ssues & ideas EDITOR CHAHIRA MERARSI THE VOICE, THURSDAY, NOV. 17, 2016 7 Students: seeking campus culture Creating social circles at school can be a challenge but there are avenues to make friends Q Clobs promote diversi ms —F N Ras CLARE HENNIG photo Students celebrate Diwali on Thursday Nov. 10 at a party hosted by the South Asian Club and the Langara Students’ Union. Langara students gather and connect around common languages, backgrounds and traditions By CLARE HENNIG tudent clubs that centre around culture are helping students connect in a unique and differ- ent way. At Langara, nearly a quarter of the student clubs are focused on a specific culture or language. Whether cultural clubs are a way to practice or learn a new language or an opportunity to speak a native language, they indicate and promote multiculturalism on cam- pus. Nathania Santoso, who moved to Vancouver a year ago from Jakarta, joined the Garuda Indonesia — Langara Association as soon as she started at the college. “It feels great if you meet people with your own language, you’re able to engage with them more,” Santoso said. Dwiputra Yogiswara, president of the Garuda Indonesia — Langara Asso- ciation, said many of the cultural clubs are focused on creating a home-away- from-home for international students from specific countries. “We want to help international Indo- nesian students get to know Vancouver alot better ... land] help them get used to Canadian society,” said the club president. The majority of the members of the club are Indonesian, said Yogiswara, but they host events like Indonesia In- dependence Day celebrations for the general public Bryce Young, president of the Langa- ra French Club, said the cultural clubs are very much in line with the multi- culturalism of the college and the na- tion. “Canada is such a diverse place, I think it’s really important to be multi- cultural — to accept and learn about other cultures and languages,” Young said. The French club is mainly focused on language and about 90 per cent of the members are enrolled in beginner French language classes. Young said it gives them a place to practice the lan- guage and learn more about franco- phone culture. “Canada is a bilingual country with English and French so I think it’s pretty important for people to at least under- stand French and their culture,” Young said. MORE culture clubs LANGARA CHINESE LANGUAGE AND CULTURE CLUB “improving our Chinese language skills and gaining a better understanding of the Chinese culture.” LANGARA JAPAN CLUB “Our goal is to introduce the beauty and culture of Japan to Langara students...” Source: http://langara.ca/ student-services/student-clubs/ Making local friends tough International and domes- tic students at disconnect By SEAN HITREC lthough Langara provides pro- Aes and opportunities for in- ternational students to engage in the community, some students still feel left out. For many international students, so- cializing with domestic students is challenging. Tiago Brenck, an international stu- dent at Langara from Brazil, finds him- self only mixing with foreign students. Brenck has unsuccessfully tried to meet Canadians, on and off campus. The class he’s taking at Langara has one domestic student. The rest are in- ternational education students. Brenck has also had bad experienc- es trying to find a date in Canada. “T was talking to a girl and when she realized that I was from Brazil she said, ‘oh, I’m not going to meet be- cause I know that you just wanna marry me to get a Visa and then you’re gonna dump me,” Brenck said. Jasse Malhi, a first year of computer science student from India, said all was fine until Donald Trump was elected. “..[someone] was talking to me about the [United States] election and he said he’d pray for my family,” Malhi said. He has otherwise felt accepted, though that the comment was “odd” and made him feel uncomfortable. In an email, Ajay Patel, the associate vice president of international and ex- ternal development, said Langara is a good place to be an international stu- dent despite the extra challenges they face. “International students who are new to Canada, and new to Langara, face the additional challenge of adjusting to Canadian life, being independent, aca- demic expectations in the Canadian classroom,” Patel said. “Having been a student at Langara and now serving as an employee, I think Langara College has always sup- ported students from diverse back- grounds. It is one of the reasons I at- tended Langara.” TIAGO BRENCK Brazilian inter- national student Making friends at Langara not easy Absence of spirit on cam- pus leaves students lonely and hoping to socialize By CHELSEA POWRIE any Langara College students Mi: a hard time connecting with each other and making friends on campus. With a large percentage of Langara students aiming to transfer to universi- ties, many of them are only at the col- lege for a short time. Alex Daniels, a computer science student, said the college isn’t unfriend- ly, but isn’t friendly either. “There’s definitely some sort of bar- rier between the ability to just sort of walk up to somebody and connect with them,” Daniels said. “I find that most of the connections I’ve made at this school is because I was in some sort of group project. “T haven’t made many friends out- side of class.” Criminology student Sydney Yuers said students need to take the first step and initiate friendships. “T feel like a lot of people are shy on this campus,” Yuers said. “But if you’re the one that put yourself out there and you start talking to someone, every- one’s really friendly and willing to be your friend. “It’s just people don’t really talk to each other a whole lot.” Danielle Travassos, a busy psychol- ogy and women’s studies student from Brazil, works a mandatory 20 hours per week. “T particularly don’t have much time to make friends and hang out,” Travas- sos said. The Langara Social Club was launched in 2012 with the aim of im- proving Langara’s sense of community. “TLast year] we had our annual Hal- loween pub-crawl, our annual lunch- bag, a couple of other pub-crawls, we co-hosted ‘Thirsty Thursdays’ and a cookout,” said marketing management student Genevieve Fontanilla, a group organizer. However, the club is on hiatus. Font- anilla said they hope to resume soon. Jack Lin, a social sciences student, would like to start a volleyball club but is worried nobody would participate. “T know there used to be a volleyball club but they stopped operating,” Lin said. Pe erm nario DG IC NAT, CN Eisen MAL | RE RAE r = | CHELSEA POWRIE photo Langara students often spend time on campus alone.