Oh, that sounds good that you have a professor you can speak to. Is your concern the off hand remark that one faculty member made or have you gotten other feedback? Perhaps the professor with whom you meet can help get some perspective on this, and help you sort out what is important, and how to do it. Maybe its just one person's observation, and its not a worthwhile one. OR maybe there are a few small adjustments that you can make--again, not knowing for sure because I am not there ( but I AM American) I am going to guess its no more complicated than

some simple differences in cultural communication style, and something easily sorted. Americans just love to talk, compared with other cultures!

That said, academia is a weird world unto itself, with its own rules...if you can talk with your professor friend about this and see if he/she can help enlighten you, that would be the best, I think!

thanks
i hope i can make some changes....good i mean

Hi, I just read your posts, and I am in the same predicament, except that I am not in a US university. The difference is that I am in a country that imports a lot of researchers from the US or have been US-trained and because the school wants to improve its standing as a research institution, it has been attempting to educate us in an American way. I do have problems just chit-chatting with people simply because when I attend conferences, many people tend to think that I cannot speak English by virtue of my skin color. Haha. Even after telling them that English is the first language in my country, they repeat their question, slowly and emphatically "What language do you speak in your country?" The people whom I connect with though are those from Europe or from Asia. Is there a way that I can connect with the Americans? Somehow that connection is not coming through...

my apologies...what do you mean by the terms "connect to"....i mean obviously....as far as faculty of your university is concerned you do not have a choice.....but in terms of conferences....it depends which conferences you are attending, chances of interacting with US people , i believe will be higher in A-type conferences... For example, for management, in the USA the conference by Academy of Management is a high profile event. If you are in Europe, you need to at least go once in a high profile (i mean where A quality papers are being presented)

and then try to build contacts in those conferences......this is i guess only way you can build contacts with the US researcher......for example, last visitor to our department said that (she is an eminent researcher) that she is working with various international researchers who meet with her in conferences...