Nobody really thought that was going to happen in 21st century… there is so so many things that has been impacting the Burmese community in general and the Burmese international students across the world.

Hayley interviewed Alfred, a student at Orange Coast College majoring in Communication Studies. He is currently working as event coordinator for a small local business and has been living in the United States for about two years. He wants to be able to get a bachelor degree in Communication and continue his parents’ business in Myanmar. Alfred shared that he was first exposed to American culture by attending international school in Myanmar. He enjoys learning as well as trying food from different cultures, and wants more people to know about Myanmar since there are not many people who know about his country. Hayley began the interview by asking Alfred about whether the pandemic has affected his ability to socialize and maintain his studies.

Hayley Hoang: Would you say that the pandemic affected your ability to connect with your peers?

Alfred: Yes, so when the pandemic just started I had a hard time physically trying to be a social person just because I didn’t have a car, I can’t drive and I was basically locked up in my own apartment. And it was hard for me to see my friends or actually stay connected with on my peers, so I kind of had a hard time, however, I still had my Burmese Community that has been surrounding me since I started OCC so um it was a small period of time that
I had like it to be like you know physically staying at home.

Hayley Hoang: How was the pandemic affect your performance in school academically?

Alfred: Honestly I came here to study in the US to get my college experience, so I would totally agree with on COVID having a very big impact on my college life. Just because I really didn’t get any of my experience, as I would just say locked up how I said earlier… Moreover I am not the type of person who deals the best with online school so I kind of had a lot of like difficulties like transitioning online and like basically focusing on in my classes.

The interview then transitioned into Alfred’s experience as a Burmese international student, and his thoughts about the situation in his home country.

When the country went under the coup, the military coup d’état, people really didn’t bother to hear about the pandemic. They really went out to the street and like start protesting in Myanmar. However, when it had been like in February, I was just worried because it’s like something that nobody would have expected… nobody really thought that was going to happen in 21st century, because it is really outdated, and nobody was really expecting, and it got worse because it was under the pandemic. A lot of business has been shut down since 2019 because of the pandemic and the coup just made a worse, so it financially impacted a lot. When the coup first happened, the dictator basically cut off the Internet of the whole country to basically keep the news and keep everything what’s happening in the country. To not leak to different countries, so it was hard for me to contact my family, and I was really worried, back then, but then they just not they just but basically. They basically give back the Internet connections, so they are able to contact our family now, however, on in Burma only people are people are only we’re only using Internet from 9am to 9pm during nighttime so it was still cut the Internet off, so I would not be able to contact them and Burmese nighttime. And it’s really hard for me to like contact, sometimes because I wouldn’t be able to contact them in the daytime that I in the US, because daytime in the US means that nighttime in Myanmar. So I wouldn’t be able to talk to them or not, but I guess we’re getting used to that, right now, and internet is back, however, there is so so many things that has been impacting the Burmese community in general and the Burmese international students across the world.