ABSTRACT
The literature on the experiences of overseas students has remained remarkably consistent in its content, conclusions and recommendations. It is also consistent in its negative tone. Studies from Sen (1970) to Burns (1994) and Osler (1998) record the difficulties and concerns of overseas students relating to practical matters such as housing and finance and to the more complex challenges of adapting to local communities and to unfamiliar approaches to education. One of the main conclusions drawn from these studies relates to the extent to which bodies of overseas students, however different in age or in background, tend to stick to each other, in a type of cultural ghetto. This socialising with fellow nationals has negative effects on their intellectual as well as linguistic progress (Geohagen, 1983). It raises two kinds of questions. One is to do with the negative impacts of the host community (Bochner, 1980). The other is to do with the way in which people adapt to new circumstances which force them either to challenge some of their own assumptions or make them mentally retreat into the familiar. It is this choice, this cultural complexity, that deserves further exploration. It is difficult to find a survey of overseas students which does not contain a litany of accounts of negative experiences. It is unreasonable to assume that there are no positive aspects to the time spent studying abroad but these are rarely given much airing. One reason is the fact that relating difficulties is far easier than recalling the more subtle pleasures of the everyday. News, as in the public media, tends to be bad.
