As I was editing Namsoon Kang’s essay on “Radical Border-Crossing,” my American-born daughter told me of her friendship with an international student at the University of Iowa. She and her new friend from China exchange meals in their student apartments in Iowa City. They alternate Chinese and American foods, taking turns cooking for each other. They discuss holidays like Valentine’s Day or the Chinese New Year, phrases like “I love you,” and customs like dating. The rhythm of their “culture or context comparison” is this: “We do this, you do that. What do we have in common?” Of course, I probed about the matter of differences. Risk-takers that they are, the counsel was this: “You have to be willing to say, ‘Ooh, let’s try this!’” Perhaps in the rhythm and risk of these mundane yet microcosmic moments on a university campus, there is a hint of the promising future of transnational encounter in education.
Jeanne Stevenson-Moessner, Spotlight on Theological Education editor
