As part of an ongoing Sounds Good series meeting Murray State University international students, Matt Markgraf speaks with Karol Adanis Saenz Meneses from Panama City, Panama. She is one of seven Panamanian students studying here as part of a special collaboration with the U.S. Embassy and the Fullbright Association in Panama. They talk about her home country and culture and what she's studying at MSU.
Karol arrived in Murray on January 15. She is a senior English major and hopes to become an English professor. The program in which she is participating aims to help improve students’ English skills. She says the ability to speak English in Panama is becoming popular because the country’s robust tourism industry is growing and many jobs require the skill.
She says the hardest part about living in the United States so far has been the cold weather.
“The first night I remember that I didn’t know how to use the heater and the heater was turned to a really cold point,” Karol said. “The thing that I most like is the culture. It’s not like, really different than our culture, but you have different traditions. The one that caught our attention is when you walk in front of someone and you cross in the way they’re walking, you usually say sorry, a lot. ‘Sorry, sorry, sorry’ all the time. And we’re like, ‘Why are you doing that?’ And it’s like a positive culture shock, I don’t know how to explain it.”
The question she gets most often is if she knows how to dance salsa. She says she agrees to teach people how to dance salsa, even though she is still learning herself. “But they don’t know that I’m learning so they are amazed,” Karol said.
Dancing is a popular leisure activity in Panama. Karol says young Panamanians also love to hang out, eat together, party, and visit places in the country. She says friendship and family is extremely important in Panama and people do their best to take care of one another.
Karol returns to Panama in just a few weeks. She says she will immediately begin classes and work to finish her degree.