Freitag, 7. Oktober 2011

How international is the "International House" really?

Walking in the dorm, greeting people and looking at the mailboxes, I often wondered: Why do I encounter so many Germans? Isn't this dorm supposed to be an "International House", which should especially have a majority of foreign residents? Does it deserve its name?
I got the stats for you. Let's take a look:

Residents per country
Europe in detail

In a pie chart:
I find two facts suprising:

  • No people from Italy, Netherlands, Portugal, Scandinavia or Spain have their home at INF129. I could have bet that there would be at least one person from these countries living in this dorm. Ok, I know, your countries are nice places, but why not come to Heidelberg :)?
  • Chinese are usually the biggest group (everywhere :) of the international crowd, but here it is people from the US! I guess Heidelberg is pretty popular there :)

Is this worth the title "International House"? Hardly. However, I have to admit: The 30% international people are pretty diverse. In any case, I hope there will be more opportunities to bring the German and non-German people together. My year abroad in the US was unquestionable one of the best years of my life so far and a big part of it was meeting people from different countries with different cultural backgrounds. Meeting people here could be the cheapest student-exchange you will ever have.

2 Kommentare:

  1. Also interesting (in German):
    http://www.geog.uni-heidelberg.de/md/chemgeo/geog/institut/wissenschaftsatlas_artikel_schuch.pdf

    Page three shows the home countries of all students at the University of Heidelberg.

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  2. Hey Chris,
    nice facts you have gathered here. Really interesting research.
    You inspired me for my work and i hope to read more soon.

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