Tuesday, March 11, 2014

International student experiences depression by Claudia

International students are likely to experience depression more than local students.

Here we talk about a student who is from China and is in her first year of study at uni. She already failed her first semester due to depression. The student comes from a family which owns a farm and rice paddies in China. Hence they were poor.

Xuan Li (the student) had to get a bank loan so that she can study Accounting here. She didn't expect the course to be really hard and she didn't expect that the assignments are based on understanding and not rote learning. In China students learn by rote and not by understanding. They are told to respect authority (and their elders).

Xuan also had to work long hours for next to nothing wages and didn't talk to a lot of her friends and family. She missed them so badly and was not happy. In fact some days she was suicidal.

Due to her depression she also gambled away her life savings at Crown.One day at the casino someone stole her credit card. She could not pay her fees at uni and was so worried that she failed classes.

In the second semester she started seeing a university counselor once a week and they really helped her get back on track. She also came clean to her parents about the long hours and they were not happy. Xuan worked full time during the holidays and was able to pay some of the tuition (the uni put her on a payment plan). She sought the help of Gambler's help and in the end decided to volunteer for the union, where she made new friends and is much happier.

She also started to open up to her parents about how she was really feeling and the family decided to visit her during the holidays and the first week of the second semester. They taught her how to cook and live independently. 

Lesson learned: You can get out of this too. Its never too late seek help, especially from the uni.

No comments:

Post a Comment

AGFG Recommended Blogger

LinkWithin

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...