Why do we love to be “foreign”?

This interview was with someone who differs greatly from my other subjects within my project of trying to understand the international student’s imaging of their place in American society. He is much older, and on the path to getting a Ph.D. He has experienced much more of this country and the world than most of my other participants. During this moment in our discussion my interviewee, “Mr. French” did a brilliant job of opening up an perspective of why we all love being different. Those who come to this country for school, or for any reason for that matter, understand that when they are here they have one thing they can always hold on to and have take solace in, their identity. When you are in a country of complete difference from your own, you must take ownership of your differences from that culture and allow those differences to then give you strength in your times of cultural, social, or mental hardship. International students are in a constant battle of becoming entrenched in their new surrounding culture while also remaining connected to their native culture.