Four of the many IU students who studied abroad this year had one unifying experience, despite living in four different countries and three different continents: they were all faced with a constant barrage of questions about the Republican Party’s presidential nominee Donald Trump.
The upcoming presidential election has made Trump a prevalent discussion topic here in the United States, but these students learned firsthand that the same conversation is happening all around the world.
Senior Abby Elston, who has a double major in linguistics and French, said most people she met studying abroad at the Université du Québec à Chicoutimi in Canada inquired about Trump as soon as they found out she was American.
“Some Canadians told me they like to watch American politics because it’s more dramatic than Canadian politics,” Elston said.
Elston said she was mostly asked about Trump in informal settings rather than in the classroom, but Trump did come up in class when students were defining the left to right spectrum in American politics.
Elston said one Canadian student used Trump as an example of the furthest possible right.
One of the questions Elston said she was asked the most was how Trump made it so far in the election. She was required to always speak French in the program, so she said she had to be careful while answering questions to communicate that she does not agree with Trump’s ideas.
“They were truly curious about it, and wanted to know the perspective of someone who is from America,” Elston said.
Mitchell Sigmund, a senior studying English and Italian, spent a year at the University of Bologna in Italy where he said questions about Trump started to increase in the spring semester once it was clear Trump would be the Republican Party’s nominee.
Sigmund said he noticed Sen. Bernie Sanders, D-Vermont, was also a common talking point among Italians before he exited the race and said many of the Italians he encountered viewed Trump and Sen. Sanders as political polar opposites.
[College Democrats at IU endorse Clinton for president]
Sigmund said many of the Italians he spoke to wanted to know what he thought of Trump and rarely took Trump’s candidacy seriously.
“They were very surprised to find out there are Trump supporters,” Sigmund said.
Sabrina Acker, a senior studying supply chain management with a co-major in technology management, said people were more hesitant to ask her about politics directly during her semester in Singapore.
Acker said this was most likely due to Singapore’s restrictions on freedom of speech.
One place where they were less hesitant to ask her about politics was in her leadership and ethics class at the National University of Singapore. She was the only American student in the class.
Acker said questions about Trump were directed to her often in the class and other students wanted to know if she would be voting for him, why people vote for him and how he has succeeded in the election.
When she wasn’t studying in Singapore, Acker backpacked in other southeast Asian countries where she said she encountered enthusiasm for a different United States politician.
“I traveled southeast Asia a lot and I was surprised at how many people love Obama,” Acker said.
Elizabeth Pekar, an IU senior studying marketing with a technology management co-major, said most people she talked to during her semester abroad in Glasgow, Scotland, would mention Trump as soon as they found out she was American.
Pekar studied at the University of Strathclyde, where she said she encountered a lot of other international students who had varying degrees of interest in discussing Trump.
“Most people would ask if you were voting for someone and if you knew anyone who was voting for Trump,” Pekar said.
Pekar said these interactions abroad taught her that many people do not realize how many eyes are on U.S. politics.
“The whole world is watching us and waiting to find out what’s going to happen next,” Pekar said.
