On examining the Intermediate interview data it was apparent that ‘Sociocultural difficulties’ were the primary concern cited by the second largest number of students (12 of the 31). These difficulties surfaced at a time of adjustment for these students. It was now midway through their two years of study and the excitement and novelty of their new situation was receding, to be replaced by a feeling of uncertainty, they knew things were changing but they were unsure of what the changes would bring.
“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 in the last year, I think that has had effect on me. I felt loneliness at the start of last year 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. This year there are more Chinese now and they are a good thing, and a bad thing, now I don’t feel that kind of loneliness anymore, but I feel like I am losing my old international friends, my first year friends, because I’m more comfortable talking Chinese and being around these Chinese guys”. (Student 1, Intermediate interview, page 1).
During this Intermediate interview Student 1 was asked whether there was any difference between being with his previous international, but non-Chinese, friends (from the first few months of his UK course) and his new Chinese friends (that he had now associated himself with) and if so what that difference was, he explained:
“Yes, it is quite different, because hanging out with international students during the first year was new, it was fun and just different; but there are always limits in terms of the things that we can share . . . and we couldn’t share everything because we really are too different and wouldn’t understand everything . . . we would always talk about the same thing, just how different we are, about how different kinds of cultures, those subjects we always talk about. It was fun first time, but we kept talking about that kind of stuff, but you can’t talk quickly, because of the different language”. (Student 1, Intermediate interview, page 2).
When asked a follow up question as to what was the difficulty in “sharing everything” with non-Chinese students, he responded:
“The first year, it was fun, having international friends was really fun, it was a different experience and it was very exciting, but since I have been here for a long time I miss the culture where I am from. And so, at the beginning of this second year, I’ve been hanging out with only Chinese guys, because I missed them so much . . . we talk in Chinese, which I have missed so much, especially about home and all sorts of
things. It’s really easy to make that bond. It is a bond that you cannot have with other international students”. (Student 1, Intermediate interview, page 2).
The feeling of loneliness and isolation that was spoken of by Student 1 was now being repeated by others as well (see Figure 14, page 122). It was somewhat surprising that it had not been raised more cogently earlier in the year, but now at this central point in their studies, one year into a two year course, it appears to have become a ‘bridging’ point where many of the students acknowledged their situations and either forcibly acclimatised themselves to their solitude or made a strategic decision to find a way of changing it. It was a time of choices for the students, a time of development of their ‘self’ and their individual identities.
“I do not feel like I cannot stand being in this country anymore and I want to go back home, I do not really feel that way actually. I used to feel like that when I was not really used to this place, when I first come here, but not now, now I made myself get used to it, and everything is OK”. (Student 3, Intermediate interview, page 5).
“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 really flies by”. (Student 29, Intermediate interview, page 1/2).
An added facet to these feelings of loneliness was commented upon by Student 28 when he spoke of the consequences of isolation involving personal relationships; with specific reference to long-distance affairs with individuals 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).
Although all of the students participating in this research were enrolled at the same university they were separated into differing courses classified by artistic discipline (see Figure 5 on page 72). As such the numbers of Chinese students within each course varied enormously according to the discipline involved, and where Chinese students were scarce in number it was in such courses that the problem of isolation was more discernable. So when Student 2, a participant in a ‘Design Interaction’ course, was asked during her interview about loneliness and whether she had many Chinese friends here in the university, she surprisingly replied:
“None that I speak to, we don’t hang around, but I can say all my other friends* are here now, so no I don’t hang around with Chinese. I think it is more like Hi and Bye to friends, they are couples, only three other Chinese in the college who do same course as me, so we do not hang out and if we bump into each other then we just say hello. Once in a very blue moon, actually only once in a whole year, we met up for lunch so that was the only time. I don’t know about them but I don’t hang out with Chinese”. (Student 2, Intermediate interview, page 1).
This comment was contrary to the portrayals given by the majority of the other students. However, it was an important reminder that Chinese students are as different from one another as any other nationality is: they are all individuals, and they are certainly not ‘homogenised’ as some authors have reported (i.e.: Ballard & Clanchy or Redding).
A further aspect of these sociocultural difficulties was the difficulties faced by some of the students when they attempted to build friendships with UK students, or tried to interact within the social life of the university. Many commented upon the difficulties of making friends when they cannot speak the same language. Student 21 stated that although she could make friends with non-Chinese students the depth of their friendship could never be as great as if they both spoke the same language.
∗ The “other friends” she refers to in her narrative above were international, non-
“I think the difference with friends is probably in the language, because while I feel friends to all students, if they do not speak Mandarin, well there is like a big gang of people who do speak Mandarin and that makes a big difference, it is so better because it is like my language, so I think that people who speak Mandarin get to know me a lot better than people who speak English because I could probably not express myself only speaking English, so I think that is very true”. (Student 21, Intermediate interview, page 3).
Student 22 reinforced that same point when she was also asked about making friends with non-Chinese students or at least those who could not speak Mandarin.
“Yeah, because my English not perfect and so it was difficult to make friends at first. So, most my friends are Chinese but also I try to make friends international. But I am Chinese so I feel comfortable with Chinese but I try not to always be with Chinese because my English must get better, or I may fail”. (Student 22, Intermediate interview, page 1).
When asked by the interviewer “what do you mean by ‘I may fail’ ”, she replied: “If I go home without at least good English I will be seen to have failed . . . by everyone, but especially my father . . . It is because why I study in England, to get better English . . . anyway, I not fail”. (Student 22, Intermediate interview, page 2).
In the example below from Student 29, as well as the language difficulty it appears that the Western attitude to relationships and the casual conversations that accompany them are also seen as different.
“I was told that the English were reserved, but I did not find them to be. At university everybody talks to everybody even if they don’t know that person. But back home, in China, when I talk to someone I believe that I have made a relationship with that person, but here even if I have been talking with some English people, soon as we finish talking they just go, and there is no more relationship after that. Then, if I meet them another time they don’t continue the relationship, it’s finished, there is
no relationship. It is not same way that I make friends”. (Student 29, Intermediate interview, page 6).
“At home I thought I was a lot like Westerners, but when I come here and meet Westerners I think that I am so not like them, I know now that I am completely Asian”. (Student 14, Intermediate interview, page 1).