Anti-Homusicku

In a classroom at little Claremont (Calif.) College one morning last week, a professor solemnly stood up before his class, threw his coat over his arm and, pretending to be a waiter, started handing out menus. The professor was not trying to be funny. Nor did his students laugh, for they were taking up a highly serious matter: how to order an American lunch.

Such scenes were taking place last week at 17 different U.S. campuses. Claremont was merely typical of a special nationwide orientation program that the State Department has set up. Dismayed by how long it takes for foreign exchange students to adjust to U.S. ways, State began experimenting last year, picked out a series of centers where students could go for indoctrination before moving on to their regular work at the colleges and universities of their choice. This year, with the program put on a permanent basis, 800 students from 52 different countries are now taking part.

Claremont's 38 students present a wide range of problems--from the "homusicku" (homesick) Japanese boy who cannot eat fried eggs, to the Indian who refuses to shower in the nude ("I shall wear my swim suit"). For such students, Claremont found that drills on grammar and pronunciation were beside the point. "In six weeks," says Dean Emmett Thompson, "we've got to give them a complete course in Americana."

Each morning the 38 students get a stiff bout of lectures. They not only master menus ("What kind of pie is this 'assorted'?" asked one student), but also timetables, train tickets, how to tip, how to type. They learn to foxtrot, travel by bus, use a Bendix and electric iron.

As the weeks pass, they will delve deeper into American life. They will study the U.S. education system, U.S. business, what America reads. They will hear talks by a labor leader, the president of a manufacturing company, both Republican and Democratic national committeemen. They will also visit a prison farm, a TV station, a county fair, the Hollywood Bowl.

All in all, Claremont thinks, the 38 should be able to get along in the U.S. at the end of the course--and by the time they hit their permanent campuses, there shouldn't be a homusicku one among them.

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