With their visas in hand and their bags packed, students may feel prepared for their study abroad experiences. __36__ once they set foot in foreign lands, some students realize that they don’t have the skills to communicate their thoughts and feelings in their __37__ culture.
Guo Yichen, a student at the Fashion Institute of Design and Merchandising in Los Angeles, observed a(an) __38__ of poor communication during her time abroad.
When Guo first got to the US, she stayed in the house of a 63-year-old lady, with another Chinese girl. Guo and her housemate were __39__ to take turns tidying up the bathroom. But the housemate never __40__, because she didn’t know how. Her mother had always cleaned the bathroom for her back home. And when the landlord asked about it, the housemate __41__ replied, “I never needed to do housework back home, and I won’t do it here __42__.”
“I was shocked by how __43__ her answer was,” said Guo. “She could have explained it in a better way.” It was __44__ surprise that the girl was asked to move out almost immediately.
In fact, “difficulty in __45__” is among the three major psychological problems that ZMN Education, an agency on overseas education, __46__ among Chinese students studying abroad, the other two being“fear of class discussion” and “fear of homework based on critical thinking”.
A professor at theUniversityofCalifornia, Berkeley, once told the agency that many of his Chinese students only came to see him when they got __47__ scores. They should have talked to him after each class to get a better grade __48__, he said.
According to the agency, studying abroad itself may trigger(引发) certain mental problems because it is a “__49__ and stressful shift to new environments and __50__”. It has been found that students are 23 times more likely to __51__ a mental health condition than business travelers headed abroad.
And during this period of major life transitions(过渡), __52__ better communication skills is particularly important. It helps you get assistance and solve problems.
Students need to understand the value of empathy – the effective awareness of the emotions of others–as well as __53__ themselves clearly, especially in cross-cultural communications. It would be better if students participate in a(an) __54__ abroad program during vacations before trying year-long overseas study. That way, they could have __55__ coping with a strange world independently.