Language Is Not the Only Problem Faced by International Students

Language is not the only problem faced by international students in the UK. To what extent do you agree with this statement? International students are very important for the economic growth of the UK. Number of international students in UK was about 405,910 in 2009 and in 2010 it increased up to 428,225 (which is about 6%). These students play a very important role in UK’s economy and bring huge income to the country. Shane Spiers, managing director of UNITE says “The UK’s higher education sector-and, indeed, the UK economy-rely heavily on the income derived from international students”. As the research from the Department for Business Innovation and Skills called Estimating the value to the UK of Education Experts (June 2011) says that in 2008-2009 income of the tuition fee to the UK was oven than ? 4 billion where ? 2. 4 billion for HE, ? 139 million for FE and ? 880 million for english language. The same BIS research noticed that in 2025 this number could rise as high as ? 26 billion. Another income for UK income comes from science, technology, engineering and mathematics’: 40% of UK postgraduates, 50% of those doing full-time research degrees. English language became an international language and this is one of the main reasons why many students travel to UK to learn english. Another reason is that education in UK is recognized as high level or “world-class education”. International students in UK can face many problems and the most common one is the language barrier. Even for students who know english it may be hard for them to understand dialect of UK citizens. For example: In class teacher speaks academic english and uses special words which depend on the subject that they are learning.
This is a common problem, but teachers are always ready to help students, so in a way, this issue is solved. There are many other problems that could be more serious for the students. International students are living in a foreign country where they could be victims of racial discrimination or they could face financial difficulties or just feel homesick of their country. Most of the students are inexperienced in living away from their home, so this is their first experience in an unfamiliar environment with different culture and traditions, trying to adapt and co-exist with the others.
Evidently at the beginning they can face problems such as culture shock and the difficulties in communication. Two general issues are very popular for most of the international students which are finance managing and making/finding/building friendship. This essay will define three very popular problems that international students may face. Life and education in UK is very expensive and it might be hard for some students to afford it, so they have to borrow large amount of money from their parents or relatives in order to pay for education and life in UK. Students must be very good in managing finances.

Comparing cost of products in UK with the cost of products in their home country will be different, so it might be hard for them at the beginning to manage their finances. Mis-allocation of finance can lead to large loss of money and at the end of year students may be left destitute. Apart from this overseas education represents a huge investment by family and students may feel that they have to return this money or at least to make a profit by working in part-time job and limit their expenditures. Students probably may try their best to reduce the pressure on their family.
Students will try to concentrate more spend more time looking for work rather than concentrating on studying. Many university activities require membership fees to enter the society and may have further expenses for some trips or extra activities. This could keep away the students from joining the societies or clubs and isolating them from the social part of the university life. This could lead to loneliness and depression. Finance problems can push student to reduce the time at work available for study and this can cause academic consequences.
According to the managing finances, problems with communication and friendship can happen. The satisfaction level of living in UK is very important and makes a positive impact on academy. This satisfaction can be provided by friendship with other students and more likely with British people. Friendship with local students could be more useful than friendship with co-national by several reasons the main one is the language improvement. However, international students may find it difficult. The reason of that is the big difference in culture or mentality.
International students can find their behavior strange or dissimilar in contrast with people in their homeland. Communication is not just talking, it also contains eye contact, body language, tone of voice and even national privileges. All together they can make communication very easy or can be a cause of disaffection. For instance, international students may struggle with eye contact – when to give eye contact or where to look away and do not make people feel uncomfortable. Tone of voice also can be a reason of misunderstanding.
The rules of communication people get from their parents and mentality and to change them can be hard. Finally, international students can have a problem known as “culture shock”. First this problem was defined by Canadian anthropologist Kalervo Oberg in 1960. Dr. Oberg stated that culture shock is “the anxiety that results from losing familiar signs and symbols of social intercourse”. The most common signs of “culture shock” are homesickness, avoiding contact with the locals, marital stress, loss of concentration, frequent desire to cry, and losses of all the aims in UK.
Mostly duration of culture shock is 6 month but for some student may be longer. During this time students are comparing new country to their homeland. In conclusion, international students in UK face many problems apart from the language barrier. All of these problems may have a negative impact on studies. However, solving these problems will help students to become morally stronger and more responsible. These three general problems can teach an international student how to adapt fast in a new country in his or her future life.
These problems cannot stay unsolved and if students are struggling with them in university they can find some free tutorials and tutors who can give a good advice about how to juggle study with solving these problems. References Sally Adamson Taylor (2010,). Retrieved from http:// americansintoulouse. com/index. php? option=com_content&view=article&id=13&Itemid=47 Machalicek W. , Ganz J. B. , Flores . M. , Zimbelman M (2005-2009) Retrieved from http://www. asdvisualaids. com/social-communication-difficulties. html
Shane Spiers, (2011, June). Retrieved from http://ukcisa. org. uk , http://smartmoverelocate. com Colleen Ward, Stephen Bochner, Adrian Furnham (2001) Retrieved from book: The Psychology of Culture Shock (Second edition) Maureen S. , Andrade and Norman W. Evans (2009) Retrieved from book: International students – Strengthening a Critical Resource. Published by Rowman & Littlefield Education. Nannette Rundle Carroll (2010) Retrieved from book: The Communication Problem Solver. Simple tools and Techniques for Busy Managers