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understanding overseas students

I, a stranger, and afraid
In a world, I never made.

—A.E. Housman,

The above quotation to some may sound phony and unreal, but to a few of us overseas students that sort of feeling could be and has been very real. It affects not only our studies and social attitudes but also our psychological development in our effort to adjust ourselves to a new environment. Far too often the situations we confront, and the people we meet do not really encourage our efforts to know better the society we make ourselves the members of. In order to understand and appreciate our problems one has to know the motives behind our wanting to go to a foreign country.

I do not in any way pretend that these are the only motives, for there are many, and they vary between individuals. Among the first and probably the most common, is the urge of acquiring more knowledge that would satisfy our academic aspirations. The second is the sense of adventure, the thrills of seeing a new country, learning new customs, concepts and values. These two may be complementary, but they do not always go together. Far too often in our academic pursuit in a foreign land we tend to achieve the former and neglect the latter. We get the degree, but not the people. We satisfy our academic curiosity but not our social aspirations. Education in that perspective is crippled and only half done. The fault may lie with us, the overseas students, but the local people are not completely innocent of the crime.

The general attitude of people in New Zealand in regarding us overseas students is "Sink or Swim". That is, "if you don't bother to approach us, why should we approach you". I do understand this attitude and to some extent it is quite justifiable. Since it is us, not them, who impose ourselves on this society it is only natural that we should take the initiative. But to take that first step, to crack that first smile, and to say that first "hello" is easier said than done. I must confess that when I first came, I was lost. Not in the sense of directions, but in knowing what to do. Every time I wanted to start a conversation I had to wrack my brain as to what was appropriate to say, how to say it and what to do after that. This to me now seems to be ridiculously simple, but then it was a complex problem.

In our struggles to achieve our social goals many of us overseas students have failed, and the ultimate result is to retreat behind the facade of academic pursuit. Since friendship and better understanding cannot be achieved the only alternative is to get the degree, for after all, that is our first objective. For this reason some overseas students are often being classified as bookworms, studious, apathetic, segregationists and anti-social. But if one cares to look into this attitude one may find that such an attitude is not our own willing creation, but forced onto us by circumstances. When such a thing happens nobody gains. We overseas students lose not only our time and money for travelling thousands of miles just to get the desired academic certificates, but the opportunity of knowing more about other people, while the New Zealanders lose their greatest asset of knowing people of different creed, colour, and cultures without moving a foot from their doorstep.

Our university is blessed with many facilities which if properly utilised could be very valuable in cementing closer relationships and understanding between overseas and local students. Overseas students office, overseas day, and the free usage of the Student Union Hall are some of the facilities which could be better exploited for this purpose. And above all the presence of different nationalities, representing different views and cultures being located in one place. What better opportunity for social integration could we ask for. I believe that we should solve this problem here and now before we start kicking at the doors of our neighbours whom we know so very little of. We should work to have a closer understanding with our fellow students, whether they be white, black, yellow, blue, or green, before we show our fists and open our mouths into those distant shores.

One of the most simple things which we often fail to see is that understanding will break through racial and national classification. That is, by really knowing a person we no longer classify him as Kiwi, Malaysian, Fijian and so on, but as a fellow friend and a human Compatriot. So whatever his misdeeds we do not, and will not put the blame on him just because he is a Kiwi, Malaysian or Fijian but because he is John, Singh or Lim, an individual human being who is not infallible. We thus treat his fault on an individual basis and not on a racial or national scale. How many times have we made our judgement on people based on one person and one experience. Over-generalisation as such could be very misleading and brings us nothing but misunderstanding and confusion.

It would be an asset if the overseas as well as the local students here, both care to take a step forward without waiting for the others to make the first move in bridging the unknown. Probably mysteries and fallacies about each other could be corrected if not appreciated. I found that it offers greater thrills, exhibits more excitement, and creates more fun in knowing others, other than ourselves. In this game everyone of us could be an active participant, so why not give it a try otherwise as J. Ruskin neatly describes: "When a man is wrapped up in himself he makes a pretty small package."

—James J. Masing