Homesickness and the International Student

Based on the survey, we found that Homesickness problem is really common problem that most international student faced with. International student found that there are many different things between their home country and Melbourne especially traditional food that most of them could not find the same taste as their hometown. In this post, three main tips of dealing with homesickness will be described such as avoiding spending too much time at your room, learning somethings new and positive thinking. First of all, it might be tempting to treat of your room as your own little safe haven, however staying in too much will only serve to make you feel worse. Isolating yourself will make your feelings more intense, as you will spend even more time pondering on what you miss about home. Trying to keep yourself busy by taking part in social activities, studying at the library rather than in your room, getting a part time job or even trying out some extracurricular activities. From t...

The pie chart shows international students in Swinburne University that we interviewed are from 6 different countries. The percentage of Thailand accounted for the majority part, with 30%. Compared with the percentage of Thailand, the percentage of  China is smaller by approximately 10%, which was the same as Peru. In addition, it is followed by Columbia, Japan and Saudi Arabia (occupied both only 10%). The graph illustrates that international students miss several things. The thing they miss the most  always be their local food (50%). In addition, the percentages of boyfriend/girlfriend and family both account for 10%. This graph shows that international students felt homesickness usually at night which is occupied 30 percent. The percentages of personal anniversary and other occupied the same (20%), which is two times as much as the percentages of new year's day, birthday and new year's day (approximately 10%). This pie chart r...

Kegel K., 2009, Homesickness in International College Students, In G. R. Walz, J. C. Bleuer, & R. Y. Yep (Eds. ), Compelling counseling Interventions: VISTAS 2009 (pp. 67-76). Alexandria, VA: American Counseling Association. Kolade L., 2017, How to Deal with Homesickness Freshman Year, https://www.hercampus.com/high-school/how-deal-homesickness-freshman-year

Currently, we created a survey form for International students who are studying EAP 4 at Swinburne University about “Homesickness”. The number of survey sample is 10, who come from different countries such as Peru, Japan, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, China and Colombia. As a strategy for survey, we have a face to face interview that included two types of questions which are open-ended questions and closed-end questions. According to this survey, we have the result that international students are attempting to adjust the gap of what they miss the most as well as when they feel homesickness the most and these gaps would bring them about the thing they missed the most and also the difficulty to find new friend in Melbourne. Firstly, we found through this survey a reality that international students studying EAP 4 at Swinburne University usually face problems of homesickness. Our survey indicates that almost 100% of participants we interviewed have felt homesickness. Mor...