It's the weekend before your freshman year orientation. You haul your belongings up to your new dorm, while simultaneously remembering all of the roommate horror stories that you've heard over the years. You open the dorm door, and there stands your new roommate—jet lagged from her international flight. Sharing a tiny space with a stranger from across the world seems daunting to you. "Mom, please take me home", you think. Ending up giving new experiences a chance having an international student as a roommate is one of the most rewarding college experiences.
1. Learning about another culture from a real person
In high school, you learn about world history from textbooks. In college, you meet friends from diverse backgrounds, and you learn about their hometowns that you hope to travel to one day. The only thing better than being friends with an international student is living with one. Not only do you hear incredible stories about her culture, but you also have the opportunity to help her immerse in American culture. My first international roommate suggested her favorite TV show to me, which I watched with subtitles of course, and loved it.
2. Understanding world issues and current events through their perspective
Living with someone with a different cultural background can help you better understand your own society. Often, we make choices based on our own situations, and we do not acknowledge how our choices can affect the wider global community. I lived in New York during the 2016 presidential election, and having a non-American roommate with different political views gave me invaluable insight.
3. Trying new foods
If your roommate comes to America with two suitcases, at least one of them is stashed with food from home. You bond over sharing each other's favorite snacks, and you wonder how you lived so long by eating food from only your country. One of the best parts about having an international student as a roommate is when you go out to try some local cuisines with your friends, you bring back the leftovers for each other.
4. Realizing what you love about your country
Sometimes it's easy to forget about the simple things that you love so much about your country until you introduce them to someone else. For example, all of your American friends may already know about your favorite books, movies, stores, and restaurants. But when you share these things with someone from another country, they become even more exciting to you.
5. Introducing your roommate to American holidays and celebrating her holidays
Your roommate needs extra support from you on the holidays that she would usually gets to spend at home with her family. You can't bring her whole family to America on those days, but you can celebrate her first American holidays with her. Having an international student as a roommate makes holidays that you thought you had outgrown fun again, because you are sharing old traditions while making some new ones of your own.
6. Practicing a foreign language
If you are extra lucky, your roommate speaks a foreign language that you are studying or interested in. If she does, she can help you decipher emails from your professor, review for your quizzes, or help you learn some vocabulary. In foreign language classes, you sometimes learn phrases that are archaic, words that no normal person native to their country would ever say in today's world, as well as phrases that are awkwardly formal. Your roommate can help you not embarrass yourself by letting you know which ones those are. If she is not a native English speaker, you get the chance to help her too! When she asks you what certain American slang words mean, you can explain. This often leads to funny conversations.
7. Having someone to share your homesickness
When you can't tell the difference between your tears from homesickness and your tears from being allergic to whatever is growing in your dorm- your roommate is there for you. Having an international student as a roommate makes you realize the value of family, and reminds you that closeness is not about physical distance. While you can travel home during long weekends and holidays, your roommate may not be able to. Feeling empathetic for someone else helps you overcome your own homesickness. You will build a home away from home together.
8. Learning to work out differences
Having major differences in living preferences can happen with a roommate from anywhere. However, sometimes culture does play a role in these differences. Once you learn to work out the differences and find happy compromises, you grow as roommates, friends and people.
9. Realizing how much you have in common with each other
Here's not a surprise: Despite your differences, you will be amazed at how similar you and your roommate are. The best things in life are universal.
Final note: To have a good roommate, you have to be a good roommate. The opportunity to have an international student as a roommate is one of the best gifts of college. So far, I have lived with two international students, and I look forward to living with another next semester.
