top of page
Services
Check The Timeline
August 25, 2015, when I arrived at Newark Liberty International Airport with all my passion and expectation spilling out of my heart, I realized that my brand new life had just begun.
The United States always was the dreamland for me since I was young. I liked to sit on the couch and watch The Simpsons while other children were watching Big Head Son, Little Head Father (a popular Chinese cartoon). I would keep singing English lyrics with my earphones playing Taylor Swift during my whole middle school life. My friends and parents used to tease me and say that I was brainwashed by American culture. I never concealed my passion and interest for American culture. Even though studying in America seemed like a dream for me at that time, I still believed that the day will eventually come.
August 25, 2016. When I arrived at Newark Liberty International Airport with my eyes barely open, I had to drag my exhausted body to pick up my baggage. The twenty-hours journey had worn out my patience. The worst thing was that my anxiety reminded me that I couldn't go straight to bed after I arrived home because I had to write an email to ask someone to fix the broken light in my room. All I felt was anxious and tired.
I have stayed in America for one year. Something has changed.
In the past year, I have tried my best to fit in. I never wanted to become those "stereotypes" Chinese international students wearing very expensive clothes and driving BMW and sitting with a bunch of Chinese international students and never speaking in class. At the beginning, I felt like everything was on the right track. I had some American friends who I met in class. We exchanged contact information and followed each other on Facebook. We went to lunch together and hung out after class. However, I always felt that there was something missing in our friendship. I felt like I'm wearing an invisible mask in order to get along with them. I keep convincing myself that my choice was right. Until Halloween night, I went to a party with my friends. The party was held in a private house. Before I went in, I heard loud music and sound of people laughing. As soon as I went in, I saw people dancing and chatting. In fact, I’m familiar with this situation. I mean, I have seen this scene in American movies hundreds of times. However, it is the first time that I placed myself in this scene. To be honest, I felt awkward. In my experience, people make friends “slowly” and “passivity” in China. Answering the Quora question, How hard is it for a foreigner to make friends in China?, Jennifer Lindsay, who stayed in Beijing and Taibei for 7 years, says: "Compared to the US, people are more wary of outsiders, which includes everyone outside their circles. The hierarchy of guanxi (social relationships) goes more or less like this: family, friends, town, province, region, country, rest of the world. Social and business networks start at the family level and extend from there. Some may look at you with pity because you’re so far from home and surround by strange people you have no connection to. People tend to maintain strong ties to their hometown and childhood friends and classmates." As a Chinese, being friend with somebody means sharing a lot of personal stories. Therefore, this process is long and slow. In my own experience, most Chinese would not actively say “hi” to a complete stranger and suddenly become friends. They would choose to make friends with those who have common ground with them. For example, people who go to the same class with them, people who are their friend’s friend, people who are often around with them or people who will work together with them. For me, saying “hi” to a stranger in a party is the same thing with saying “hi” to somebody in the street, which people never do in China. When I tried to communicate with others, the sudden embracement and shyness just stifle me and make me keep silent. I was standing there and watching them talk about everything. When I finally found some topics to start with, someone began to ask me where I come from. After I explained that I come from China, the following conversation oddly became a Q&A session of China. As long as this topic ends, the conversation ends. The party was totally a disaster for me that night. After that party, I came back to home and talked about my feeling with my Chinese friends. However, I surprisingly found out that we all have the same feeling with the school and social life. I have started to think about some questions: What really prevent me from fitting in? What really prevents us from fitting in?
Check the map to view where the most Chinese international students come from
According to the research of Ohio State University: Most difficult problems for Chinese students in American Universities. The factors that lead to success in their studies for Chinese students studying in American universities fall into three categories:
Languages
Many Chinese international students feel that they can lose their confidence easily because the native languages between Chinese and English have the totally different background and logic. The general trouble is hard to communicate with others, which makes them become more silent and reticent sometime. According to the descriptions of two Chinese students, “Although Y and F started to learn English when they were in elementary schools like most other Chinese children, the way English is taught in China emphasizes more on the written form than the spoken form. English is taught mostly through the traditional grammar-translation method” (Guofang Wan, 2001). Although all Chinese students have to take TOEFL, Test of English as a Foreign Language, before they go to American universities, they still cannot use English as well as a native speaker. Writing papers and academic documents is another difficulty to Chinese students. “Besides listening and speaking problems, academic papers also pose a problem especially for those students whose majors are in the humanities and social sciences” (Yan& Berliner, 2009).
Motivation
Maintaining an adequate motivation and passion during the study process all the time is always hard for Chinese international students in the American university. They will have to face many problems that they never met before and they have to do by themselves with no family to rely on. According to Chinese Students’ Motivations for Studying Abroad, written by Griner and Sobol (2014), the motivation for Chinese students could be broken up into five categories, which include personal dynamic, reverse motivation, parental influence, globalization persuasion, and outlying factors. Personal dynamic can be described as individual desire to go abroad, including education, career path, and social status. Reverse motivation discusses the reasons that Chinese students keep studying overseas for any length of time. Parental influence is about the parent’s desire, international experience and demographics influence on Student decision. Globalization persuasion claims the world globality effect on student interest, including China’s recent westernization and the open market. Finally, outlying factors contain arbitrary causes for student motivation, including the status of relationships, and knowledge of study abroad opportunities. It is not hard to know, without parents, without friends, without a familiar city is all make students feel lonely aboard. Living in China for Chinese students is like living in a greenhouse, so when they leave from China to the United States, they cannot grow and live as easily as in China, and some of them lose themselves in alcohol and drugs, especially those who were born in a rich family, caused by tremendous differences from China to America. Participating in various organizations and leagues actively, making more friends, and immersing themselves in research are ways to make Chinese students’ lives more colorful and fulfilling during their life on the American campus.
So, motivation exists in many ways, which influence Chinese students much in studies. Keeping in abundant interests and energies is important for Chinese students to get better accommodation in American universities.
Culture
Culture differences may be the most constant and scabrous problem for all International students, especially for Chinese student. Because China has a long history, and many cultures have existed for thousands of years which are being carved in every Chinese heart, students need more time to adapt the environment and accommodate the culture. Studying and writing in a foreign academic language is difficult enough, but it is often the classroom dynamic that is most daunting to foreign students. They are disconcerted by the interaction, often marked by an easy familiarity and questioning rapport, between American teachers and students. Yongfang Chen, one of the authors of A True Liberal Arts Education, co-written about his academic experiences as a Chinese student at Bowdoin, noted in an interview after the book was published, that, “Coming from a culture in which a ‘standard answer’ is provided for every question, I did not argue with others even when I disagreed. However, Bowdoin forced me to reconsider ‘the answer’ and reach beyond my comfort zone.” The intense and narrow focus required of Chinese students as they spend high school preparing for the gaokao, the national test that is the sole determinant of entry into China’s universities, is also at odds with an American emphasis on ongoing assessment through tests and midterm exams.
Video from LIT 我的海漂时代
Video from Asian Boss
Video from Channel C
To learn more about Why some Chinese students struggle at universities in the US
If you have any questions or thoughts, feel free to contact me through the box blow
bottom of page