Culture Shock

Here is a brief article about culture shock which I found quite helpful to be a first guideline to live overseas. I found this article from : http://www.qce.qld.edu.au/one/document/culture_shock.pdf

A few students may experience culture shock when they first arrive. This is understandable as the food, weather, lifestyle and customs may be different from their home country.
Some symptoms may include anxiety, confusion, feeling angry or lost. You may also have physical symptoms like feeling sick, tired and not being able to sleep. Some students even feel like going home at first.
But hang on. Remember that culture shock is not unusual. Remember that it will quickly pass.
Here are some tips to help you handle culture shock:
• Talk to someone in Student Services or your teacher at college about how you feel – this can make a positive difference in your attitude
• Spend some time with people from your own country, they may have experienced similar feelings to you
• Do things that make you feel more comfortable, like eating at a restaurant that serves food from your country
• Be active and involved in your new country’s lifestyle, play sport, go sightseeing, accept invitations to social events
• Learn as much as you can about Australia
Do these things and before long you will feel right at home in Brisbane!

Study in Australia : Happy, Anxious and Sad

I arrived at the first time in Australia on 6 June 2006. In the next two years, I will study for Master of Commerce at Australian National University (ANU) which is located in the capital city of Australia, Canberra. I could not describe my feeling as I arrived in Canberra because I felt happy, anxious and sad at the same time. Frankly speaking, sad and worry were the feelings that I felt most. I felt sad because I was far away from my families, I had to face everything just by myself. I felt anxious because this my first time to study abroad in which the language use is not my mother-tongue. Furthermore, I had to pass 70% marks in the first year to continue to the second year of my study which I thought it was very tough.

However, I was trying to overcome those hard situations. I found that by making lots of friends will reduce sadness and anxiety. I knew that other international students who were in their first semester also had those kinds of feelings, so it was not only me. I also tried to find more information about facilities provided in the university to assist my study. I went to the libraries, learning centre and international education office. Although before I came to Canberra, I already searched for information about ANU and facilities provided, but it would be better if I came directly to the places. I also tried to find a student community from my country. This one was a quite helpful as I could meet other students who speak same language in whom I could ask and obtain clear information about many things especially study strategies.

As an international student, it is common to have situations like I mentioned above. It is because we will live for a quite long time in a place which may have many differences such as culture, language, habit and even food! Sooner or later, we will need to adapt with those differences. The way we make adaptation will then determine whether we can survive or not in this new place. Based on my experience, make an on-going adaptation as we get used to our surroundings.

Foreign students isolated, friendless

Here is an interesting news about a study of international students about their experiences study in Australia. I found this article from : http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,23161031-12332,00.html

Milanda Rout February 05, 2008

MORE than two-thirds of overseas students in Australia feel lonely and isolated, and universities need to urgently try to address the problem by encouraging more friendships between foreign and domestic students.

New research shows 67 per cent of female and 62 per cent of male international students experience "periods of loneliness and isolation" while studying in this country.

Researchers from Monash University and the University of Melbourne interviewed 200 students at nine universities across the country and found a failure to form friendships with domestic students was a key factor in loneliness.

The researchers found that students from Singapore were the most lonely, with 100 per cent of those interviewed saying they felt isolated and left out. Young people coming to study from Malaysia also report high rates of friendlessness and desolation, along with students from Indonesia and China.

Some students told researchers they felt they were "in a very strange place" and had the sense of being "lost in a jungle" when they first arrived in Australia. "I just stay in my room ... sometimes I cry and when I cry out, I feel better," said one student from Malaysia.

An Indian student interviewed for the study said the loneliness experienced by overseas students "gets to the point of depression".

The five research authors, including Erlenawati Sawir and Simon Marginson, found that culture shock, personal isolation and an inability to make friends with local students contributed to loneliness among overseas students. "It is significant that 65 per cent of those who had experienced loneliness or isolation had faced barriers in making friends across cultures," the research states.

The study recommends that universities make sure they have "adequate" student services and classroom strategies to help overseas students cope with loneliness by offering counselling, helping students learn English, and setting up social clubs and buddy systems.

"Yet relations with locals might be the key to moving forward on loneliness," the report states.

"If a stronger social bridge between international students and their local context is to be built, this (friendships with domestic students) is the place to build it."

The authors recommend that universities help domestic and foreign students bond "more effectively" by setting up more shared classes and encouraging involvement in sporting and social clubs.

What is this blog about?

This blog is created to share news, stories and experiences of study and life in Australia. Hopefully, this blog will be beneficial for those who want to gather information about study and life in Australia as International students like me ^-^ There are many topics will be posted in this blog which I think important for those prospective students. So, read n enjoy this blog!!Cheers (",)