With the concerns of the first and second largest groupings now clearly established from the Initial interview data the third largest grouping, consisting of 4 students (Students 3, 5, 25 and 28), indicated that ‘Sociocultural difficulties’ were their primary concern at this point in their studies.
A link between these sociocultural difficulties and the previously mentioned language problems was now becoming apparent, even at this early stage. Obviously, when there is any difficulty with verbal communication it simply exaggerates all other difficulties when attempting any kind of social or cultural interaction. The
understandable outcome of this difficulty was to encourage some students to retreat into the Chinese student community, where they faced no such language problems.
“In the beginning I really want to be good friends and work with other cultures, but in the end I find it really difficult, like you try to become friends in a certain way but somehow it just kind of stay there and I guess it is a cultural problem but sometimes I find it kind of frustrating because I do want to do that and I think that they probably want to do that too, but somehow we do not have the same thinking or we could not really connect that well or anything like that”. (Student 21, Initial interview, page 7).
After initial efforts mixing with students from other cultures some of our students slowly withdrew back into their Chinese groupings, for socialisation, interaction and for mutual support in the face of a perceived indifference from UK tutors, and sometimes from the host UK community as well. These students were now thinking in terms of ‘them’ and ‘us’, a separation which they openly admitted was made along ethnic and linguistic lines as “a classic construction of the ‘Cultural Other’ that debars effective intercultural communication”. (Tian & Lowe 2009:668).
Even when UK tutors attempted to encourage intercultural exchange by bringing the different nationalities together for ‘shared learning’, this was often unsuccessful as the various groupings had little common background knowledge or skill-sets upon which to base their shared output. For Students 3, 5, and 14 this developed into a lack of confidence to engage with native English speakers within these shared settings, and soon differential power relationships were being perceived by them:
“I remember the first time I went to class in the West, I was still in the habit of raising my hand when I wanted to speak and of course that is totally unnecessary here, it was little things like that which made people laugh at me. I would call the teacher Mister or Miss, I would never call them by their first name and if I see you in the morning I would do a bow, I was being respectful. That was just part of my culture to do that
to a teacher; but the other students did not see it that way, they just laughed”. (Student 5, Initial interview, page 1).
This laughter from other students, mentioned in the quotation above from Student 5, would undoubtedly have caused embarrassment to her and would probably have helped to solidify her loss of confidence. An interesting by-product of this lack of confidence in group-participation with UK students was that a new emphasis on ‘being Chinese’ became more important to this small group of students (Students 3, 5, 14, 21 and 28).
“Before I came here I thought I was more Western by culture, but after I came here I thought oh no I am very Asian, and that was good for me”. (Student 14, Initial interview, page 2).
“Being far from home and with so many different peoples, it makes me see that I love my country more and more”. (Student 3, Initial interview, page 6).
This emphasis on ‘being Chinese’ became a means to protect their sense of identity and a source of their personal power. Their apparent lack of confidence, and emphasis on becoming ‘more’ Chinese seemed for some of them to be linked to a change of status. With university fees now reaching an all time high, especially for international students, plus the additional living costs for two years, meant that many students found it necessary to undertake some form of part-time employment whilst here. Their interaction with UK employers and fellow employees drew comments from two of the students (Students 7 and 17). Student 7 felt that employment, such as fast-food server or supermarket shelf-stacker, was reserved for ‘outsiders’ such as her. Whilst back home in China, with her families support, it had not been necessary for her to work and having to do so in the UK seems to have ‘unsettled’ her:
“If I am in China, I mean everything is much easier because I have my parents, family, friends and everywhere. I studied in the best College in China I think and I mean everything is really smooth and I could get a
really good job easily and I could buy something easily and I can get money easily but here everything is so different and difficult. For example, I have to work in a take-away and live in a really small flat and I don’t even have Internet. It is really different and difficult here, being an outsider. I knew that before I come but still it was such a surprise”. (Student 7, Initial interview, page 2).
With the total cost to Chinese students of studying at a UK university now so expensive, plus the high living costs of Central London, meant that as unpleasant as it was to do such labour, Student 17 found that it was now inescapable.
“A lot of things have changed since I left China. When I lived in China my family was well-off. I did not have any problem about money, I did not need to work . . . and I was always in a group a little bit popular, always kind of special. It is more like realising about the social system and the invisible stuff. When I live in China I speak something and it is important, but if I speak something here it is nothing . . . Actually I am a more important person in China, here I am a no one. I have lost status, I am outside of any social structure . . . I am not at ease, my family is not here, I did not born here, I did not graduate here, I do not have any social network here”. (Student 17, Initial interview, page 5).
This emphasis on being ‘more Chinese’ gave these students a temporary sense of pride and personal power but at the expense of differentiating themselves from the local UK students and also distancing themselves from further intercultural exchange. Students 3, 5, 25 and 28 additionally reported widespread sociocultural difficulties from both inside the university and also outside in the UK community at large. These difficulties occurred at multiple levels, ranging from troubles with ‘professionals’ (i.e.: doctors etc.) to ‘non-professionals’ (i.e.: shop workers etc.).
“The whole system, the health system and everything, is all different. So I am like where should I find a doctor, and so I don’t really find one; and then people say go to NHS and get a GP, what is a GP anyway,
what should I do to get one, where do I get the paperwork . . . they say just come back another time and I am like, yeah. It’s difficult to know what their words mean, trying to find things and build a life here”. (Student 28, Initial interview, page 4).
“I do not think the university or the tutors know the difficulties we have when we come here, it is not just the college things going on here, it is everything outside that is difficult as well, with shopping and talking to those shop people . . . do you think those people like us being here?” (Student 3, Initial interview, page 3).
This third set of primary concerns, namely ‘Sociocultural difficulties’, were also significantly compounded by the student’s English language problems, as mentioned previously; but also with their apparent emphasis on becoming ‘more Chinese’. These students (1, 6, 7 and 25) had seemingly created for themselves something of a dichotomy whereby the difficulties that they were having in making friends with UK students was possibly pushing them towards greater isolation, whereby in contrast the ability to more easily make friendships with other non-Chinese international students was conceivably drawing them back towards the more centralised and communal areas of international university life.
“I think mixing with British students is more difficult than mixing with international students . . . Other Chinese also seem to mix more with international students than British. British students have their own culture and really are together, unfortunately I could not understand what they are meaning”. (Student 1, Initial interview, page 3).
“I found it is easier to become a friend with other Europeans than British students, I think it is just because of the language thing, I mean we all have, how can I say it, poor English so, I mean we can communicate better with non-English because we all have poor English”. (Student 6, Initial interview, page 2).
“When I came here I found it more easy to talk to others, not English. I feel English people are a little bit more distant than compared to people
from America or other countries . . . and people often do not have enough language to communicate properly”. (Student 25, Initial interview, page 9).
“International students talk English slowly and they want you to understand, they work harder to make you understand. So I talk better with them than English students”. (Student 7, Initial interview, page 5).
An interesting social and cultural aspect that arose from the comments of Students 2, 8 and 22 concerned food, or specifically Chinese cuisine. A remarkable linkage, both conscious and unconscious, was also made by further comments about food associated to homesickness and loneliness.
“It is the food mainly that makes me homesick. I miss home so much because of the food and then when I went back to China I could not eat it. I did not think I could not enjoy them so much more. I think my taste has changed . . . I have stopped eating oily stuff, but now that I tell you how much I miss it, I think if I go back in the summer now I will eat it”. (Student 2, Initial interview, page 8).
“It is unavoidable that you miss home or the people there, like parents or like their cooking, that is really very strong for me because I really like my Chinese food”. (Student 8, Initial interview, page 3).
“Yes, this winter I had big homesick . . . It made me really depressed, I miss the whole family, sometimes I want to go to my country because of the weather but also the food”. (Student 22, Initial interview, page 2).
As with any students travelling half-way around the world and arriving into an unfamiliar environment it came as no great surprise when Students 1, 28 and 29 talked of their feelings concerning loneliness and homesickness after their arrival in the UK. Here are their comments on this concern:
“I don’t think that I have changed a lot myself since I came here, but my environment, the things around me have changed a lot, and I think that has had effect on me. I felt loneliness at the start of the course and I found out it’s difficult to handle it, I never felt this kind of thing before, but since I come here . . . I was alone. I have found more Chinese here and they are a good thing, and a bad thing, as I don’t feel that kind of loneliness now, but I feel like I am losing my other international friends, because I’m more comfortable talking Chinese and being around these Chinese guys”. (Student 1, Intermediate interview, page 1).
“I think it is a little bit of loneliness, you miss your family, friends and food, I think it is a mix of everything . . . It’s not so bad that I would fly home irresponsibly . . . you just have to get yourself over it, and time will really fly by”. (Student 29, Intermediate interview, page 1/2).
The feeling of loneliness and isolation that was spoken of by Students 1 and 29 was also commented upon by Student 28, although from a slightly different viewpoint, when he spoke of the consequences of isolation involving personal relationships; with specific reference to long-distance affairs with partners back home in China.
“I had a girlfriend, back in China . . . We broke up because of me missing her; I just couldn’t do the loneliness . . . I had to have someone that can be with me, not far away, so we both had a hard time when we broke up . . . there is no answer to loneliness, but hanging around with other Chinese students helped in the end because I meet other girls”. (Student 28, Intermediate interview, page 8).