Making Friends with Classmates
Author: Eoin Jordan, University of St Andrews (with assistance from ChatGPT)
Review/editing: Aaron Rotsinger, University of St Andrews
Situation: Maria, an international student from Brazil, has recently arrived in Czechia to pursue her Master’s degree. She is eager to integrate into the local culture and make new friends.
One afternoon, Maria is in the university cafeteria when she meets Jan, a local Czech student. They start chatting about their courses, and the conversation seems to be going well. However, when Maria asks Jan about his weekend plans, he responds with a brief, “I’ll just be with my family,” and then changes the topic back to their studies.
Maria feels confused and a bit rejected by his abrupt response.
Question: Why did Jan behave in the way they did? Focus on explaining Jan’s behaviour, rather than Maria’s behaviour.
Jan doesn’t know Maria well and doesn’t want to get too personal
Jan doesn’t like Maria very much and doesn’t want her to know about his personal life
Jan tries not to mix school and private life
Jan has some family issues that he doesn’t want to explain
Jan is very anxious about his classes and really wants to focus on them
Jan thought that his weekend plans weren’t very interesting, so he didn’t want to bother Maria
Jan was embarrassed because he doesn’t have many friends to spend the weekend with
What could Maria do to try and understand Jan’s reaction better?
Should Jan have been more careful with Maria’s feelings?
What do you think they could each learn from this incident?