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Oleksandr Bukatiuk
Professor Cameron
English 102
23 October 2025
International community college students struggle to successfully adapt to the college
environment.
Lately, lots and lots of international students are coming to U.S. community colleges.
They leave their families and their home culture so they can get a better education. These
students bring a lot: ambition, new traditions, languages, opinions, and ways of thinking. This
makes college a better experience for everybody. International students help make the
classroom more global, so we all learn from each other. Sharing different cultures opens minds
and gets all students ready for a diverse world. But behind this good picture, many international
students have hidden problems as they try to fit into college life. Things like language problems,
new teaching methods, and cultural differences can make learning much harder than they
thought. Sadly, college leaders often do not see or understand these problems. They think
international students will just "get used to it" with time. The real thing is, students need help to
get used to college. When they don't get help, they can feel bad and their grades get worse.
Colleges have many worries, but helping international students fit in is the most important
problem now. This is important because when a college invites students from all over the world,
it has a responsibility to help them succeed, not just take their money and hope they will be
okay. If they don't, the college is failing not just the students, but its own mission to be a global
place of learning.
One of the biggest reasons international students have a hard time is that many
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teachers are not prepared for us. Some teachers have good training for working with non-native
English speakers. They know how to explain things without complicated terms and use
examples from different cultures. These teachers really help us to not feel shy about our English
through our academic journey. However, a very small number of teachers have received this
training. Most professors expect students to already know American school habits. The problem
is not just about language. It is about the rules of writing and arguing that are different in every
culture. My old teachers from back home taught me to save my main point for the end of the
essay, to make it strong. However, in the states you have to put it in the beginning. A teacher
who doesn't know this might consider me a bad writer, but I just organize it differently. Teachers
need to understand that we come from absolutely different places and they have to help us
learn the new way in order for us to become good writers. I know this personally, because I tried
to take English 101 for native speakers. I was excited to try hard, but after a few weeks, it was
too much for me. The words, the essay structure, and how fast they talked about complicated
things in class were too hard in the compound, so I decided to drop the class. I didn't drop it
because I was lazy. I felt stuck because I wanted to learn, but I couldn't understand things
quickly enough. This feeling is common for immigrants. Also, some teachers don't see cultural
differences, even in classes that look the same everywhere. For example, a music teacher
might use the “standart” music notes, but students from other countries use different ones. A
student from another country might have a totally different “standart” system for rhythm or for
notes. When the teacher just thinks everyone knows the same symbols, it causes confusion. A
good thing for teachers would be learning small features of the cultures students are from, just
to take it in consideration. Another research found that "too many teachers are neither prepared
nor qualified for this change."(Gilmour) and that this can cause problems with language and
cultural differences in the classroom. This supports my point that it's not only the student's fault.
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The system is not fully preparing teachers for students like me. When a teacher does not take
culture into consideration, they might misinterpret our actions. For example, in many cultures,
being quiet in class is a sign of respect for the teacher. But in America, teachers want you to talk
a lot. This is a small thing, but it creates a big misunderstanding and makes it harder to connect
with the professor.
These small misunderstandings can happen in any class, from art to math, and they can
make international students feel like outsiders. You can study hard and get good grades, but
you still feel like you are not part of the “pack.” When students feel this way, college becomes a
lonely and tiring time. This feeling is a big part of the stress we have. It is not just about
schoolwork; it is about feeling like you don't belong. Grades can make students want to study,
but they also give us stress. If you care about your grades a lot, you might only do things that let
you study. This can be good, but when the school system feels unfair or too difficult to
understand, it becomes stressful instead of rewarding. A lot of international students stay up late
to study. They might not be that passionate about studying, but they just worry they will fail
because they don't spend enough time. "I have learned how angry and frustrated students can
be when, after many years of English study, they are regarded as bad writers by professors from
other disciplines based on criteria that they have never heard of before." (Zhang) This shows
exactly the kind of stress I am talking about. On top of the stress from school, there is the stress
from money. Some studies show that international students have much more financial stress
than American students. All these problems cause people to be overwhelmed. A 2025 study
backs this up, saying international students face "compounded difficulties." These challenges
are "exacerbated by cultural adjustments, language barriers, and the isolation" on top of
"significant financial pressures" (Ansari Lari et al.). This proves that the stress we feel is different
and, I think, bigger than for other students.It is not just one thing; it is everything at once. The
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academic stress, the financial stress, and the cultural stress all mix together to create a huge
weight on our shoulders.
After moving to another country, people actually learn how to live once again. They
cannot behave like natives usually do in common situations. Things that are simple at home,
like going to the bank or making a doctor's appointment, become very hard and stressful. This is
called culture shock, and it is a real thing that can make you feel very bad, like you are a child
again who knows nothing. It can cause a lot of anxiety and make you feel very lonely. Some
strategies of putting up the ideas that worked in home don't work with English. I come from
Eastern Europe, a culture that is a little different than the Western one. Despite this small minor
difference, I would struggle with assimilation in the western part of Europe, not talking about a
modified culture fulfilled with other cultures, that is the United States. Here, it is not just one new
culture to learn, but many combined in one country. They say that “international students live
in a foreign land with different cultures, have little knowledge of the way of life, and
barely know people in the new destination.” (Oduwaye) This loneliness is a huge problem. It
makes it very hard to make friends among American students. We have language barriers and
different cultural jokes and interests, and it can feel like there is a wall between us. Because it is
so hard to make friends here, many students use social media to talk to their friends and family
back home. This might seem good at first glance, because it helps with homesickness. But it
also can be a trap. If you spend all your time talking to people in your home country, you are not
practicing your English or learning about American culture. You stay in a "bubble." Students are
on campus, but their mind is in their home country through their phone. This stops international
students from adapting. Kudo said that “when intercultural interaction brought socio-emotional
difficulties (e.g., anxiety and uncertainty), international students tended to revert to their comfort
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zone”. This supports my idea about the social media "bubble." We go there because trying to
make friends here is scary and often does not work. But at the same time staying in that comfort
zone does not provide opportunities to assimilate.
Community college has its own unique challenges, especially for international students.
These challenges often go unnoticed. A key factor is the classroom. Many teachers lack training
for students from diverse backgrounds, so they often don’t understand why we put up our
thoughts differently in writing. This can leave students feeling lost and confused. These
classroom challenges lead to a lot of stress. On top of that, we face financial stress that is often
much worse than for other students. Outside of school, the problems continue. There is the
personal challenge of culture shock and, in my opinion the worst challenge, loneliness. It is
extremely difficult to adapt to a new culture and feel like you are part of the community. Colleges
are eager to have international students on campus, but when they invite us, they take on a big
responsibility. They must provide the support services we need to adjust. If they don't help us
adapt, they are truly letting us down.
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Works Cited
Ansari Lari, Soroush, et al. "Navigating Mental Health Challenges in International University
Students: Adapting to Life Transitions." Frontiers in Psychiatry, vol. 16, 2025,
https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyt.2025.1574953.
Gilmour, L., Klieve, D., & Li, D. (2018). Culturally and Linguistically Diverse School
Environments – Exploring the Unknown. Australian Journal of Teacher Education, 43(2).
https://ro.ecu.edu.au/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=3759&context=ajte
Kudo, Kazuhiro, Simone Volet, and Craig Whitsed. "Intercultural Relationship Development at
University: A Systematic Literature Review from an Ecological and Person-in-Context
Perspective." Educational Research Review, vol. 20, 2017, pp. 99-116,
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.edurev.2017.01.001.
Oduwaye, O., Kiraz, A., & Sorakin, Y. (2023). A Trend Analysis of the Challenges of
International Students Over 21 Years. Sage Open, 13(4).
https://doi.org/10.1177/21582440231210387 (Original work published 2023)
Zhang, Yufeng. "The Impact of ESL Writers’ Prior Writing Experience on Their Writing in
College" Millersville University. n.d.
https://cdn.ncte.org/nctefiles/resources/books/collegelevel2/yufengzhang_final.pdf