That\u2019s why the number of foreign students is increasing every year and as of 2020, for example, 5.8 million<\/strong> international students are studying and staying abroad.<\/span><\/p>\n The number was 5.6 million<\/strong> for 2019 and 5.5 million<\/strong> for the year 2018. In 2017, there were over 5.3 million<\/strong> international students around the world [<\/span>Wikipedia<\/span><\/a>].<\/span><\/p>\n Also, according to a new research carried out by educations.com<\/a>, in October 2020, top ten countries where most international students are staying and studying respectively include Canada, Australia, Germany, Switzerland, The United States, Sweden, The Netherlands, United Kingdom, Spain <\/strong>and France<\/strong><\/span>.<\/span><\/p>\n The most important factors for these countries being selected by the students were the followings:<\/span><\/p>\n Despite all the good things that exist about being an international student, studying in a foreign country, which inevitably means living in that country, is not always an easy thing to do, and it is certainly followed by many challenges that sometim<\/span>es are not that much easy to cope<\/span> with.<\/span><\/p>\n One of the very common and serious of these challenges is the mental pressures that young students may go through when they leave their home country to the country where they want to continue their studies for some years.<\/span><\/p>\n There are a variety of reasons for foreign students to experience mental pressures during their study years overseas, which usually include language barriers, cultural differences, homesickness, loneliness, etc. But as there are solutions for any problem, then this common challenge for international students also can be resolved in some ways.<\/span><\/p>\n Students who come from a country with a different language than the country where they intend to continue their studies have to face this big challenge, indeed, language barriers appear to be one of the first and the most challenging issues for international students.<\/span><\/p>\n According to research investigating international students and stress, \u201cthe most visible and obvious area of stress for the majority of international students is language<\/strong>\u201d [<\/span>campusmentalhealth.ca<\/span><\/a>].<\/span><\/p>\n Not being able to speak and understand what people of your second country (the country where you are staying for your studies) say can very well result in many issues, including, for example, the inability to communicate with others in real life situations, difficulty in understanding and keeping up with coursework in the classrooms, etc. <\/span><\/p>\n This challenge, however, is not limited to your classrooms and university environment as you may, for example, want to go to a restaurant or a barbershop, where you have to ask people of another language to do for you what you want them to do but you can\u2019t say it! Or imagine a time when, for instance, you need a plumber in your apartment ASAP but it probably takes you a lot of time to make him\/her understand what\u2019s the problem.<\/span><\/p>\n The ideal for such a situation is that you be able to locate businesses of your own community where you can find people who not only offer goods and services that you want, but can also speak your language.<\/span><\/p>\n But if you are a foreign student who has to deal with this challenge almost every day, you should know that this is not the end of the world nor the end of your dreams. That\u2019s right, poor second language abilities can be cured. The best way to strengthen your language skills is to practice them. <\/span><\/p>\n While it may be hard, speaking the local language is perhaps the only way to truly acclimate. To overcome language barriers and reduce the stress and anxiety that follow, first try to find people of your own language and try to form a network with them so that you can try to learn the second language together.<\/span><\/p>\n This sense of cooperation will help you to learn the language faster and more efficient and can also save you from possible embarrassments that you may find in a language class. <\/span>Besides, don\u2019t forget that it is a unique advantage and a fantastic opportunity to learn a language through direct contact with natives, which is an effective way of learning a foreign language without having to pay tuition!<\/span><\/p>\n Make language learning a fixed part of your daily schedule and sometimes throw yourself into situations where you cannot cling on to others who speak your language. Yes, it is likely to feel mighty stressful at the time, but it\u2019ll help improve your communication skills and every time, it will feel even just a little bit less scary.<\/span><\/p>\n Practicing before you arrive, befriending native students and committing to learn from them, and reading books and watching popular television programs are among many ways to become more fluent in the language of your second country.<\/span><\/p>\n Upon arriving in a foreign country, you may very well begin to feel that the way people around are talking, dressing, eating, drinking, and looking is different from where you originally come from. <\/span><\/p>\n \u2018Culture shock<\/strong>\u2019 is the term to describe the above-mentioned feelings. It is most frequently mentioned of foreign living experiences for those who arrive to a foreign country during their early months of residence. <\/span><\/p>\n The term mainly refers to the anxiety and feelings (of surprise, disorientation, uncertainty, confusion and so on) felt when people have to operate within a different and unknown cultural or social environment like a foreign country.<\/span><\/p>\n Culture is by itself a very complex and multidimensional phenomenon and unless you are born and raised within one specific cultural context, then adapting yourself to that new culture is a time-taking and hard job to do. That\u2019s why when international students try to merge into the culture of their second country, most of them are shocked for the first time and will stay so for some time.<\/span><\/p>\n This is even worse for Asian international students whose cultures value strong family ties, not eating certain foods, religious issues, etc.<\/span><\/p>\n They specifically tend to experience higher levels of stress and difficulties adapting themselves to a new environment as compared to European or American international students.<\/span><\/p>\n Therefore, these negative emotions can cause difficulties focusing in class, physical health problems and also worsening academic results.<\/span><\/p>\n First of all, know that cultural shock is something very much expectable for foreigners to experience. To deal better with cultural differences when you arrive in a new country with cultural backgrounds different from that of your home country, first you should accept that it\u2019s not your home country, but that doesn\u2019t mean there aren\u2019t things you can find and love about your new home.<\/span><\/p>\n Moving<\/span> from a familiar environment to an unfamiliar one can be exciting just as much as it can be quite challenging. So, just be patient and give yourself time to adapt and remember, every different cultu<\/span>re has its own beauties and marvels.<\/span><\/p>\n Try to adapt to the new culture but don\u2019t forget your own. After all, this is what cross-cultural adjustment and integration means; adapting to the new culture while retaining your own identity. All in all, there is always a long way for international students to go before they feel that they are part of the new culture, but to better deal with the feeling of cultural shock anyway, here are some advice for you to follow:<\/span><\/p>\n All the above-mentioned tips will help you get yourself accustomed to the new life as soon as possible.<\/span><\/p>\n Homesickness is a real challenge among international students. Even the most independent students, when in a foreign country for quite a time, can’t help wishing that they were back home and hug their loved ones, spend time with them, laugh with them and eat homemade food with them. <\/span><\/p>\n You will even miss your pet if you have one. All these challenges of being away from your home country will get even tougher to cope with if your home is far away, with oceans between you and your loved ones.<\/span><\/p>\n According to a recent study conducted by Youth Sight and released by the Nightline Association, a third of all students have felt depressed or homesick at some point in their university lives<\/strong> [<\/span>the guardian.com<\/span><\/a>].<\/span><\/p>\n It is true that technology has made coping with homesickness a lot easier; you can speak back and forth with your family and friends anywhere in the world and anytime all with the help of the Internet. As technology evolves almost on a daily basis, more opportunities to connect pop up and now with video chatting, you can see your loved ones, your home, your pet(s) and everything you may be missing while you are miles away from your home country. <\/span><\/p>\n However, you may still miss some things that even today\u2019s most advanced technologies can\u2019t provide you such as the warmth of hugging your loved ones, the taste of a homemade meal, the smell of your mother\u2019s perfume, the flowers in the yard of your house, etc.<\/span><\/p>\n Despite what was mentioned above about the difficulties in coping with homesickness, first you should know that feeling homesick while you are away from your home country isn\u2019t a sign of weakness, nor does it signify that you can\u2019t get rid of it as an international student.<\/span><\/p>\n Meanwhile, there are ways and strategies to better deal with this challenge until it is almost gone and you find yourself accustomed to the new environment away from your family.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span>To avoid homesickness, you can call your parents or local friend or text them once in a while, but try to amuse yourself by making new friends with other international students who may be having the same problem and share your feelings with each of them. You\u2019re likely to feel much better then. Don\u2019t forget that pains need to be shared to better be endured.<\/span><\/p>\n Most universities that accept large numbers of foreign stu<\/span>dents every year have also a good solution to help such students deal with homesickness.<\/span><\/p>\n They run \u2018family\u2019 schemes where you are given student \u2018parents\u2019 or \u2018buddy\u2019 from the years above you. Th<\/span>ey are good people to talk to if you are struggling socially or even academically, as they have experience of university life. These friends can be useful even more than the student handbooks in giving advice on how to prepare yourself for difficult lectures that you may have to present during your study, how to use the library resources and they also introduce you to their friends and help you make friends with them too.<\/span><\/p>\n At Trinity University in the US Texas, for example, students have a compulsory 3-day orientation program to familiarize themselves with their new surroundings. International students also have access to free counselling services for academic and personal support. Likewise, most Australian institutions also offer mentor programs, where an international student is paired up with another student.<\/span><\/p>\n For example, Murdoch University in Perth, has Peer Assisted Study Sessions (PASS) to help foreign students make the most of their university experience and better cope with their homesickness. Similarly, Edith Cowan University in Perth also provides international students with a Peer Mentoring Program to help them socially and academically develop.<\/span><\/p>\n There surely are other useful ways of better overcome the feeling of homesickness, they include joining your school\u2019s international student group; cooking foods similar to those of your home country for yourself and sometimes inviting new friends over; reaching out to others, be it your classmates or their friends, to build a network of acquaintances and sharing your feelings with friends after you did so with your family members via a message, a phone or a video call.<\/span><\/p>\n loneliness is another major issue for students studying away from home. Research suggests that there are three types of loneliness that can be experienced by international students, where you might experience one or more of these types at any time:<\/span><\/p>\n International students feel lonely while studying and staying abroad because they often have more limited social networks, most of them feel a little bit hard to make new friends there, and some foreign students prefer to hang out only with people from their home countries.<\/span> As international students are typically far from home, they tend to stay on campus or in their student apartments during holidays and half-terms.<\/span><\/p>\n This is while domestic students usually go home during major holidays. And this will make the challenge of loneliness even more difficult to cope with.<\/span><\/p>\n In order to overcome the loneliness that you may incur as you\u2019re staying abroad, try to build relationships with others in the university, on campus or elsewhere, speak to people before and after lectures, use social networking<\/a> sites and applications to find international student groups, or people in your local and your new city who share similar hobbies and interests.<\/span><\/p>\n Spend some time with your peers in a purposeful context like signing up for clubs, meditation and sport classes. Enrolling in different societies is also a great way to make new friends and avoid loneliness. Social events, either online or face-to-face, that focus on the food and music of your home for example, can very well fill up your lonely moments and might also help you appreciate your culture even more.<\/span><\/p>\n You can even turn your moments of loneliness during holidays into opportunities and use them to meet other students who will probably be feeling the same as you! Surely you are not the only foreign student who stays on\/off the campus when a major holiday arrives.<\/span><\/p>\n You can also contact your university to get information about any events they might have planned for the students during these breaks.<\/span> Universities should also make some efforts to create more events, in which international students can join and interact with others. For example, lots of international students would probably be interested in going to meeting places such as debates with some international themes.<\/span><\/p>\n For whatever reason that you may feel overwhelmed with mental pressure at times, you can also count on sharing your feelings with a trained therapist\/counsellor. Most universities will offer counselling which can be very beneficial for your mental wellbeing.<\/span><\/p>\n For example, at the University of Derby, a public university in the city of Derby, England, students can speak to a trained therapist in order to help them better develop independence, build confidence and assertive communication within the context of their cultural experience whilst exploring the discrepancies in values and beliefs about themselves and others. And to those of you who think one must only be mentally ill to go to a therapist; Stop spreading this false stereotype because both social experts and common sense say that it is all normal if a foreign student feels anxious, nervous, stressed, depressed, etc. when arriving in a new and different country.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n Financial pressure is another challenge that international students have to face during their study years in a foreign country. This challenge is even more serious for those students who do not get financial aid from parents and have to pay tuition and living expenses all by themselves. To compound the puzzle, international students always have to pay more university tuitions than local students;<\/span><\/p>\n Taking the tuition standard at University of Florida in the US as an example, international graduate students have to pay $971.48 per credit hour while graduate students who are Florida residents only need to pay $341.29 for each credit [<\/span>plaza.ufl.edu<\/span><\/a>].<\/span><\/p>\n As most international students come from developing countries to continue their studies in Europe, US and Canada, another problem emanates from the fact that the exchange rate between U.S. dollars, for example, and their domestic currencies is usually high, that is, a small amount of money to an American can be significant to an international student who come from Afghanistan, for instance.<\/span><\/p>\n Even finding a cheap place to exchange money can be an issue for most international students. That is, although there are many new and online platforms that offer currency exchange<\/a> services, it is still essential for a foreign student to be able to find a platform which is still more economical compared to other ones. T<\/span>o find out about the cheapest way to exchange money read this article: Essential guide to Peer to Peer (P2P) money transfer\/exchange<\/a><\/strong>. Housing is also a big challenge for foreign students. The fact is that most universities do not offer on-campus housing for international students or at least it is so expensive that most foreign students prefer to rent an apartment near their study place.<\/span><\/p>\n The puzzle gets more compounded when foreign students get to know that most universities, especially those in the US, for example, do not consider them as eligible for receiving housing loans unless they have that country\u2019s citizenship or at least know a citizen or legal permanent resident who is willing to co-sign for a loan for them. And things will get even more disappointing for those foreign students who are not receiving financial support from their family.<\/span><\/p>\n Working in a part-time job while studying abroad may come to the readers\u2019 minds as a way to reduce the economic burden of housing for international students. But it is not as easy as it might look like to find a student job to partially cover housing and other expenses.<\/span><\/p>\n \u00a0<\/span>In the US, for example, international students with F-1 visas are with limited work permits on campus and no more than 20 hours per week. Among the jobs available on campus, some are only available to students of federal work-study programs, which lead to even fewer job opportunities for the foreign students.<\/span><\/p>\n Restrictions on international students really leave them with few viable options. Besides having been in F-1 status for one full academic year as a working requirement, you must also be in good academic standing and employment should not interfere with your studies.<\/span><\/p>\n One possible way that can be considered to reduce the housing costs for international students is to share an apartment with other students who have the same problem. The ideal thing to happen for such a situation is that you be able to find students of your own nationality, students who share with you the same culture, the same language and the same social background, although spotting out compatriots in another country may not always be an easy task to do. In such a situation, businesses of your own nationality can help, as they probably have a network of connections and acquaintances with many customers of your nationality, among whom there might be someone(s) with the same requirement as your\u2019s.<\/span><\/p>\n Find these businesses, refer to them online or in-person, and share your problem with them. All in all, studying abroad has many fantastic benefits, from helping you find a good job to improving your social life. It can be fun and exciting to live and study in a foreign country with the many new places to explore and new friends to make. But as with anything new and unfamiliar, it is rather common for international students to feel overwhelmed by their new environment and long for their familiar home instead. You may feel like everywhere you look you see people having fun with their friends.<\/span><\/p>\n However, keep in mind that you\u2019re far from the only person who\u2019s ever felt stress, and we can assure you that many people who look like they\u2019re living their best lives may actually be suffering from the same feelings that you are.<\/span><\/p>\n As some general advice, find people to interact with. Don\u2019t isolate yourself from others. Smile and be friendly with others no matter where they are from. Open to the outside world. By taking an interest in other people, you shift the focus from yourself to the outside world.<\/span><\/p>\n Don\u2019t be shy, think positive, this will help you overcome your low moods and mental pressures. Stop comparing yourself to others who may look like to be more successful and happier than you. Build a healthy lifestyle, eat healthy food, get enough sleep, hang out sometimes and do not forget to get physical exercise; A healthy body promotes a healthy mind. Try to recall past happy memories and forget all about negative thinking because it doesn\u2019t solve any of your problems, see the half glass full.<\/span><\/p>\n Last but not least, if you\u2019re studying abroad and you feel a little anxious, stressed or overwhelmed once in a while, you better take the above-mentioned recommendations into account and remember that humans are one of the most adaptive species anyway. And just imagine that after a few years of living in a foreign country, you have become a more independent and more socially mature person with lots of unique job opportunities, lots of new friends all over the world, and you are very probably able to speak a new language. So, just take it easy, see the glass half full, and enjoy your life.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Although studying abroad is a unique opportunity, most international students may face mental pressures during their study years in a…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2453,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[40,43],"tags":[50,51,52],"yoast_head":"\n\n
![\"studying](\"https:\/\/trustply.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/studying-abroad-5.jpg\")
<\/p>\n Mental Pressures of Studying Abroad<\/span><\/h2>\n
Language Barriers<\/b><\/h3>\n
![\"Language](\"https:\/\/trustply.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/studying-abroad-1.jpg\")
<\/p>\nCultural Differences<\/h3>\n
![\"Cultural](\"https:\/\/trustply.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/studying-abroad-7.jpg\")
<\/p>\n\n
Homesickness<\/h3>\n
![\"Homesickness\"](\"https:\/\/trustply.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/studying-abroad-2.jpg\")
<\/p>\nLoneliness<\/h3>\n
\n
![\"Loneliness\"](\"https:\/\/trustply.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/studying-abroad-9.jpg\")
<\/p>\nFinancial Barriers<\/h3>\n
![\"Financial](\"https:\/\/trustply.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/studying-abroad-4.jpg\")
<\/p>\n
\n<\/span><\/p>\n![\"Financial](\"https:\/\/trustply.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/11\/studying-abroad-8.jpg\")
<\/p>\n