Burke said a particular song by Buju Bonton, a Jamaican artist, uses lyrics that mean “that gay men should get a gunshot. And that’s a very, very popular song in Jamaica that’s played on local airwaves and everything.” He believes it’s important for him to advocate for human rights and LGBTQ+ rights back in Jamaica, he said. He hopes to help inspire other people in similar situations that there’s hope, he said. Department Chair and Coordinator of the Hospitality and Tourism Management Program, John Palabiyik, gave a lecture about Istanbul and his family’s history there. The first time he left Istanbul was to study abroad in London, which was supposed to last for the summer but ended up lasting six months, he said. “I learned in six months more about Turks and Turkish culture than in 20 years in my life over there,” Palabiyik said. He always tells his students that when they study abroad they don’t come back the same, he said. Palabiyik and his parents were born in Istanbul, but his grandparents were born in Greece, he said. They were caught in a population exchange between Greece and Turkey, where Turkey sent people they identified as Greeks to Greece and Greece sent people they identified as Turks to Turkey, he said. He said his grandparents were forced to leave, and they were never allowed to return. “It’s a disaster for them, but probably the best thing that happened to us, because we ended up in Istanbul,” Palabiyik said. A DNA test said he’s 100% Greek, he added. He said Istanbul can be considered a “center of the world.” It was a capital city for 2,000 years, for multiple empires, he added. He said there’s “so many different religions, different cultures.” Spanish Professor Inés Vañó García gave a lecture about the impact linguistics has had on her life. She’s from Spain, but her home language is Catalan. “In Spain, there are more languages besides Spanish. We have Catalan and we have Basque too,” Vañó García said. She’s not from the Catalonia region of Spain, so some people say her language isn’t really Catalan, she said. She went to college to study English, though the way the system worked there meant she had to decide early on in high school, she added. One of the requirements was phonetic English, which she struggled with and had to retake three times, she said. “It was phonetics. It was about pronunciation, so it was … when I probably started thinking about my accent and how to pronounce it,” Vañó García said. She had to record herself reading “The Cat in the Hat,” which she now hates, she added. She worked for a summer in a hotel in England, and her skills in their language improved, she said. She went to Boston College to get a master’s in linguistics, but she didn’t finish the program, she said. “I can say that that experience taught me what I didn’t like about linguistics,” Vañó García said. Someone told her recently that she has a beautiful accent, but she questions what makes an accent beautiful, she said. Senior Charlotte Johndrow shared her experience studying abroad in Northern Ireland. It was her first time living alone, living in a city, and being out of the country, so she was overwhelmed at first, she said. She didn’t talk to anyone during her first week, which was discouraging for her, she said. Once she met a group of friends, the trip became easier, she said. She took part in a public art competition, and she put a lot of time into her submission, she said. During the competition, she saw next to her submission “a rock surrounded by five chicken eggs on the floor,” Johndrow said. “I realized that this is where my wall is with art. I do not consider this art,” she said. The type of art wasn’t the issue, but “to work so hard on this project … and then it’s put next to a rock, something like a piece of cement, and five chicken eggs just on the floor. No title, no tag,” Johndrow said. In the art studio, the tag highlighting her space was labeled “Charlotte USA,” she said. “Everyone else had their last name on their little tag, and I was Charlotte USA. And I kept that up the entire time. I think I actually brought it home with me,” Johndrow said. Her takeaway from the trip was that, while she didn’t do research on the place beforehand, that actually allowed her to learn through the experience, she said. Junior Marlín Polanco shared her experience studying abroad at Harlaxton Manor in England. She almost didn’t go but Alarcon’s encouragement changed her mind, she said. It was a program specifically for first-generation students, she added. At first, she was jet-lagged and homesick, but she kept telling herself she’d enjoy the trip, she said. She arrived before most of the other students did, so the manor wasn’t full at first, she said. During one of their first trips to town, she heard a little boy tell his mother that they “sound weird,” she said. “And she goes, ‘It’s because they’re American, love,’” Polanco said. That was when they first felt like outsiders, she said. During the trip, she went to Scotland, Ireland, Spain, and France with friends and Hungary on her own, she said. Going to Hungary was especially out of her comfort zone, particularly because she doesn’t know any Hungarian, she said. She said she won’t lie about being scared, but she enjoyed it nonetheless. “It kind of taught me I can do difficult things even though they’re scary,” Polanco said.