Table Of Contents
The transition
As we've seen, the Chinese educational system predisposes students to expect a relatively relaxed lifestyle at University, and, even to relatively sophisticated students, the transition to the Australian scene can come as a rude shock (cf. Gu 2005).
Students who have been used to being high achievers at home find that they have to lower their sights quite substantially, with all that that entails for their image of themselves.
The workload of adapting to a very different set of demands is inevitably magnified by the language difficulties they encounter.
Diane found it exhausting. So she was always ringing home, frustrated and in tears. She said in her first semester she couldn't get used to university study; in her second semester she was more used to it, but wasn't aiming any higher than a pass.
— Diane
When I was studying in Chinese, it was easy to get good results; but to get those results here is hard work, really hard work – even to get 70% is exhausting.
— Grace
It's a very difficult period for me one month ago, because one month ago I submit three essays in the first period, and all of them failed. Yes, I got failed, from the beginning of the study, all the things are failed. So at that time I felt very disappointed. I even felt I want to quit – if I can't pass all the units I want to quit and go back to China; I think that maybe it's not very suitable for me to study here.
— Nana
Could you explain why it's too hard sometimes?
Sometimes because… because of the language… maybe the university notes is that much… and may be spend for assignment management or thing like that… one week or something every night prepare for writes and read
Before writing an essay, do you mean?
Essay, yes.
— Sandy
What do you mean by tough, tough in what way?
Hum… The whole… hum… the whole process, the learning process… you have to contribute a lot of time and it's really intensive, and … and the standard of requirement here is really high.
— Mabel
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What was it like when you first arrived here?
A lot of difficulties.
[General living conditions were not a problem for this student because of his prior experience in New Zealand. But unlike most of his classmates, he had no background in accounting.]
Especially in the first semester, I felt [it was] very very hard. I couldn't keep up with the teachers, and I never get enough time to prepare for the assignments and the homework, and I was desperate at that time. After the exam at the end of the first semester, I went back to China and told my parents, if I fail the subjects I don't want to go back there. First semester was really really hard for me.
— Keith