The content you’ve provided offers several insights into the sentiment and challenges faced by this international student:
- Isolation and Loneliness: The student communicates feelings of isolation, having no friends, and struggling to interact with people. This could be a common sentiment among international students adjusting to a new cultural and social environment.
- Communication Barriers: The student feels self-conscious about their English language skills, worried about their accent, and perceives these as obstacles in interacting with others. This sentiment emphasizes how language proficiency can significantly impact social integration and confidence among international students.
- Shyness and Social Anxiety: The student describes themselves as very shy and acknowledges a long-standing difficulty in making friends, both in their home country and abroad. This suggests that personal disposition, such as introversion, can exacerbate the challenges of forming social connections in a new setting.
- Cultural and Age Perception: The student mentions feeling misjudged by peers based on perceived age, which might contribute to their sense of social difficulty. This points to cultural differences in social interactions and age perceptions that international students often need to navigate.
- Desire for Change and Growth: Despite these challenges, the student expresses a desire to improve their situation and is seeking advice on how to better interact with others once they transfer to a larger university. This suggests a willingness to engage and adapt, which is important for overcoming initial hurdles.
- Parental Influence and Transition: The student notes a shift in expectations of communication skills with age, influenced by parental perspectives. This reflects the transition from adolescence to adulthood and the increased responsibility and pressure that can accompany studying abroad.
Overall, this student’s experience highlights common emotional and social challenges that international students might face, including language barriers, cultural adaptation, loneliness, and the anxiety surrounding social interactions. Counseling and university support services, language improvement programs, as well as student organizations can play a crucial role in helping students like this one to acclimate and thrive in a new academic and social environment