Mistakes Of International Students: Lack Of Attention To Health, Poor Social Life, Low Interest To Extracurricular Activities

Human social life is getting enhanced and developed, in parallel, each person has to equip themselves with a knowledge inventory to keep up with this development. Giving oneself up to study is the fastest path to success, and then, we can choose to learn wherever we feel the best for us. Recently, people tend to study abroad because they think they will get the best education, know more diversity knowledge and do well in their careers. Learners who study abroad are called “international students’. In strange lands, there is something that makes international students feel to be new to their surroundings, and it is inevitable to a few issues have come up. Although these gaffes are not big, they affect to a part of life. Here are three common mistakes which students from international countries usually make: lack of attention to health, poor social life, and don’t participate in extracurricular activities.

The first reason is lack of attention to health. Bad habits are reasons which directly influence on international students’ health such as staying up really late at night, not getting enough sleep, eating unhealthy foods and drinks, and not exercising. {Studying abroad, whether it’s for four years or just a semester, can sometimes feel like going on vacation, and it’s easy to fall into the “I’m just here for a while” trap}, as Editorial Team @MyRentHero explains(August 24, 2018). When they are not in their countries, they basically forget to take good care of themselves. It is easy to fall into these track, when they are in a foreign place. Editorial Team @MyRentHero says that “You get excited about trying all the food you don’t have at home and start taking on too many activities because you think you have a limited amount of time to make the most of your experiences”(August 24, 2018), and “AYCE (All You Can Eat) restaurants in the area that you forget to keep track of how much you eat'(Hue La, November 1, 2014). This can make students wear out physically and mentally quickly. Additionally, study pressure makes students’ health become very bad. Hue La notes that “You may be too busy cramming for finals and end up pulling several all-nighters in a role”(November 1, 2014), so they spend all the time on learning. In overseas school, learners have to do homework and prepare for the next lessons because every day always have new knowledge. It is hard to understand if students did not prepare before. Therefore, they need to research, learn more and more so that they can keep up with their friends. They do not pay attention to their health in those days and even don’t sleep until they finished their homework. Gradually, they are stressed out.

The second reason is poor social life. Making new friends is one of the most interesting things when studying abroad. It is precious opportunity for students to become familiar with the natives, to accumulate knowledge of the culture, to learn from each other, and to expand relationships. However, not as the imagination, they are scared of communicating with native speakers. When they are in the area where native speakers are standing around, they dare not say anything because they think indigenous people “didn’t want to be friends with me because I’m an international student”(Hue La, November 11, 2014) or as Trung Hieu (June 13, 2011) cites Phan Ngoc Linh who explains that “Vietnamese students are often shy, and afraid that if they make a mistake, others will laugh at them, so they try to avoid speaking English in front of others”. At that time, as Hue La says “ I did feel lonely, home-sick and even lost trying to figure my way around and coping with the new transition”(October 6, 2014). Therefore, they just hang out with others from their country. They are in foreign place, so as Hue La says, “Everything is still brand new to you. Thus, it makes sense for you to find comfort and understanding in people who came from the same country and have the same cultural background as you are”(November 1, 2014). At the time students are still like a fish out of water, they have fellow countrymen beside to speak their mother tongue and express ideas in their own language. Sometimes, they eat together because they all have similar taste of food choices and don’t think too much about finding a suitable place to eat for each person.

The third reason is don’t participate in extracurricular activities. For international students, extracurricular activities is new and strange since it may not have in their countries. Students feel afraid to join in. They can not make friends with strange people and start a conversation immediately. They also think they are not good at helping people around to finish their work. Moreover, they assume that extracurricular activities affect studying. According to Bryanna Davis, “International students sometimes struggle to paint a full picture of themselves through non-academic means because many countries have longer school days and students devote after-school time to studying and reviewing academics”(June 27, 2013). A 2014 Study Abroad Corner is also claims that “Maybe you decided to focus only on your academics in order to get that 4.0 GPA. Maybe you’re already super busy and stuffed with taking 20 units and didn’t have time for anything else”(Hue La, November 1).If students spend time on joining extracurricular activities, they will not have enough time to study, and their studying will decrease.

The life of international students in foreign places is hard and difficult, so mistakes are quite popular. However, if we know how to adjust and arrange the studying, we will make fast progress. Thanks to these mistakes, we learn some significant lessons from them, expand horizons, and increase thinking ability in learning as well as in society life today. For all the common mistakes above, we need to fix them by taking a good care of our health, being confident to communicate with native speakers and taking part in extracurricular activities so that turn study abroad time to be an interesting and memorable experience.