The BYU-Hawaii college experience is distinguished by the intercultural encounters and friendships made with housemates and dorm-mates from around the world, according to BYUH undergrads. Trevor Johnson, a senior majoring in social work from Seattle, Wash., talked about how he acts differently towards an international housemate.
There are six people living in the house with Johnson, and five of them are Americans. Only one is Korean. “I eat everybody’s food, except his food”, said Johnson, while describing the difference between living with Americans and a Korean.
“I can just go into my other housemates’ rooms when they are not there, like when they are taking a shower, ” he added. But he said he does not do the same thing with the Korean housemate.
“I don’t know if it’s okay in his culture,” Johnson explained. Tzu Huan Yu, a senior in hospitality and tourism management from Taiwan, recalled the nationalities of her previous and current roommates at BYUH. “I have lived with people who are from the U.S. mainland, Korea, New Zealand, Mongolia, Taiwan, and Tonga,” said Yu.
Yu said she has learned cultural awareness when living with international people. “Americans are usually pretty polite. Polynesian girls are hospitable and happy. They always have music on. They cook for their friends a lot, and they invite me to eat their food too, which is really nice,” said Yu. When it comes to roommate conflict, Yu said she fought with her Korean roommate sometimes.
“Her personality was a little bit strong,” she said. But she mentioned that the Korean roommate was caring to her when she broke up with her boyfriend. “She adjusted my posture when I was heartbroken on my bed. She said the posture would make my body sore later,” said Yu.
Together, Mei Yi Chau, a senior majoring in social work from Hong Kong, and Lindi Bradford, a senior majoring in exercise and sport science from Oregon, shared their good times being together as roommates and as good friends. They have been roommates since August 2015.
When talking about cultural differences, Chau mentioned they eat different foods, but Bradford is always willing to try her food. Chau has realized Americans sometimes pretend they like food when they really don’t, so she invited Bradford to voice her true feelings about the food that she made. They have code words. Whenever Bradford doesn’t like Chau’s food, she says, “Oh! It’s interesting.”
Bradford said the only food Chau made that she did not like so far was purple rice. However, Bradford said she likes most of Chau’s food, such as egg tarts and pineapple pound cake. When being asked about the reasons why they became good friends, Bradford responded, “I think you meet people for reasons. I feel like I have learned so much from Chau, so maybe that’s why.”
Chau said, “The more we talk to each other, the more we found we have some common thoughts and ideas about things, and that really relates us to each other.”
Chau added that Bradford is the bug-killer in their unit. Bradford explained that there were three girls who spoke Cantonese in their unit. When they were chatting in the kitchen, she couldn't understand what they were saying. Suddenly, they would scream out and she would hear, “Lindi! Lindi!”
Chau and Bradford said they have a really good time living together. Sometimes, they eat together as a unit and they even went to Chinatown together. “They took me to a Hong Kong restaurant. The food was so good!” exclaimed Bradford.