Language study goes hand in hand with the study of culture. When learning a foreign language, things like grammar rules and vocabulary are good starting points, but intrepid exploration of other cultures, beliefs and traditions is truly insightful and can circumvent negative misunderstandings.

Krista Van Fleit, the new faculty director of the University of South Carolina’s Global Fellows LLC (Living Learning Community), has lived in mainland China and Taiwan and is fluent in Mandarin. Even with her language skills, had she not been immersed in that culture, she might not know to always “give face” to elders and people in leadership. Van Fleit stresses that making mistakes when living in a different culture is part of the experience and that we should see take these mistakes as learning opportunities instead of shielding ourselves from trying to communicate for fear of misspeaking. She looks forward to helping students practice inter-cultural communication skills as Global Fellows.

“The Global Fellows Living Learning Community is a safe space where students can ask difficult, or perhaps awkward, questions that will lead to a greater understanding of classmates and teachers who are different from themselves,” she wrote in a vision statement for the program. “Our core values of connection, compassion and engagement guide our educational opportunities and extracurricular events.”

Global Fellows is housed in the South Quad residence hall, creating a living learning community of domestic and international students from all majors.  

“I have always been interested in international studies, and as a Chinese language teacher, I think it is important to be in a space where people are encouraged to use a foreign language as much as possible,” Van Fleit says.

An important part of Van Fleit’s more recent research is a comparative study of film in China and India.

“My work for this project has taken me to India to study Hindi and learn from South Asian film scholars as a Fulbright fellow at Jawaharlal Nehru University for a semester,” she explains. “As a film scholar, I also see the importance of watching films and television from other countries to support both linguistic and cultural knowledge, so I plan to start a foreign film club to screen films from around the world.”

Van Fleit looks forward to continuing the excellent work done by her predecessor, Bre Grace, and she also has lofty plans for the Global Fellows LLC. Her goals include:

• Working with the Department of Languages, Literatures and Cultures to institute a language-specific tutoring program for Global Fellows students.
• Facilitating a language exchange program so students can have one on one conversations with native speakers in the languages they study. 
• Instituting an international art workshop where students, after viewing a demonstration, can practice art forms such as Chinese calligraphy, Australian dot painting, Japanese Ikebana or Moroccan mosaic art.
• Facilitating service learning and volunteer opportunities that enable students to meaningfully participate in community events such as the Greek festival, Black history observances, Mardi Gras celebrations and screenings of international films.  

Van Fleit also plans to introduce an annual theme to the program, such as artificial intelligence or nature and sustainability, where students are encouraged to attend seminars on theme topics and engage in discussions of what they have learned.  

“Having a single theme gives students a natural basis for conversation,” Van Fleit says, adding that giving students a common topic to structure discussion helps facilitate communication. “Most classroom settings are enriched if the teacher can step back and leave room for students to experiment with their own ideas - that is when dialogue happens.”