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Firas Jamaludeen, an international student from Saudi Arabia, chats with his host mother Lea Criss on their porch Monday evening. Jamaludeen has been studying at the UA since January.

Host families help international students adjust to United States

Spring International Language Center provides intensive English and cross-cultural education

By: Taniah Tudor

Posted: 4/30/08

Students from countries around the world contribute to the diversity of the community while attending the Spring International Language Center.

SILC Director Leyah Bergman-Lanier said one of the wonderful things about Fayetteville is its willingness to embrace diversity.

The SILC is a 25-hour-a-week intensive English language program specifically designed to prepare students to enter U.S. colleges and universities, assist professionals who desire to strengthen their English language skills and teach anyone who seeks to improve their English communication skills, according to an information flyer provided by the center.

Bergman-Lanier founded the SILC 16 years ago.

"It started with just eight students from six countries," she said.

The mission of the SILC is to provide an intensive English and cross-cultural education to international students, according to the flyer.

"My perspective is you can't separate language and culture," Bergman-Lanier said. "Worldview is bound in language."

The program has students going to places all the time that give them an idea of how Americans do things, she said.

Jimmy Bowie, coordinator for student services at the SILC, said students visit places like the Boys and Girls Clubs of America and the homeless shelter and participate in events such as the recent cleanup of Mullins Creek.

"Volunteerism is a very strong value in the U.S.," Bergman-Lanier said. "The idea is for us to not only share our culture, but also for them to give their culture back to the community."

Some students come to the center just for the program, she said, while others have been conditionally admitted to the UA and must fulfill their English proficiency requirements before they can attend.

The program has six levels, with each session lasting nine weeks. If students enter at the beginning level, it can take anywhere from one to one and a half years for them to be ready for school, Bergman-Lanier said.

During that time, many of the students stay with host families as part of the cross-cultural experience.

One of the biggest problems for the program is not having enough host families for all the students, Bowie said.

"We are looking for hosts with open minds and open hearts, who are willing to take students from unfamiliar, unusual places," he said.

Host families range from single parents to grandparents to single older adults, Bergman-Lanier said. The program has a variety of families from a variety of backgrounds.

Such a family is Lea and Darryl Criss, a couple who currently host Firas Jamaludeen, an SILC student from Saudi Arabia, and Kazuki Kitajima, an SILC graduate and current UA student from Japan.

The Crisses started hosting students a little more than five years ago after a friend hosted a student from Japan. They have had at least 10 students stay with them for varying lengths of time.

Kitajima was 18 when he came to stay with the Crisses, and he has been with them the longest.

"We don't have children of our own," Lea Criss said. "For us this has been a wonderful opportunity to share with young people and give to them. We get the opportunity to have family. Our family is international. We have children all over the world."

Darryl Criss said they "try to give [the students] a sense of what America is really like, and one of our personal goals is to find out what these kids and their countries are really like."

The Crisses said they take the students on outings to places such as Eureka Springs and historic downtown Van Buren to see the mural of Arkansas history.

"We get a million times back what we give," Lea Criss said. "The learning experience has been priceless."

Kitajima said his main reason for coming to the U.S. was to pursue his dream of becoming a professional bass tournament fisherman. He is on the UA bass team and has been on the cover of Outdoor Arkansas twice for winning tournaments. He said he also has a job in the kitchen of the Kappa Sigma fraternity house.

The Crisses said they try to encourage the students' interests and find out their likes and dislikes.

"I learned real quickly with Kazuki - if you want to talk to him, you better know something about fish," Lea Criss said.

Jamaludeen said he plans to go to flight school in the U.S. once he passes the English proficiency exam. He wants to be a pilot for Saudi Arabian Airlines.

Lea Criss said Jamaludeen is planning to stay with them and go through all six levels at the SILC.

"I feel very comfortable in this house," Jamaludeen said. "It's like my family, my real family."

Lea Criss said they "get to know these kids like they are our own. We scold them like they are our own."

Darryl Criss added, "We annoy them like they are our own."

The Crisses said they also get to experience cultural differences through things like food and religion.

Darryl Criss said they are Christians and invite the students to go to church, but they don't try to force anything on them.

"We always try to let them know we respect their beliefs," he said.

Jamaludeen said he had never met any Christians before staying with the Crisses.

"It's different and interesting at the same time," he said.

Though Jamaludeen is Muslim, he said he has felt comfortable living in a Christian home.

A host family provides a stable environment where new students can feel secure that they have someone to help them and answer their questions, Kitajima said.

Kitajima misses his family, but he said that keeping in touch with them online has kept him from getting too homesick.

"Being away from my parents and family is part of being in another country," he said. "You have to take the risk of leaving home. My parents understand. I think there is more opportunity here that outweighs the risk."

Christine and Tim Klinger said the first time they hosted a student was in 2002. They have hosted about 20 students, with up to four staying in their home at one time.

The Klingers have two children, but both have graduated college and live in their own homes.

Currently, the Klingers are hosting Mshari Rajab from Saudi Arabia. Rajab has been staying with the Klingers for the seven months he has been in the U.S.

Christine Klinger said it was her idea to begin hosting the students from the SILC. She thought about it before and decided to try it when she saw an article in the paper about how the program needed hosts.

"It was easier than I thought," she said. "You have this idea that the students will be so dependent, but they are young adults and are kept so busy with activities, there are times you hardly see them at all."

Christine Klinger said they get very close to the students and treat them as their children. And when a male student stays with them, Tim Klinger is very involved.

"We go on little road trips," Tim Klinger said. "We go to Eureka Springs where we have a cabin and do projects up there, have campouts and cookouts."

Christine Klinger said Rajab comes from a very large family, and they live in the city.

"He likes the quiet he gets here," she said. "He loves the cabin and the solitude."

Rajab said he has been enjoying the experience a lot.

"I love to be here around them," he said. "It is the first experience of my life to be away from my family."

Christine Klinger said they welcome the students to have friends over and also like to entertain and get together with other host families.

The Klinger said there is much to gain from hosting an SILC student.

"We learn a great deal about culture, traditions and beliefs," he said, "that broadens our perspective of the variety of the human experience."

Christine Klinger said she feels like she is feeding her spirit when she and Tim host a student.

"One of my deep beliefs is how we're all the same; we're all one despite the superficial things like language, hair color, etc.," she said. "We have a very open, accepting value system, so we try to share that."

Rajab said his dream is to become a doctor, and he plans to study at the UA and stay in the U.S. after he graduates.

Christine Klinger said their lives are not really altered by hosting a student.

"It's a lot more flexible than you might realize, and the students are very independent," she said. "I would encourage anybody who has the slightest interest to give it a try."

Not all the students attending the SILC are on their way to school, though.

Bo Young Lee works for a company in Seoul, South Korea, and she said she expects the experience to help with her career.

Lee has been staying with Cheryl Whillock in Goshen, about seven miles outside of Fayetteville, for three and a half months.

In addition to certain amenities, like access to a bathroom and a place to study, host families are expected to provide two meals a day and transportation to students.

Whillock said she goes into town every day for work, so taking Lee to school is not a problem.

"Whenever I want to go somewhere, she takes me," Lee said.

Being from a bigger city like Seoul, Lee said she likes the experience of being closer to nature.

Whillock thinks it's nice to have someone to interact with, because she lives alone, she said.

They spend time exploring the rural surroundings, shopping and sightseeing, Whillock said, and they have participated in events such as Race for the Cure.

Lee has even learned how to make earrings since she has been staying in Goshen, Whillock said.

There are about 450 intensive English programs across the U.S., Bergman-Lanier said, and the SILC is pretty representative of pre-academic language programs.

"It's a good, solid program with a good reputation," she said, "but good things can always be made better."

The SILC is always in need of families to host students, Bowie said.

Besides trips and gatherings, the SILC offers other activities to students, like the Conversation Partner Program, in which an international student meets a native English speaker and they do regular activities like have coffee or visit Dickson Street.

When someone attends the SILC, they meet students from 20 other different countries, Bowie said, and do most of their interaction with them.

"They come here thinking they are just going to learn English," Bergman-Lanier said, "and they meet the world."