[ti:Making Friends Not Always Easy for Foreign Students]
[ar:Jim Tedder]
[al:Education Report]
[00:00.00]This is the VOA Special English Education Report.
[00:08.83]A recent story in the Chronicle of Higher Education 
[00:11.70]said many foreign students 
[00:16.13]report feeling lonely or unwelcome in Australia. 
[00:20.73]Those feelings are among the reasons why Australia 
[00:22.78]is taking a close look 
[00:27.71]at its international education industry. 
[00:31.81]The government has formed an advisory council 
[00:36.35]to help develop a five-year national strategy 
[00:41.39]for the future of international education in Australia.
[00:45.93]But wherever international students go, 
[00:49.73]making friends may not always be easy. 
[00:55.20]The Journal of International and Intercultural Communication 
[00:59.87]recently published a study done in the United States.
[01:04.35]Elisabeth Gareis of Baruch College in New York 
[01:08.83]surveyed four hundred fifty-four international students. 
[01:12.62]They were attending four-year colleges 
[01:17.97]and graduate schools in the American South and Northeast.
[01:22.01]Students from English-speaking countries 
[01:25.37]and from northern and central Europe 
[01:29.17]were more likely to be happy with their friendships. 
[01:33.65]But thirty-eight percent of the international students said 
[01:38.25]they had no close friends in the United States.
[01:42.85]And half of the students from East Asia said 
[01:47.58]they were unhappy with the number of American friends they had. 
[01:51.87]Professor Gareis says thirty percent said 
[01:55.05]they wished their friendships could be deeper 
[01:56.66]and more meaningful.
[01:58.94]ELISABETH GAREIS: "Students from East Asia have 
[02:02.49]cultures that are different on many levels 
[02:05.16]from the culture in the United States. 
[02:08.77]But then there's also language problems, 
[02:12.75]and maybe some social skills, such as small talk, 
[02:18.04]that are possibly not as important in their native countries, 
[02:20.59]where it's not as important to 
[02:23.45]initiate friendships with small talk."
[02:27.68]She says many East Asian students blamed themselves 
[02:30.60]for their limited friendships with Americans.
[02:32.41]ELISABETH GAREIS: "The vast majority 
[02:35.52]blames themselves, actually for 
[02:38.26]not speaking the language well enough, 
[02:41.37]for not knowing the culture well enough. 
[02:46.16]There were also some comments about the college environment, 
[02:50.39]like many of them were in the natural sciences 
[02:55.18]or worked in labs where they were surrounded by other East Asians."
[02:59.41]VOA's Student Union blogger Jessica Stahl 
[03:03.70]did her own survey to find out how American students 
[03:07.00]and foreign students relate to each other. 
[03:09.92]More than one hundred students, 
[03:12.03]about half of them American, 
[03:15.08]answered her online questions.
[03:17.82]Half of the international students 
[03:21.05]and sixty percent of the Americans said 
[03:25.35]they related as well or better to the other group 
[03:27.34]than to their own group.
[03:33.19]Professor Gareis says students who make friends from their host country 
[03:36.67]return home happier with their experience.
[03:38.97]ELISABETH GAREIS: "International students who make friends 
[03:42.39]with host nationals are, overall, more satisfied with 
[03:44.38]their stay in the host country. 
[03:45.94]They have better language skills, 
[03:47.62]they have better academic performance 
[03:51.91]and they have better attitudes toward the host country. "
[03:55.70]And that's the VOA Special English Education Report, 
[03:59.82]written by Jerilyn Watson. I'm Jim Tedder.