I remember a story out of blue. That was happening when I stayed in France for my French language course.
I experienced twice an embarrassing situation because of some international classmates.
The first case. In my class, there was a Lebanese lady in her 30's, married to a French man. She was very nice and brilliant.
She was a medical student before coming over to France.
Anyway, in the middle of a semester, a newcomer joined the class. It was an Israeli military officer. You know, Israel and Lebanon had a war in the past and their populations don't like each other, even still hostile to each other.
The Lebanese woman and the Israeli man never made eye contact with each other or talk to each other in class as well as out of class.
I could realize my teacher was embarrassed by this situation and we could all feel a tense atmosphere.
My teacher tried not to put them together for any group activities, which are required for a language class
Several weeks later, the Israeli officer switched to another class and the tension in my class went away.