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How do home students feel about EU/International students?

Great if they try and integrate with the everyone and not just stick to other international students from their own country. You can great friends who are from other countries and then have reasons to visit those places!

Reply 41

Harve

9

At my uni, the EU students integrate really well and there really doesn't seem to be a divide between English/Scottish/Irish/European students. Obviously you're going to find it easier to connect with someone from your home country, especially when you're both abroad, but it's not as if it's cliquey.
One exception is Chinese students. Firstly, there are quite a few of them, so it's very easy for them to stick together. And whilst the cultural differences between European countries is fairly superficial and inconsequential, I think it can be a genuine culture shock for Asian students moving over to the UK. The Thais and Koreans I've met seem to mix a lot more, and I'm guessing that's because

Oh and every student in the UK will be able to speak English really well, whether they choose to actually use it in front of you or not. Getting 6.5 or 7 in the IELTS is pretty tricky.

Reply 42

blubimnotafish

12

I'll just keep an eye on this thread to prepare myself for next week and the next three years of my life :P

Reply 43

username1253260

8

Original post by CJKay

Not bothered. What does annoy me is when international students bring their entire damn country with them and group up with other international students from the same place all speaking a completely foreign language sticking with a completely foreign culture. It's like, "did you literally pay thousands of pounds just to use this facility?". I live near New Malden in London, and every shop is Korean (no, I am not exaggerating). There's a daily Korean newspaper, Korean restaurants, everybody and everything is Korean - it barely even feels like England there most of the time. When students do that... that's what annoys me.
Given that plenty of them don't do that anyway, I have no reason to dislike international students in general. Better for our economy n' all that jazz.

EDIT: Neg me as much as you like but you know when the newspapers are all Korean it's gone too far and I highly doubt 99% of countries would be nearly as accepting as we are should you decide to run over there with a group of English people and have all your conversations solely in English.

EDIT2: Am I just being negged by anonymous users? 5 negs and not a single rep point dropped. :lol:

EDIT3: Apparently this post wasn't quite as controversial as it originally seemed. :eyeball:

I'm an international student and I fully agree with this. It's extremely annoying to see clusters of international students grouping together and not speaking to anyone local, or even another international student of another nationality - all it shows is how xenophobic you are and makes the image of international students worse, making my life as an international student more difficult than it already is.

Reply 44

super_kawaii

20

Original post by Harve

At my uni, the EU students integrate really well and there really doesn't seem to be a divide between English/Scottish/Irish/European students. Obviously you're going to find it easier to connect with someone from your home country, especially when you're both abroad, but it's not as if it's cliquey.
One exception is Chinese students. Firstly, there are quite a few of them, so it's very easy for them to stick together. And whilst the cultural differences between European countries is fairly superficial and inconsequential, I think it can be a genuine culture shock for Asian students moving over to the UK. The Thais and Koreans I've met seem to mix a lot more, and I'm guessing that's because

Oh and every student in the UK will be able to speak English really well, whether they choose to actually use it in front of you or not. Getting 6.5 or 7 in the IELTS is pretty tricky.

This exactly. I've got quite a few EU and international friends at uni, and they've all integrated well and wanted to make friends with home students. However I have noticed Chinese students (not BBCs) tend to keep themselves to themselves a lot more than any other group and I don't think that helps the image of internationals as it makes them seem antisocial

Reply 45

xaki90

8

Original post by jelly1000

Those who mix are great, but those who stick to their groups annoy me. One of my Chinese flatmates in first year wouldn't even say hi to us and just ran away. Why would you get a room in a flat with others if you won't even attempt to talk to them.

It happened to me as well to the point where it looked as thought hey were afraid of me but the truth is they are very reserved people and they are very cautious around other people. It is a mix of fear and extreme shyness especially since some of them are self conscious about their English speaking skills. If you were to go to China chances are this person would be all over you if you were to meet in Shanghai instead of a British university.

Reply 46

jelly1000

21

Original post by xaki90

It happened to me as well to the point where it looked as thought hey were afraid of me but the truth is they are very reserved people and they are very cautious around other people. It is a mix of fear and extreme shyness especially since some of them are self conscious about their English speaking skills. If you were to go to China chances are this person would be all over you if you were to meet in Shanghai instead of a British university.

And I'd talk to them back.

Reply 47

Drama_flakes

3

I am an EU student and when I was studying at uni I never faced any communication problems, a lot of people from different countries and British students were very friendly and talkative, but I had do drop out and now I am doing an access course in college, I am the only foreigner in our classroom and sometimes I feel a discomfort, I have a strong accent and sometimes because of worrying I'm starting to forget some basic words, and when I am participating in group talks people are staring at me like O_O and in such moments I totally lose any wiligness to talk to them and it makes me upset. I am not one of those eastern european tracksuit-chavs who can't say a word in English and whose life phylosophy is just to drink beer and smoke weed everyday, I'd really like to integrate into British society and hang out with English fellas, but I have feeling that everytime when I am trying to talk to someone people are thinking "who the **** are you, go and clean my toilet you Polandball or wherever you from". I think the main reason of a lack of self-confidence is that I just don't have enough English practise, but where can I get it if I am too afraid/shy to talk to locals and there aren't any international students in my area, looks like a vicious circle.

Reply 48

pmc:producer

20

All I hear at university from international students is how they came here (Scotland) because they don't pay the fees. Which is fine in one hand, but in the other - it's pathetic that people from England are required to pay here and someone from mainland Europe can come for free*.

*Of course, it's not free in that somebody somewhere (EU) pays - but either way, it's quite annoying.

Outwith that, I don't mind other nationalities. It opens you up to new cultures and experiences.

Reply 49

willbee

12

I generally find they're more interesting to talk to than a lot of home-grown students. More cultured and intelligent, as you'd have to be to learn multiple languages and then do a degree in a second language and another country.

I don't understand why they come here to study and then don't try to integrate at all, as happens with a lot of Asian students in Aberystwyth, but every other nationality here seems to gel well with everyone else. I think a lot of Asian students aren't as fluent as European students and maybe they come here to study because they don't have as many options at home... I know a girl called Jean who takes Drama and Theatre Design, which isn't available in China.

Reply 50

username1054063

13

Some of responses on this thread make me not want to study in England...lol.

One of the reasons I wanted to study in the UK was because I was looking forward to meeting students from the UK.

(edited 10 years ago)

Reply 51

jelly1000

21

Original post by LauraRMCF

Some of responses on this thread make me not want to study in England...lol.

One of the reasons I wanted to study in the UK was because I was looking forward to meeting students from the UK.

as long as you talk to people you meet and don't deliberately avoid them and run away like some Chinese students do you'll be fine. We made so much effort to try and say hi to our Chinese flatmates and make them feel welcome and they didn't really want to know.