Saved this article in my e-mail account for days, thought of posting it up. Anyone here attended/ing Karachi University?
Far from home, Shazman Shariff, DAWN, 1 April 2004
Although they are quite content with their academic pursuits, foreign students at Karachi University have a lot to say about the many challenges they face culturally, socially and with the language barrier, writes Shazman Shariff.
Jung Suk Park, a Korean student at Karachi University (KU), knows little Urdu but still manages to communicate with people who are unfamiliar with English, like shopkeepers and bus conductors. “I prefer going to Park Towers or other supermarkets in Clifton where they know some English,” she says. Park is doing an Urdu certificate course from the university’s Urdu department.
Her interest in Urdu developed when she was a student of Inter- Cultural Studies in Europe and she met some Pakistani students. “I found their language interesting,” she said and added that although there were teaching centres in Europe, she opted to come to Pakistan so that she could also experience its cultural diversity.
Having spent over a year at KU she thinks Pakistan is “modern and different.” She was full of praise for her teachers and friends but added that there were some students who made her feel uncomfortable when they stared at her. To avoid getting undue attention and to blend into the crowd she began wearing a chaddar, and felt it had made a difference.
Jung Ju is another Korean student at the department doing a certificate course in Urdu. She described KU as open and active. Before coming here she was a teacher of German, a language she is conversant in besides English and Korean. “I am learning the Urdu alphabet now and can speak a little bit.”
**Having overcome the culture shock, she thought it was nice to be here, save the hot weather. “I find rickshaws very exciting and I like your clothes.” What pleases her more than anything is the way people treat her when she goes out. “The kids at my apartment block wave to me and greet me when they see me coming. It shows I am welcome,” she said with a smile. Having travelled a lot, her experience has greatly helped her to live on her own in Pakistan. However, she expressed her hesitation at being photographed and politely declined the request.
The department of Urdu has been playing host to many foreign students from Somalia, Korea, Sweden, Iran and China**, said Moinuddin Aqeel, the chairperson. He saidit was encouraging to have foreign students and talked about how some of them had completed their masters and Ph.D after completing certificate courses. This year is the first time, the department has had a student from the US.
Making no bones about the real reason for coming to Pakistan, Nedal, a Jordanian student at the pharmacy department, said that his grades were not good enough to secure him an admission in a university back home. Besides, he said, Pakistan was considered to be a nice place to study by many students in Jordan.
“We want to learn English, which we are taught here. The English in Arab countries is poor,” he said. Content with university life, the only thing that distresses him was when teachers switched from English to Urdu. “We know very little Urdu so we tend to feel a little lost when this happens.” Wishing there was a system of credit hours at the university, Nedal, who got a scholarship, thinks things would be more beneficial for the students if rules regarding the number of courses taken per semester were made flexible.
He thinks Pakistan is quite “culturally different”, but being an Islamic country gives it a plus point. “It’s okay here, but I find the food too spicy and face a lot of problems because of it.” Spicy food seemed a touchy issue for Nedal and his other university friends from Jordan as they all began to complain about it. They said they seldom go to the canteen or other eating places as there was hardly anything that they found less spicy - except for cold drinks and biscuits.
“It was my own decision to come here, that is why I never regret it,” said Nedal, adding that he often misses his family, but speaking to them over the phone helps him feel closer to them. He spoke highly about his friends. “My class fellows are the best thing about Pakistan.” He recounted how they helped him get an apartment and by giving him their notes. In turn, he is glad to help them when they face problems in Arabic, and loves doing translations for them.
Abdul Fateh, a second year student in the pharmacy department, is from Palestine. He seemed shy of sharing his views but thought that being a foreign student is a challenging affair. “I don’t like it too much.” In his opinion the food leaves much to be desired and the standard of cleanliness in the city and on campus is unsatisfactory.
Besides, the language barrier creates many problems for them inside and outside campus. “When we go shopping, the shopkeepers can tell we are from abroad, and they jack up their prices.” Despite this, Fateh enjoys shopping at Tariq Road, the Awami Markaz and Agha’s supermarket, and thinks Pakistan is not an expensive country.
While voicing problems genuinely faced by foreign students, Mohammad Asad from Jordan asked in a good-humoured way why the people here believe in taking bribes. The rules asking them to register themselves at police stations, and informing them about visa extensions trouble students more than anything else. “They harass us, delay our work, and then expect us to bribe them to get our work done.”
Asad who seemed to have suffered at the hands of the police said that some policemen ask for dollars once they realize they are foreigners. When asked how much they usually pay to get through, he smiled and said “bohat” (a lot).
When giving details of foreign students at KU, Mohammad Kaleem Raza Khan, foreign student advisor, said it was after a break of three or four years that the university has once again started enrolling foreign students from countries such as Somalia, Korea, Kenya, Iran, Bangladesh and Jordan.
He said that nothing could be compared to the time back in the '70s when there were hundreds of foreign students on campus. According to a rough estimate, at the moment there are 110 foreign students in the science and arts faculties. But the figure fluctuates if students fail to get visa extensions, or if they abandon studies for various reasons. The pharmacy department seems to attract the most foreign students and most of them are males.
According to Khan, the reason for a decline in admissions was the recent increase in tuition fees and the equivalence test introduced some years ago for foreign students. The test screens out those candidates who don’t fulfill the academic requirements. “We gain in monetary terms when the students come on a self- finance basis. But if they are sent here through exchange programmes or on scholarships, it does not benefit the university financially.”
Recalling his student days, Sarwar Nasim, professor at the department of mass communication, spoke fondly of the time in the '70s when a classroom had several foreign students. “This gave us an opportunity to learn about their language and culture. It served as a tool for the transmission of culture.”
He remembered there used to be separate football teams of Sudanese and Arab students because there were so many of them. “Whatever Arabic I picked up was through my class fellows from Egypt and other Arab countries.” In his opinion having foreign students not only meant foreign exchange for the university, but also gave it the status of an international university.
A student from Kenya, who requested anonymity, agreed quite reluctantly to a quick chat while she walked towards the girls’ hostel. “We had few classes today because some teachers were absent,” she said. A student of masters at the department of international relations, she expressed her satisfaction over her studies saying, “It’s fine here, although the summer is quite unbearable.”
Giving a demonstration of her Urdu she has picked up from friends, she repeated the word rukoh (stop). She knows it’s used when hailing a bus. She commutes by metro bus and is grateful to her friends for giving her directions to the main shopping centres and net cafes, as she keeps in touch with her family through the Internet. Her free time is spent in the company of students from her native country. Appearing well-adjusted with her academic life, she is here for another three years.
Regarding difficulties faced by students at the campus, it was found that most stem from their inability to speak English, and Urdu being completely alien to them. This limits them from socializing with classmates and also causes problems with their studies.
Naushaba Moosvi, assistant professor at the department of English, said that foreign students have to work extra hard to learn the language. In her opinion those coming from southern African countries are comparatively better than those from Arab countries. Prof. Moosvi, who’s been teaching since 1982, said foreign students are more polite than their Pakistani counterparts and show a greater degree of respect to their teachers. “They are all very well behaved and never create a fuss over anything.”
Rest of article accessible via link.
yup we have lots of foreign students in pakistan 