Last Friday, groups of international and domestic students alike met to simply talk and learn from each other.

The event was sponsored by the Conversation Center, a group that encourages students from different countries to meet and interact.

“The purpose of the conversation center would be … to create chances for domestic students to interact with international students,” said Mingfeng Huang, the founder of the organization. “We all know that the economy or businesses are being globalized so it’s important to foster the distance between domestic students and international students.”

The Conversation Center works with education, graduate, and ESL groups. For domestic students, one advantage is to make friends from different cultures and for international students it can help them improve their English.

One University of Iowa student said she thinks getting to know different cultures will undoubtably help her in the future.

“It definitely will help me be a better worldly person who’s able to interact with people of other countries with understanding and respect,” UI junior Sophie Katz said.

The center holds events every second friday of every month.

Daily Iowan TV has the full story.