Cultural diversity in Residence halls of Education City in Qatar

Subcultures are a group of people who share similar culture, beliefs and interest. There are numerous amounts of subcultures in Qatar that can be divided into various groups. Like for example people coming from Lebanese will have a different Arabic accent than that of Arabs in Egypt. I experience one such subculture all the time.

Living in the dorms of Education City, Qatar Foundation, I not only

experience living with 5 different nationalities in one apartment but also view living with students from 3 different universities. There is a subculture within the subculture. My dorm mates are from all across the world ranging from Mauritania, Kenya, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, America and me being a Pakistani, we all share a range of cultural diversity amongst each other. However with all that differences, we still share a common ground for living and try to accommodate with each other.

People in my house can still be further simplified and divided into 2 groups that is the right brain and left sided brain people. It is not that the right brain people do not have a left-brain but it is just that they use their right brain more often than their left-brain. It is also scientifically proven that the right brain people are more creative and artistic than the left-brained people. However it is also seen that left-brained people are better at reasoning, speech, writing and number skills than the right brained people.

This further leads us to clearly define and separate Virginia Commonwealth University of Arts in Qatar (VCUQ) with other educational organizations in the Education City. In my dorms the ratio for VCUQ compared to other universities is 2 to 6. Me being a VCUQ student experienced a lot of different opinions about my university from my fellow dorm mates. A complete different view exits about the work done by the art students at VCUQ. One of my dorm mates, Nadila from Kenya also an engineering student from Texas A&M said to me once:

“I always thought VCUQ students are the most chilled people in education city, as all they do is draw. The people who are not that genius and don’t have an intelligent mindset can easily get in VCUQ. However after meeting you my opinion has changed”

My other roommate, Marium from Mauritania and currently a business student at Carnegie Melon University said to me:

“Before meeting you I always thought VCUQ students just party every time. They are interested in doing fashion shows and there is not much serious work behind it. But after looking at you, my view has changed completely. I think it’s the most hardworking university in the whole Education City. The amount of staying up the whole night in order to complete every days deadline is crazy for u guys.”

Furthermore, living with them also changed my opinion about them. I won’t generalize it but according to what I viewed so far engineering students from Texax A&M are serious when they are at work but they know well how to balance work with leisure. Carnegie Melon’s business students on the other hand love sleeping but will study at the last minute and will manage it pretty well. Whereas, the Georgetown University students who study International Relations believe more in group studying and partying at the same time.

Living with such diverse group of people in the residence halls not only changed my opinion regarding other universities but also helped me to eradicate the misconception about my university VCUQ. I also observed the positive influence that the Qatar Foundation’s Housing and Residence Life community provides to us. By getting people from different cultures and different universities not only helps to curb down the misunderstandings between various cultures but in general also enhances student‘s growth and development by learning in various educational, recreational and social sectors of life.

I now truly believe in the sociological research that living in the residence halls leads to a positive cultural influence on students and makes them more aware of the cultural surroundings. It reshapes an individual, makes the person independent and culturally active.

http://www.qf.org.qa/clubhouse/output/page308.asp

http://www.qf.org.qa/clubhouse/output/page311.asp

http://www.myeducationcity.com/en/dynamic_pages/index/227/1/housing-and-residence-life

http://www.housingeducators.org/Journals/H&S_Vol_31_No_2_Cultural_Background_and_Housing_Satisfaction.pdf