Campus educates on international cultures

    Murray State will provide glimpses of life abroad by hosting International Education Week Saturday through Friday.
    “Murray State is in the business of educating global citizens,” Melanie McCallon, associate director for the Institute of International Studies, said. “We want them to think about global events and how they apply to America’s issues. We want students to learn about other ideas and how we can learn from them.”
    McCallon said she hopes after students learn about other countries through these events, they will want to study abroad.
    “We want students to learn from a global perspective,” McCallon said. “We would love for students to study abroad, but only 2.5 percent of them do. We have to reach those students who will not or cannot study abroad.”
    The first events on the IEW schedule include a 5k run/walk with the Institute for International Studies at 8 a.m. Saturday, followed by the Murray State Olympics, sponsored by the International Ambassadors at 2 p.m. in the Curris Center.
    The week includes scholarly presentations and study abroad program highlights such as “Happiness: Perspectives from Austria” by J. Ian Norris, “Extending China’s Great Wall to Murray State Classrooms” by a panel of Murray State faculty, “International Slang” by Bill Mulligan and “Whither Healthcare? How do we navigate? An International Comparison” by Murray State faculty.
    Stephanie Carpenter, professor of history, will present with other faculty on the faculty’s Discover China 2009 program and will implement topics and issues from the experience into the classroom, she said.
    “As a participant, we visited the cities of Beijing and Xi’an, and the historic sites of Great Wall, Tiananmen Square, Temple of Heaven, Ming Tombs, Summer Palace, Emperor Qin Shi Huang’s Tomb and Terra Cotta Warriors,” Carpenter said. “The ideas and insights I learned while in China will benefit my history classes and agricultural classes significantly.”   
    Chen Jin, graduate student from Beijing, China, said she has lived in the United States for year and has noticed many differences between the two cultures.
    “It is easier to communicate with professors here than in China,” Jin said. “In China, the professor teaches, and contact with the professor is very different. Relationships are much colder in China than in the United States. Chinese families are only allowed one child, and it can feel lonely there.”
    Although she has only traveled to the United States, Jin said she has experienced different cultures in her classrooms at Murray State and suggested everyone travel abroad.
    “I will meet many different people from Korean, Japanese and Arabic cultures in my classes,” she said. “I believe learning about different cultures and their attitudes and beliefs are important. People are scared to leave their country and what they know to travel abroad and experience something new.”
    Along with Murray State faculty and student presentations, guest speaker Franz Winser will deliver one of the keynote addresses, “Honeymoon with My Brother,” at 6 p.m. Friday at the Curris Center Theater.
    The first 50 people to enter the theater for the keynote address will receive a copy of Wisner’s book “Honeymoon with My Brother,” McCallon said. Wisner’s novel chronicles a 53-country honeymoon he took with his brother after his fiancee left him at the altar, she said.
    Other events include the Ten Thousand Villages sales and an International Bazaar where international students will showcase their native food, language and customs.
    Global IQ quizzes will also be handed out at IEW presentations and can be returned to the Rocking Chair Lounge in the Curris Center for a chance to win an iPod. 
    Contact Cobb at ashlee.cobb@murraystate.edu.