A New Journey And Many Challenges-a Study Of Chinese Overseas Students In UK

Recent years Britain has witnessed a steady growth in the number of Chinese overseas students. Chinese students have now become the largest overseas student group in the UK. However, there have been a scarce number of studies in the UK devoted to exploring the learning and living experience of Chinese overseas students. Setting within the above context, this paper aims at exploring the perceptions of Chinese students and probing the major problems they have encountered during their early days in Britain. The paper employs concept of culture, culture shock, second languages acquisition theories .etc as the theoretical building stones to carry out the ethnographic research. Six current Chinese overseas students participate in the study. Ethnographic data were obtained from in-depth interviews, their personal diaries and observation. The findings of the research reveal that the majority Chinese overseas students have experienced different degrees of culture shock, accompanying by the feelings of isolation, disappointment and anxiety during their stay in the UK. Students' difficulties in English learning are also explored. What is more, it is also pointed out that the gap in Chinese and Western culture value is the prime reason for the difficulties experienced by the Chinese overseas students. Finally, suggestions were offered to both Chinese overseas students and people in host countries to mitigate the adverse effect of culture shock and foster cultural awareness.