International Students Can Overcome Challenges

In the article, “Colleges Adapt to New Kinds of Students from Abroad,” Karin Fischer (2011) explains the increase of foreign students in U.S. universities leads to make more problems in campus and how universities are trying to overcome those problems and help foreign students to adapt to campus. Fischer explains the increase of the foreign undergraduate students due to the support from foreign governments. Fischer quotes Wesley Young, the director of services for international students and scholars at the University of California at Davis, to discuss that the increase of foreign undergraduate students especially requires more care and help than graduate students. While older students know what they need to do and what to do in U.S. university,

Living and studying in another country has never been easy for everyone, and it happens to me too. There are many things for me to adapt to, such as language, culture, food, lifestyle…

The need for higher education has prompted many students to seek further studies in international colleges outside their countries and Australia has become an academic hub for international students who mostly come from developing nations in Asia and Africa. The students, once they secure a place in this schools, they are subjected to a new environment which comes with different challenges. International students in Australia have become an integral part of the society both social and economical. However the students face a myriad of challenges before fully adopting to the new learning culture. In

With an increase in student mobility around the world, there are many positive outcomes related to learning a different set of education from their home country and obtaining intercultural experiences with a global mindset. On the other hand, students may struggle with different challenges, which they may have unexpected to encounter.

They have to face new experience and new challenges in their life when they come to abroad. The first year of their college abroad is a litmus test for them, if they have a positive experience they will stay but if they have negative experience they have to leave. I had observed the issues faced by the international students over here as they make their entry to new culture and a new educational system. They have to begin a new life in an environment that is very different. For example simple tasks such as going to grocery store where the language is different and the products are unfamiliar. The education system in India and Canada is different as in India, more focus is on memorization and there is no practical work but over here, more focus is on problem-solving skills and self-guided research. Majority of the students live without their family which is very hard for them to live without parents in abroad. Their parents sent them over here with a hope of their family

Speaking English with friends from Saudi Arabia it’s a perfect example of how a personal experience can open up your eyes and realize that acquiring another language it’s an open door to many places you’ve never expected to have access to. I would say that a major challenge for me was the TOEFL test I took when I applied to a U.S. High School. Actually I did not get accepted in that school because of my low TOEFL results, and that never brought me down.

Why does international students tend to group themselves away from American students? What are some possible aspects that cause difficulties for international students to make American friends? In Karin Fischer’s article, she used the online questionnaire that professor Elisabeth Gareis conducted on international students in America to answer those questions proposed above. This survey’s result claims that cultural and regional differences affect international students to have difficulties when trying to make American friends. This research was conducted on various non-American students with different genders, cultural backgrounds and circumstances. Not even half of the participants responded that they have a good friendship with American students. Karin argues that students’ home region, university’s location and language differences took critical roles which made a barrier between international

As the widespread population of teenage international student body growth, many more promising and upstanding students came to America to develop their better selves. When the first year they come, the very different environment would be a challenge for this young generation of student who just left the protection of their parents and familiar teachers and friends. The adjustment of academic will be a fundamentally challenging for them in many different aspects.

Pursuing an education in the United States is the challenge itself. As an international student I have been overcoming it each day. As a non-homogenous endless process, new unexpected things arise every day, requiring new strategies of dealing with them. My college experience has been a journey filled with trials and tribulations, which I have personally grown from in ways I never thought I could. Having a different status and way of thinking always put me on the spot and showed me how much harder I have to work.

One of the most obvious difficulties for an international student is culture shock. Culture shock is the result of moving from an environment that is familiar to one that is not. Adjusting to new food, people, environment and

International students at Georgia Military College (GMC) face a number of problems and challenges unique to their circumstances. These problems and challenges, namely language, financial and cultural barriers, are specific to the experience of international students, and compound the stresses and difficulties that they already cope with just by virtue of being college students. Without a specific study abroad program or supportive resources to aid international students, these barriers can be overwhelming. Language is the most important barrier to adjusting to college life as an international student, followed by financial difficulties, and, lastly, difficulty adapting to the dominant culture. International students at GMC face many, if

However, the change from home to college can be difficult for international students (Mesidor & Sly, 2016). While some international students find it easy to adjust to the transition, others international students find it challenging to adjust to the transition (Mesidor & Sly, 2016). Studies show that international students experience many challenges as a result of language and cultural barriers, academic difficulties, financial difficulties, medical issues, housing concerns, food differences, alienation, homesickness, lack of social support system, racial discrimination, and cross-cultural loss) (Akanwa, 2015; Guzman et al., 2015; Mesidor & Sly, 2016; Sherry et al., 2010; Smith & Khawaja, 2011; Tung, 2011; Zhang & Goodson, 2010). According to Prieto-Welch (2016), international students as a group are regarded as a main minority population in campuses

The most significant challenge that I faced is culture difference. Born in Indonesia, continuing education on America and being an international student has not been easy on me. This has been an issue for me when I leave high school early and when to a community college in Seattle. At that time, I was not even 18 years old and having difficulty when communicating with people.

After immigrating to the United States, the biggest obstacle that I struggled with was learning English. In my new school, I had a hard time communicating with my classmates and teachers, and I strained every nerve to understand what people were saying. Constantly having to deal with language differences and new surroundings made me feel anxious and tense. I remember the first time that I had to do a group presentation, and I was extremely nervous. Every single person in my group could fluently present our ideas. However, I was the one that spoke at the speed of a turtle and with a terrible accent that nobody could understand. Therefore, I decided to conquer this barrier by studying harder in English.

This report shows how international students can adapt to the new culture well; the topic is "the cultural adaption of Middlesex International students". We carried out primary research using a questionnaire for students who are studying in Middlesex University. The sample size was 15 people who were 7 nationalities: Saudi Arabia, China, Nepal, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam and Nigeria. Thirteen questions were contained in the questionnaire which was based on Zhou et al (2008) that was produced by the three students who worked in our group. The main objective of this study is to find out about the adjustment and culture of those students.