(1) Zhang, Zuochen & Zhou, George. (2010).

"Understanding Chinese International Students at a

Canadian University: Perspectives, Expectations, and Experiences," Canadian and International
Education: Vol. 39: Iss. 3, Article 5. Available at: http://ir.lib.uwo.ca/cie-eci/vol39/iss3/5

(2) In “Understanding Chinese International Students at a Canadian University: Perspectives,

Expectations, and Experiences”, Zhang and Zhou (2010) discussed several challenges that
international students faced in their academic journey in Canada. (3) The research was carried
out with the focus to comprehend opinions, expectations, and experiences of international
students in graduate and undergraduate programs in Canadian universities so as to further
understand the challenges they faced in the process of acculturation. (4) Despite of the language
challenges which are commonly known, they faced cultural challenges of all kinds when they
firstly arrived in Canada, from getting used to the food served in the campus, familiarizing with
the local transportation systems to getting involved in community activities. Some of the students
found it difficult to get along with their roommate or neighbors, mostly because of their
dissimilar lifestyles or busy schedules. The misconceptions or disputes also seem to be heavily
influenced by culture. Furthermore, many Chinese international students came to Canada with
the expectation of making friends with local students. However, it was not easy for them and
local students and teachers to interact and work together smoothly, not even mentioning
developing friendship. On a separate note, previous education background prior to coming to
Canada also mattered. Compared to students who graduated from public high schools,
individuals from private or foreign schools reported feeling more at ease in terms of their social
lives and having fewer cultural difficulties adjusting to their new surroundings. Having said this,
they still struggled to interact with teachers and other students in the classroom frequently. The
situation got even worse when coming to group work and writing papers. As a result, Chinese
international students tended to stay together only with students from their home country. This
may limit their communication with local and other international students, resulted in failing to
adapt to the local culture. These challenges affected their academic results simultaneously. (5)
The findings of the research was based on 76 survey questionnaire submissions, 17 personal
interviews as well as relevant focus group studies with the collection of both quantitative and
qualitative data. Many of the findings were aligned with learners who carried out studies in
similar scope of the research. That is to say, English language ability and cultural differences
presented impediments to their desire and attempts to make friends with native English-speaking
peers, share residence rooms with them, and become fully active in group work. This research
served the great purpose of advising the administration of the universities so that they could look
for ways to make the environment better for these students. Consequently, the authors suggested
possible ways such as providing them with more opportunities to interact and collaborate with
local and international students, enriching their experience studying abroad and assisting them to
overcome the difficulties by different programs during their acclimatization. (6) In conclusion,
despite the fact that language ability was cited by many participants as a factor influencing their
full involvement in the academic and social life on and off campus, it was frequently cultural
differences that hampered their efforts to blend in with the larger community.