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"I don't think you people like each other very much. In
classes, people are unfriendly until I say, Tm sorry, but
I'm German. ' "
with American men to the movies or a
concert, but she considered it friendly
company rather than a date.
Yee-Wah Chan, a pharmacy junior
from Hong Kong, said she dates a Chinese
but has never dated an American. "It is
very hard to communicate and find
something in common with Americans,"
she said.
As an example of the foreign students'
social dilemma, Boykin recalls how one
handsome Zambian once asked her, "But,
Mrs. Boykin, what do you do after you've
been to the movies, if you don't like
beer?"
Hermes said he feels there is some
suspicion on the part of American girls
toward foreign men.
Farhad Delirie, an undergraduate from
Iran, said American girls often think
foreign men are Cassanovas or Don Juans.
"They are not sure of what we are going
to do," he said.
"To my point of view, girls here are
very free," Delirie said. "Back home I
could restrict my girlfriend from dating
other men. Here the girls do what they
want.
"American girls are attracted to
foreign men," Delirie continued. "And
usually if a girl gives us a chance, she likes
us a lot; the way we think, our type of
life. This keeps us from becoming
Americanized."
To many foreign students, their
introduction to the American culture
is a confusing and frustrating
experience, now revealing and then
hiding its mysteries.
At 23, Siryani Tiball has had a better
chance to see the United States from
the inside out than many other foreign
students will get in a lifetime.
In 1967, Siryani won an American
Field Service scholarship to come to
the U.S. and finish her last year of
high school. She spent that year going
to school and living with an American
family, eating their food, going where
they would travel, watching TV,
watching the intimate, day-to-day
workings of that family.
For the most part, she liked what
she saw. Last year, Siryani returned to
Lincoln to finish her degree in
architecture. She also has an American
family of her own, now, since she
married Tom Tiball this spring.
But Siryani has not assimilated the
traditional American life-style; some
might even include her and Tom as
As for Nebraskans as a whole, Korean
Nak Yung Kim, a 32-year old graduate
student in mathematics, said he thought
Nebraskans were conservative and that
this was good. He added that if he could
vote in this election he would vote for
Nixon.
On the other hand, one Trinidad
student said he thinks UNL is not
progressive.
'They (the University regents and
administrators) try to keep out
intellectual and academic
thought-anything that's different from
what Nebraska thought 50 years ago,"
he said.
Most foreign students will say
Nebraskans are very friendly, especially
when compared to people in the nation's
bigger cities.
"The people here are much friendlier
on a first impression," said Altaf Malik, a
junior from Pakistan. "In a city like
Washington, D.C., there's an air of
l-don't-caredness. Especially from people
like sales clerks."
But when you ask a foreign student
what he thinks of UNL students, you
receive an entirely different answer.
One European girl said, "I don't think
you people like each other very much. In
classes, people are very unfriendly until I
say, 'I'm sorry, but I'm German.' "
What seems humorous to an American
part of a "counter culture."
"My life style is so simple," she
says. "I have nothing to worry about.
You don't have to do, just be."
Part of her being includes
meditation, music, reading, sewing,
cooking, gardening and camping. She
hates feeling tied down, hates being
"owned" by people, hates being hung
up on materialistic things.
She and Tom were married (against
her parents' wishes) in a park at
sunrise surrounded by friends. If they
ever return to Ceylon, she wants to
live "on the other side of the island"
where there are fewer and poorer
people. Eventually, she would like to
work with low-income housing in
underdeveloped areas.
But for now, "we are here to enjoy
ourselves," she says. "We have just a
short while to live, why not enjoy
every moment of our life?"
That philosophy carries over to her
view of Nebraska and UNL-"Any
place is beautiful, wherever your head
is."
is sometimes insulting to a foreigner.
Take Altaf Malik's unpleasant encounter
with one American's insensitivity.
The two were doing some paper work
over Christmas vacation, when they began
to discuss Malik's Muslim religion. When
told of the Muslim dietary restrictions,
the American began to ask a series of
"stupid" questions such as "do you eat
frogs?"
One Philippino graduate student said,
"Sometimes I'm afraid to talk because i
may not be good in pronouncing words
or using English grammer." She added
that she feels some people look down on
her because of the color of her skin.
Iran's Delirie observed: "The last
cigarette in a pack is very important to an
American. He can't give it to a friend who
asks for one. But it's not the last cigarette
he's going to smoke. Why can't he give
the cigarette to his friend and buy the
next pack a little sooner?"
"I have a lot of people that I know,
but I don't have any friends," Lopez said.
When asked what she thought was the
reason for American's inability to form
friendships, Lopez said, "It's just a
system of life."
Boykin said the wives of foreign
students have the biggest isolation
problems because they usually do not
know the language well and are burdened
with children. Plus they are unfamiliar
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