A home from home

Adjusting to life in a new country can be hard at first, but you will find plenty of support at your university to help you feel at home.

For international students the challenges of coming to the UK often appear in many different forms. Not only do they have the usual student pressures of getting to grips with a new academic course but they also have to come to terms with an entirely new culture, one that might be completely alien to them. Fortunately, Sam Harris a project and training officer from Manchester’s International Society, one of the largest in the UK, says that in their experience most students find that a little bit of homesickness is as bad as it gets when it comes to settling into life in the UK.

‘There have been studies that show that when international students first arrive they feel a lot of excitement but that after that energy goes they feel a bit of homesickness as they adjust to the culture. Then it gets better and better from there, so it’s worth noting that most students feel homesick at one point or another.

Obviously, it varies a lot, some students have done lots of travelling, speak English well and they tend to find that they don’t have too many problems fitting in. Then on the other extreme we have people coming to the UK and it’s a complete culture shock. We had one girl arrive who had never left her family, her parents had told her what books to read and she had never been allowed out by herself. Then she arrived to do a three-year degree by herself in Manchester, so that was a real culture shock for her. Fortunately, most of our students go back home having had a really positive experience.’

Cultural differences

The experience of Blake Marshall, an American student who studied English at Bristol University, proves that even when you have the head start of knowing the language you can still experience difficulties. ‘There’s so many cultural similarities between the US and the UK that you’d think I wouldn’t have had any problems settling in but any country that isn’t your own will always feel a bit weird and when you’re under pressure with your course that can sometimes be enough to throw you off track. I have to say that the thing that really made me feel a bit homesick was the food! British food is nowhere near as bad as some people say it is but I’m from LA and I’m used to everything being really healthy and I had to work quite hard to find restaurants that did things like salads that didn’t cost a fortune!’

So what can you do to make sure you feel as at home as possible during your stay in the UK? Harris says that there are several steps to settling in. ‘I think first off you should make yourself aware of what support services are there for you and be aware of how these can help you if you need them. Of course there are the international societies who will organise different trips and orientation events. There are international student welfare officers who work within the universities and there’s probably an international student officer within the union as well. On top of that your union will have counselling and student welfare services who you can approach for help if you need it – you might not but it’s important to know there are plenty of people here to support you.’

Come together

‘We try and encourage our students to not just stay with people from their own country. It’s great if you can get a bit of comfort from those communities when you need it but try not to use that to protect yourself from the UK - this might be the only chance you have to get to know the UK and its culture and people so you need to have some confidence. Try joining some of the union societies that you’re interested in and don’t give up after the first time of trying to meet people or get discouraged if they seem a bit reserved. The international students who are successful in making friends in the UK are the ones who never give up and keep trying,’ explains Harris.

For Marshall, making your time studying in the UK successful is a question of keeping a positive attitude. ‘I think you have to accept that it’s going to feel a bit weird from time to time but that if you just keep smiling, keep meeting people and keep trying new things then you’ll get there. Everything new feels weird the first time you do it but if you persevere then you can make a success of it, if I’d given up when I didn’t like the food and just written off all English food then I’d have never discovered the chicken kebabs you guys have and even though I’m back in the US now I’d fly back tomorrow just to get one of those!’

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