AMERICAN EDUCATION AND FOREIGN STUDENTS
This research paper will investigate the process of American education for the foreign student. Although this endeavor can be a meaningful one, which includes positive personal and education outcomes, the foreign study may also experience difficulties which must be examined. The following issues relevant to the topic will be discussed: cultural difficulties, academic problems, language, values, teachers, course content, homesickness, and conclusion.
Research demonstrated that the foreign student experiences cultural difficulties because of the type of environment that the foreign student must survive in. Since the academic environment is based on a White male orientation, this results in cultural incongruence for the foreign student (Gloria & Rodriguez, 2000).
LaFromboise, Coleman, and Gerton (1993) reported that for a minority in the academic environment to develop an equal stance, assimilation into the most desired or higher status culture or the White culture in this case, is required. Although this process can lead to the joining of a subculture and maintaining a feeling of belonging, it usually results in psychological conflict, with feelings of being disjointed, a divided self, isolation and alienation.
Foreign students report experiencing different treatment and more discomfort than White students, and feeling that they must hide their cultural presence or reject their own identity, to fit in (Gloria & Rodriguez, 2000). This stress has been referred to as acculturative stress and it is reported to lead to anxiety, low self-esteem, reduction in health status, and emotional and psychosomatic disturbances (Thompson, Anderson, & Bakeman, 2000). Anger is a common emotion found as the foreign student attempts to reconcile differences between their own culture and the new that they must adapt to. Surviving and thriving in America academia brings the acquisition of American va...