4 WCC CABJPUS VOICE - DECEMBER 11. 1997
Campus acquires international flavor
7
Andrew Petniolo of Canada and Rehan Chowdhry
of Pakistan enjoy a moment in tiie lounge.
PHOTO: RIANNE DISCH
Man Chan and his tutor, Angela Aguigui, meet 3 times
weekly to review his assignments. PHOTO: STAFF
Man Chan, center, demonstrates his translator for
ENG 090 classmates Earl Moyer and Senneca Truzys.
PHOTO: ANGELA L AGUIGUI
By RIANNE DISCH
WCC serves a large
population of
international students,
in the English as
Second Language (ESL)
Program as well as in
regular curriculum,
according to Stephanie
Hunt, ESL instructor.
Over a dozen
different countries are
represented in the ESL
program. Hunt said.
ESL is located in
The Literacy Center
where many
international students
begin to acquire or
improve their English
skills.
Students hail from
countries ranging from
Canada and Mexico to
Japan and the
Philippines.
Hunt said the lab in
the AH building
currently serves 107
international students,
who study English,
helping them build
their English skills
until they can be
placed in a
conventional class
I setting.
Staff in the lab
also decipher the
equivalency grades the
students bring with
them from their native
countries.
These 107 students
represent 17 different
countries: 4 students
are from Bosnia, 15
from China, 16 from
Korea, 1 from
Yugoslavia, and 4 from
Thailand.
One student is from
Spain, 44 from Mexico,
2 from the Philippines,
2 from Peru, 1 from
Panama, 2 from Japan.
Four are from
Honduras, 3 from
Guatemala, 1 from
Egypt, 3 from El
Salvador, and 1 from
Ecuador.
Students in the
curriculum programs,
while having sufficient
skills in English,
still benefit from
tutors and counseling
as they adjust to
American lifestyles.
Rehan Chowdhry, 20,
recently moved to North
Carolina from Pakistan
to pursue a career in
medicine.
Chowdhry said he has
had difficulties
adjusting to the
freedom of expression
between the opposite
genders in the U. S.
”In Pakistan," he
said, "there must be a
one-foot distance
between every male and
female when sitting or
walking together."
In Pakistan,
marriages are still
arranged, mostly by the
wealthy families to
keep the family
wealthy.
Some middle class
families arrange
marriages, but the
children have final
choice about whom they
marry.
Women are very
oppressed in Pakistan,
Chowdhry says that the
girls must always wear
long gowns with a shawl
to cover their hair
when they go out into
public unless they are
going out to dinner.
Then they are
permitted to wear
loose-fitting jeans and
long-sleeved, loose-
fitting shirts.
Chowdhry said that
he likes life in the
U.S., but that doesn't
stop the homesickness.
Andrew Petruolo, 17,
came to the U.S. from
Montreal, Canada.
He said he is used
to the bustle of
Montreal and not the
calm of Wayne County.
He said if he could,
he would choose New
York to live in because
it is the most like
Montreal.
His father moved his
family here when he got
a job at Wayne Memorial
Hospital.
Petruolo said that
his family likes it
here, but he'd like to
go home.
He said that people
are much more friendly
here than in Montreal:
"They just walk by and
say, 'Hi' without
reason," and he can't
get used to it.
Man Chan, 19, first
came to the U.S. from
China in 1993 when he
and his family toured
and visited his ^
maternal aunts in New
York.
Chan's father and
mother decided that
Chan and his sister,
Manyuk, a 17-year-old
at Southern Wayne High
School, would have
better educational
opportunities in the
U.S.
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