INTRODUCTIONS/
FIRST IMPRESSIONS
Social groups are crucial for youth
existence: they assure company, support and loyalty in all walks of life. So how do social groups form at a new
accommodation in a new university in a new country some 15’590 kilometres away
from ‘home’? First impressions are key.
The basis of first impressions is personal
introductions, and during the first few weeks of university there is a
multitude of opportunities for one to introduce themselves. “Hello my name is…”
to roommates, hall mates and classmates is a start, but once sports teams and
societies are underway ones exposure to new people fourfold. As a result names fade
out of memory and instead you, initially, associate ‘that blond girl’ as the
girl who has the pantry cupboard next to yours, and ‘that tall guy over there’
as an avid basketball player. It is exactly this extra background information that
becomes the identifier between all the Hannah’s and the Harry’s.
One of the most important questions to
distinguish one from the other, especially to the international mind, is ‘where
are you from?’. In this patriotic department there is a much wider range of
answers available, resulting in the generalised ‘three categories of
nationalities’:-
1.
Single nationality: the
introduction from the student who is from one country or city and has lived
there their whole life
2.
Dual nationality: the student
who has two passports from separate countries and most likely lives in one of
them, or the student who lives in a country they call home separate to their
one passport nationality
3.
‘Third Culture’ nationality:
the individual who holds two passports but lives in a third country and whose longer-than-expected
answer to the simple question tends to bewilder the questioner.
Not only does this cause the international
student comic relief but it creates an international camaraderie and a first
impression that could bond you together for longer than you first assumed.
No comments:
Post a Comment