Seeking Help (Video 21)

Presenter:
What things are the keys to success as an international student? These students can give you very good advice.

Public Health Student (United States):
I think the keys for international students to be successful are being very open to new experience and not being overwhelmed too much, a little bit is of course going to happen but being very open…

Public Health Student (Bangladesh):
Upon my study here in Australia and to have an Australian degree is very important because I know when I finish this degree maybe I can do very well in future in my career.

Psychology Student (Sweden):
I think it was just a matter of hanging in there, because, after a while, things aren’t that scary for only a short period of time and after a while you start feeling a bit more comfortable and you know what to expect, so things do change for the better.

Nursing Student (Nigeria):
Yeah, sometimes everywhere you go they go “I want to be, I want to be surgical nurse I want to be a medical nurse… da da da.” I would just say any opportunity would be alright but I probably want to go into fulltime surgical theatre nurse, at the moment.

Nursing Student (China):
When I finish my study because I’m interested in theatre so I want to become a theatre nurse and I hope I can get a job and get an opportunity to practice in Australia first because I trained here, so I hope I can get experience from here first so I can actually, if I want to, move back to China or move to the other places I’ll have some base knowledge and base experience.

Business Student (India):
Yeah we had a couple of trips to Byron Bay one and Morton Bay and Stradbroke Island and so that helped me out to get going with the friends around and makes lots of heaps of friends around so through those trips I met a set of good friends.

International Student Advisor (International Student Services, QUT):
Well making friends in new places it’s not easy at all, especially in a different country. It takes a lot of courage to start talking to strangers in a second language. It’s always easier to make friendships with other international students so that maybe is a start. Later when students maybe live with Australian students and maybe when they work together and have to do their group work -these are good opportunities to make local friends as well.

Business Student (India):
Yeah, even lots of the Australian students, they used to come around to the trips and even they were really kind and helpful.

Public Health Student (Bangladesh):
I think to be successful as an international student you have to be smart and you shouldn’t be nervous about anything because many things here are different. So you need to cope with all different stuff and be confident.

Public Health Student (United States):
Also just to have fun and really enjoy your time here, “cause” you never know if you may be able to come back and just take experience one day at a time.