Look at the overseas life of young international students

Data show that Chinese students studying abroad are showing a trend of younger age. In this new trend of studying abroad, teenage middle school and high school students have become the main force. What is the situation like for young people studying abroad? Not long ago, Zhejiang TV broadcasted a documentary that reflected the life of young Chinese students studying abroad in Australia, "Youth Studying Abroad - Documentary of Chinese Middle School Students Studying in Australia", which aroused strong responses from the audience. Many parents who hope that their children will succeed have expressed their opinions through the film. Teenagers have gained more understanding and rationality on the issue of studying abroad

The TV documentary "Youth Studying Abroad and Traveling to the End of the World - Documentary of Chinese Middle School Students Studying in Australia" was filmed by Ms. Chen Jing, an Australian Chinese, with an investment of 300,000 Australian dollars at her own expense. Chen Jing has been engaged in cultural exchanges between Australia and China for many years. According to her, the number of Chinese students studying in Australia in 2001 increased by 70% compared with 2000. Most of the new students were young international students who came to Australia to study in grades 11 and 12. These young international students were Prepare to study in high school in Australia and pass the exam to enter an Australian university directly. There are currently about 15,000 Chinese students in Australia. This is the first time in Australia’s history that so many international students have come from one country.

Although many Chinese families regard sending their children to study abroad as a way to receive education, it is not an easy task to study in a completely unfamiliar place with no relatives. In addition to studying, children also have to Independently cope with many problems in life, interpersonal communication and so on. To this end, Chen Jing conducted follow-up interviews with dozens of Chinese students studying abroad in Australia for more than a year starting in 2000, conducted a large number of detailed investigations, interviewed people related to the youth studying abroad, and filmed 8 episodes of a TV documentary "Young People Studying Abroad and Traveling to the End of the World - Records of Chinese Middle School Students Studying in Australia". The film records the role models of young international students who cherished time like gold, studied hard, and finally achieved impressive results and realized their personal ideals in the new environment. It also tells the story of an individual who abandoned his studies due to poor self-control and was eventually deported by the Australian Immigration Bureau. For example; the film shows more about the various conflicts that Chinese international students encounter while living and studying in Australia due to their different habits. This information is believed to be of great value to domestic families in understanding young people studying abroad.

-The Australian government clearly stipulates that overseas students studying in secondary schools in Australia must live with local families who have no criminal records.

Westerners generally pay more attention to private life. Families willing to rent overseas students to live in their homes are usually not very wealthy. Recruiting young overseas students to live in their homes is just a way for them to supplement their family income. For the young international students, they are just tenants in a new family, and their living habits must comply with the landlord. This is something they never expected——

16-year-old Wang Dian is from Changsha. Before going abroad, she imagined the life of studying abroad like this: living in a beautiful small villa with a large lawn outside. Foreigners would be polite and generous, and she would live happily with them. So when the car drove her to a dark and old house, and saw that in front of the house there was no grass but a busy and noisy railway, Wang Dian's original dream was shattered. Her landlord Tracy is a single old lady. One month after Wang Dian moved into Tracy's house, the conflicts between the two parties began to become clear. Tracy complained about Wang Dian's parents always calling in the middle of the night. She felt that she was getting older and had things to do the next day, so she needed a good rest, but Wang Dian's parents disturbed her peace. Tracy was also dissatisfied with Wang Dian's long bathing time. Tracy said: Wang Dian takes an hour to take a bath, sometimes even an hour and a half. I really don't know what she is doing in the bathroom, but usually it only takes me five to five hours to take a bath. Ten minutes. Wang Dian was very angry about these accusations. She said: I really don't understand. My parents have a time difference from here. What's wrong with them calling me right after work to care about me? Besides, international long distance is very expensive. Why doesn’t this old lady understand? In China, how could my parents control my bathing, but she often knocked on the door while I was bathing to urge me to hurry up. I think it's very unfair. I pay her to live in her house. It costs 180 Australian dollars per week, which is almost more than 900 yuan. How can she still talk so much when I take a bath? I don't think it's worth paying so much to live in a house like this. Two weeks later, the conflict between Wang Dian and Tracy further intensified. Wang Dian couldn't stand the old lady not cooking dinner for her on time. She said that sometimes it’s 9pm and she still doesn’t come back to make dinner for me. I think foreigners may be friendly on the surface, but in fact they are cold on the inside and don’t think about you at all. I have asked the school to change the landlord.

Two days later, without Wang Dian making any preparations, Tracy ordered her to move out the next day. In the end, Wang Dian’s guardian temporarily took her away...Cultural background, life Differences in habits and the unique personality of Chinese only children mean that young international students are always hit by landlords almost when they first set foot in Australia. Some young international students cannot adapt and change landlords frequently, even four or five times a year. Adapt to reality or escape?

Wang Dian finally chose to comply. At first, she didn't get along well with her second landlord, but gradually she understood a truth: they have lived here all their lives, and of course they will not change their living habits because of my arrival. I can only adapt to them. Thus, Wang Dian started a new life. She used her own money to install a telephone in her room so that whoever called at any time would not affect others.

When taking a shower, she would take a watch to the bathroom, which would last no more than 5 minutes each time. When I study late, I don’t go to the kitchen to eat the landlord’s food. Instead, I eat biscuits I bought myself. Turn off the lights and cook your own lunch. When nothing happens, he will take the initiative to chat with the landlord for a while. After staying in Australia for eight months, Wang Dian has gotten along very well with her second landlord. Every day after dinner, she makes coffee for the family and does other housework. Adapting to reality not only changed Wang Dian's living conditions, but also gave her new feelings. She said, when I made coffee for everyone for the first time, I was thinking, my parents have done so much for me, but I have never made tea for them once in China. I really regret it. I will definitely do it when they come to Australia. Make tea for them.

Wang Dian’s practical actions won the landlord’s heart. Now she has changed from a stranger to a member of the landlord’s family. During holidays, the landlord will invite her to go for a walk on the beautiful seaside.

-Are foreigners too unkind, or are our young international students too poor in their ability to be independent?

The story of Gu Liping’s life with Fiona, an Australian single mother, is probably very illustrative. Gu Liping, 18, is from Wuxi. She is in grade 12 at Wellington Middle School in Melbourne. Her landlord Fiona is similar in age to her and is also in school. Moreover, she is a single mother with a 4-year-old daughter. When Chinese and foreign peers stand under the same roof, the gap between them becomes apparent——

Fiona is Gu Liping’s third landlord. After studying, in order to earn money to support her family, Fiona She also works two jobs. Every day during the day, Fiona went to school and went straight to her part-time job after school. She has an unusual job - driving a campus bus. This is a job that few women in Australia are interested in, but Fiona not only does it for the sake of living, but she does it very well. After driving the school bus, Fiona went to pick up her daughter. When she got home, she was busy cooking dinner for Gu Liping and her daughter and taking care of the housework. In her own garden, Fiona opened a small vegetable garden to grow some fresh vegetables. When Gu Liping fell asleep, Fiona, after a busy day, could sit down and start her homework during the day. Every Sunday, Fiona has to go to the nursing home to do another job - cooking for a 96-year-old man and chatting with him.

In comparison, Gu Liping is much worse. She can't even do trivial tasks like ironing, so Fiona does it for her every time. Gu Liping wanted to make a pouch with a lunch box, but she didn't know how to sew, so she could only buy fabric and ask Fiona for help. During the days she spent with Fiona, Gu Liping was deeply moved by the independent living ability and love of this foreign peer, and it also made her think about many things that she had never thought of before——

When I was in China, I always felt that it was only natural for my parents to take care of me. Since my parents were willing to give birth to me, they had the obligation to raise me. As a result, when I went abroad, I still felt that I should be taken care of. But Fiona is not much older than me, but she has already begun to take on the responsibility of a family independently. She has to go to school, work, and take care of outsiders like me. This is something that Chinese children really cannot compare to. Children in China are so old, and their parents still hold them in their hands to send them to school, buy them a house when they get married, and take care of them when they have children. It’s so happy. I learned a lot from Fiona, including how to be self-reliant and how to love and care for others. She taught me many things in life. In the past in China, I didn’t eat a lot of things. After arriving at Fiona’s house, she noticed this in me and kept changing the flavors when cooking to cater to me. I saw that she was so considerate. From then on, what did Fiona do? Whatever I eat, I never say it’s not delicious. I think this reflects the mutual care and respect between people. I am very happy to understand this.

-In the days away from parents, self-discipline becomes another important quality besides self-reliance.

According to the observations of Chinese people who have been in Australia for a long time, not all new international students have strong self-discipline. Generally speaking, they are equally strong and weak. But this gap leads to very different results. The strong can create results that foreigners admire, while the weak may end up worse than at home. What is told here is a true story——

Long Long (pseudonym) and Huang Jian are both from Shanghai. They both went to Australia to study in 1999 and both attended Taylors Middle School in Melbourne. Huang Jian stayed at his aunt's house, while Long Long stayed at the house of his parents' Australian-Chinese friend Sherry.

After only living in Shirley’s house for half a year, Longlong moved to a local family on the pretext of practicing speaking skills. However, he soon said that the family was poor and they only bought two pizzas for dinner, which he couldn’t afford. Swallowed, so he returned to Shirley's house. Longlong, who returned to Shirley's home again, became very secretive. He usually locked himself in the house. When others called him, he would just open the door a crack to prevent them from seeing inside. In his room, Longlong smoked endlessly, feeling very irritable. He turned on the computer until midnight, and then slept until the afternoon of the next day. He was late every day after school started, and even skipped classes several times. Seeing that the situation was not good, Xue Li asked her husband to have a heart-to-heart talk with Long Long. Long Long just said that he was not in good spirits because of his lovelorn relationship.

Huang Jian, who came with him, started a race against time as soon as he set foot on Australian soil. He completed the six-month intensive language training in only one and a half months, and used I completed all the 11th grade courses in 9 weeks. Huang Jian has a goal in mind, which is to enter the top ten in his state's college entrance examination.

He wrote the words "Cherish time like gold and every second counts" on his computer to motivate himself to keep making progress. When the summer vacation came, many international students from the same school went back to China to visit relatives, but he used this time to stay in Australia and preview all five courses for Grade 12 students. During the dozens of minutes' drive from his place of residence to school, Huang Jian was also immersed in studying. In just a few months, Huang Jian quickly adapted to foreign teaching methods and rhythms.

In December 2000, the results of the Victoria State College Entrance Examination were released. Longlong said that he had been admitted to the university. His family in China were very happy when they found out and asked him to return to China for the Spring Festival and said that his relatives were preparing to celebrate him. Just the night before returning to China, Longlong finally had to tell the Sherrys that he had lost 20,000 Australian dollars in gambling in Australia and had no money to buy a plane ticket home. He admitted that this was the reason for his irritability. Longlong also said that he was not the only one who went to prison. A young international student gambled away 30,000 Australian dollars and was eventually escorted back to Wuhan by his parents; another lost all his living expenses and only had two yuan left when he left the hospital. ; The most tragic thing is that a young international student not only lost all his money, but also became addicted to drugs. While the Shirleys were trying to figure out how to help Longlong solve his problem, Longlong suddenly disappeared mysteriously. After all the hard work, the Sherrys finally learned that Longlong had not only lost his living expenses but had never been admitted to college. He was seriously absent from school in middle school and owed more than 7,000 Australian dollars in tuition fees. The Immigration Bureau had issued two notices to cancel his visa. notify. It turned out that Longlong had been living in the lies he had spun. When the lies were about to be exposed, he was afraid and chose to escape. Longlong was eventually sent back to China.

At this time, Long Long’s classmate Huang Jian won the first place in the overseas student college entrance examination in Victoria, Australia, with a total score of 99.85 points. He also won the coveted honor of the Victoria Governor’s Award. , the governor personally awarded the medal to Huang Jian. Huang Jian finally got his wish and entered the Computer Science Department of the University of Melbourne, Australia's top university, and received a high scholarship.

The above three stories are just a few of the many examples in the film "Youth Studying Abroad and Traveling Around the World - Documentary of Chinese Middle School Students Studying in Australia". They also only reflect part of the current living and learning situation of primary school international students in Australia. Small portion. These stories may make many families who are preparing to send their children to study abroad either excited, worried, or at a loss as to what to do. What the author wants to say is that it is not a bad thing for teenagers to study abroad, but it is not as many people imagine that everything will be fine if they send their children out.

-Parents and children, are you ready?

Most of today’s young international students are only children. They are used to living a life of food and clothing at home and focusing on studying. Therefore, almost all young international students will experience the dilemma caused by poor self-reliance overseas——Female Children can't sew or cook, and some can't even wash their own clothes. Boys are worse, their rooms are always in a mess, and broken supplies can't be repaired.

In fact, the poor living ability of Chinese young international students is directly related to their parents. It is precisely because their parents take care of all the trivial matters in life that our young international students lack the ability to learn life skills. Chance. Parents cannot shirk responsibility for their children's personality defects. There is an example in the film that is thought-provoking: an Australian-Chinese received a young international student who had just arrived in Australia. In order to reduce the financial burden of the young international student, she lowered the room rate very low and went out of her way to do everything for him every day. After lunch, the foreign students left after a few days. The Chinese later learned that when the young international student told his parents in China that the landlord wanted him to do some housework, his parents told him: We paid the rent, and the landlord should do everything. This not only deeply hurt the Chinese, but also made her question domestic family education.

In Australia, some young international students are very willing to live in Chinese families because their living habits are relatively similar. But even the Chinese in Australia have one way or another view on China's new generation. A Chinese landlord put it bluntly: young international students generally lack love and have little regard for others. I often rush home after a busy day to cook for them, but when they see me carrying a lot of things into the house, no one stands up to help me, and they just watch TV. There are very few people who take the initiative to help me with housework, and they don’t do anything beyond their ability. I have to take out the garbage when it is full. Even the most basic things like cleaning up the bathroom after taking a bath have to be pointed out to them.

In the film "Youth Studying Abroad and Traveling Across the World - Documentary of Chinese Middle School Students Studying in Australia", two landlords suggested to Chinese parents that they must train their children in basic life skills before sending them abroad. , even if you can steam rice yourself, this is very useful for young international students.

There are still quite a few parents who believe that financial strength is the key for their children to study abroad, but the reality is contrary to this idea. According to surveys, most of the young international students who hang out in game arcades and entertainment venues all day come from well-off families. The family of Longlong who was sent back to China was very well off. His father left a large sum of money when he went to Australia to visit him. It was this money that sent Longlong to prison.

The ability to adapt to foreign education methods is also a problem.

In Australia, the college entrance examination scores are composed of two parts, one is the college entrance examination scores, and the other is the usual grades in middle school. The ratio of the two is 4:6. This has raised a new topic for many Chinese students who are used to sharpening their skills in battle - —Only by developing the habit of studying seriously can you ultimately achieve good results. In Australian secondary schools, the examination content is completely different from that in China. In the film, a young international student introduced that the exam question she encountered was to design a perfume bottle! Focusing on hands-on skills and problem-solving abilities is the most prominent feature of overseas education, which is a weakness for Chinese students.

Once a child is far away from home, the care and restraint of his parents are beyond their reach.

"Youth Studying Abroad - A Record of Chinese Middle School Students Studying in Australia" once again poses a question to families who are preparing to send their children to study abroad: Have you thought clearly and are you ready?