SURVEY RESULT

Homesickness and International Students at Swinburne University

Tutors: Marie Hoy & Jarrod Tebb

Group members: Pablo, Nuo, Lan

I. Rationale

Homesickness is a distress of students who attend to the first year at University and live away from home. As many international students might have homesickness and also we are so we decided to do a research regarding to Swinburne international students and homesickness in order to survey how students feel when they leave their hometowns and spend a life in Melbourne city.

Moving to Australia for studying seem a difficulty to almost international students because they need to learn how to start the life in a new country including people, lifestyle, culture, language, food and environment. This shall their first experience to live away from their families or countries. When just come to study at Swinburne, all those things might the reasons to make them regret and desire to come back to their hometowns. Therefore, homesickness is an important and common issue to international students that should be concerned. We hope to get more experience throughout this project and give some effective advises to worldwide’s students.

The survey is designed in 10 questions that include both open-ended and closed-ended questions. It will be responded by 15 students who are participating in English courses at Swinburne University.

II. Survey result

We interviewed 15 students from EAP4A level and summarize their feedback as following

The pie chart shows the percentage of males and females who participated in a survey of international students and homesickness at Swinburne University. As can be seen that the number of both genders is similar at 53% for men and 47% for women.

The bar chart gives information about interviewees age join the survey. It is clear that all students are above 18 years old. There are 7 people between 18-25 years old while the others above 25 years old.

The graph illustrates the nationality of learners who come from various Asian countries around the world. The majority students come from China, accounting for 6 over 15 people. Whereas, Vietnamese and Thai have the same number of interviewees which make up 3 people. While Japan, Iran and Korea stand at 1 person in each country joined in this.

This pie chart compares different periods of arriving in Australia between 15 interviewees. The largest number which account for 40% spent their time in Melbourne from 3-6 months while people who've lived there less than 3 months and 6-12 months constitute at 27% for each group. Only 1 student (6%) has been stayed here for more than a year.

The graphs reveal homesick situation of 15 people and the reasons for their judgment. 11 students explained that they've thought of the moments in their own countries while another 4 students said they've never felt homesick. The 11 people that said yes, the most reason is miss family and friends, making up 73%. While the other minority causes are weather, food and animals which comprise 9% each. For the remained 4 participants who responded no, there are 2 explanations like enjoy private life or live with family, accounting for 75% and 25% respectively.

The bar chart represents the timetable when students feel missing home. Evening is the part of day made all 11 students feel homesick. On the other hand, 4 respondents said that they've never felt homesick.

This graph illustrates how long do respondents make a call to their family. Everyday and twice a week are the popular answers of 15 participants, each of these answers make up 6 people. For the rest 3 other students reported that they contact to their family once a week.

The chart gives information about some activities that students usually do whenever feel homesick. Over 50% of respondents call to their family and friends, making up 8 students. Another followed activities are spend time for playing games or sports and hanging out with new friends which stand at 2 people each. And others 3 participants prefer to different hobbies such as cook their hometown cuisines or own go out or cry at home.

III. Discussion

Homesickness is a very common feeling in the international student community. Through this survey, we got some regular information related to what are the reasons turn Swinburne’s students into homesick and what they do to cope with it. Open and closed questions are included in this survey in order to limit simple responses and gain more information from complicated questions. The interview is conducted by asking face to face 15 people, including 8 men and 7 women who are all over 18 years old.

 As a result of the survey, a majority of the students interviewed have been dropped into homesickness which affects the mood of many students. According to Mason (2019) it is important that students should confront homesickness because this situation can lead to more critical problems such as depression. Furthermore, Thurber and Walton (2011) argued that people used to fall in homesickness pointed out that some of symptoms such as stress, sadness, anxiety and difficulty lead them hard to focus on their studies as well as other activities. Our survey exhibited that people think of their own countries in the evening mostly, perhaps they are very busy in the other parts of day and feel lonely at night. In addition, miss families and friends is one of the cause that was mentioned mainly. It is common that more than 50% students just arrived in Melbourne for less than 6 months so homesickness is probably natural. Making a call to families and friends seem a good way that can help them recover rapidly from their anxiety. Whereas, others students would like to spend time on some activities like play games or sports or cooking to avoid homesick. Surprisingly, 4 over 15 participants said that they’ve never distressed because of living away from families. Those people are all men who prefer to get rid of parental control to enjoy the fresh air and life privately. One of a Vietnamese man said that "I'm interested in photograph so I walk around the city in my spare time to enjoy my hobby". While others think they could contact to families and friends every day so why do they have to homesick?

In conclusion to the research, we found out that most of interviewees have experienced of homesickness as our prediction. However, many thanks to the internet and technological development so that students can get in touch with parents and friends simply, which is the easiest method can help them feel less lonely while learning how to start the life in the new countries.

IV. Recommendation

Homesickness has becoming a trend on international students. In order to overcome this problem, we've listed some advises below. Hopefully, they can help students escape from depression and start to enjoy life and study at Melbourne city shortly.

• Limited communicate with home - It is important to keep in touch with family but do not make a call to them all the time because you couldn't become stronger and improve homesickness when parents appear in your life every minute

• Confront the situation - In order to deal with the troubles you should aware of it. Then accept the situation and figure out how to solve your issues

• Make new friends abroad - Meet and talk to new friends is important because you can hang out together as well as share the emotion and help each other getting better from sadness

• Write down your feeling - In fact, it is difficult for some people to talk about their depression with others, especially introverted people. So why don't you write it down in a diary instead? Mentioning about your feeling and activities is a good way to remind yourself of the present situation. Next to it, make a list of everything you've learned about homesickness then make another list of everything you've learned since leaving home. Keep in mind that there will be good days, there will be not so good days.

V. Reference List

Thurber & Walton 2011, Homesickness and Adjustment in University Students, viewed 14 August 2019,

<https://www.researchgate.net/publication/225294667_Homesickness_and_Adjustment_in_University_Students>

Mason 2019, what-to-do-when-you-feel-homesick, viewed 14 August 2019,

<https://www.prospects.ac.uk/applying-for-university/university-life/what-to-do-when-you-feel-homesick>.

ThinkTank 2015, How To Deal With Homesickness, 29 Aug, viewed 14 August 2019, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luQLrHPG1Qw>.

Go Abroad writing team 2017, Missing Home?  Here's how to stop feeling homesick for real, 22 June, viewed 14 August 2019, <https://www.goabroad.com/articles/how-to-stop-feeling-homesick>.