By: Tanya Dovbnya
OPIE welcomes OU faculty, staff, and students to join OPIE events this week!
- Grammar Workshop: Prepositions– Wednesday, Feb. 11, 9:00-10:00, Gordy 116
- OPIE Wednesday Activity: Kennedy Museum of Art– Wednesday, Feb. 11, 10:30-12:00pm, meeting in Gordy parking lot
- OPIE Lecture Series; Speaker: Anne Wilson from Good Works- Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2:00-2:55 pm, Morton 201
- International Conversation Hour; Engage in multicultural dialogue- Thursday, Feb. 12, 6:00-7:00pm, Bobcat Student Lounge (1st floor Baker Center)
- ACE Valentine Card Making Party– Thursday, Feb. 12, 7:00-9:00pm, Gordy 113
OPIE Graduation Celebration 2015
Friday, February 13th, 5:00-6:30 pm. Baker Ballroom, Ohio University
Join us to celebrate the graduation of those who successfully completed OPIE in Spring 2014, Summer 2014, and Fall 2014!
If you are one of the graduates, do not forget to come and receive your certificate of completion!
Hours D’oeuvres and beverages provided.
OPIE’s New Elective:
Exploring American Culture
In Spring 2015, a new special studies course has been offered to OPIE students at the Bridge Level, Exploring American Culture. The need for a class about the U.S. culture for the newly arrived international students can hardly be overrated. Realizing such a need, Kristina Guyton, OPIE Lecturer and Socio-Cultural Coordinator, designed the class out of her enjoyment of creating something new, and because she considered it to be a relevant and interesting class. Recently, her idea came to the fruition, turning a new elective into a great success with the OPIE students.
Kristina accommodated 19 students in her classroom, an unusually high number of students for a language class, to fit all the students willing to enroll in her new course. Unanimously, the students agree on the usefulness of the class and its uniqueness. They say the class gives the students an opportunity to actively observe and reflect on the culture around them, not just focus on language. Students in this class enjoy learning about American mainstream values, such as individual freedom, self-reliance, equality of opportunity, competition, and hard work. According to Rasha, the student from Saudi Arabia, she had known these American values before, but she did not known their background and history. Now, she thinks she understands American culture better, and knows the reasons why people do what they do.
Mohamed, a student from Lybia, comments that this class gives him a chance ‘not just to swim but dive in the American culture’ due to the depth of the cultural knowledge and skills taught there. In Exploring American Culture, the students are engaged in a variety of activities including guided observations, speaking with Americans, in-class discussions, small-group projects, oral presentations, and watching movies. Kristina also brings guest speakers into her class in order to diversify the instruction and add various perspectives on the cultural issues. As an instructor, she has appreciated students’ active participation in group discussions.
Among the activities that the students find particularly interesting and helpful are observations of how people greet each other, how they interact in a line, how they behave in the elevator, and discover the notion of personal space in various contexts. Seyma, a student from Turkey, comments that she has become a much better interpreter of the relationships among people around her thanks to this class. Other students add that this new knowledge helps them build stronger relationships with people, and avoid conflicts due to misunderstanding of cultural cues. Students agree that such a class should be offered at all levels of OPIE since it can help new international students adjust to Athens and Ohio University faster, become more comfortable in their daily routine activities, and enhance their interaction with people from diverse cultures. Students’ recommendations of the class to their peers are indeed the best evaluations of its effectiveness and impact.
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