Female student's suicide note in China: Sorry I can't finish the project with you.

In recent years, suicides among international students have occurred from time to time. Just a few days ago, a female student at Cornell University in China committed suicide: she came from Chengdu and apologized by email "I can't finish this project with you" before she died. ) Let me start with a suicide note from a female student studying in China: I'm sorry I can't finish the project with you.

According to a survey data released by Yale University researcher 20 13, among China students studying at Yale, 45% reported that they had depressive symptoms, and 29% reported that they had anxiety symptoms. Other university surveys, including Australian and British schools, also received similar feedback.

Recently, an eighth-grade doctoral student from China, Helen? Writing in the The New York Times, Gao said that many international students in China are facing great pressure in life. In this paper, she analyzes the sources of these pressures that bring anxiety and depression to everyone, which mainly come down to four aspects: academic pressure, humiliation to parents, fear of the tutor's distrust of herself, and lack of appropriate psychological counseling.

▲ Many international students are under great pressure. According to the new york Times.

The eighth year of studying in the United States

Dr. Harvard's mentality collapsed.

Autumn in 20 15, Helen? Gao started her last year of graduate school, and this year is her eighth year of working and studying in the United States.

It was in this year that she found that her mentality began to collapse.

When she woke up in the morning, she could clearly hear her heartbeat. In the discussion of the seminar, she faltered and made some incoherent opinions, but her classmates' voices were like harsh noises, which completely drowned her voice. ......

A few years ago, things were not like this.

Helen? More than 20 years ago, Gao first saw those Georgian-style buildings with red maple leaves on Harvard campus, which was on the postcards brought back by his father. On the back of one of the photos of Harvard scenery, my father wrote a line with a blue ink pen: "I hope that one day, you can see its beauty with your own eyes."

▲ Harvard University. Data network

After more than 20 years, Helen? Gao realized her father's wish and had a good time on Harvard campus, but things changed in her last year as a PhD student.

"During that time, I was not in the mood to pay attention to anything around me. Walking from one teaching building to another with his head buried, staring at the ground, counting the tiles in his heart and forcing himself not to think. " Helen? Write high.

Anxiety attacked her. After all, this is the eighth year that she left Beijing to study and work in the United States.

However, with the passage of time, she felt isolated at school, the heavy burden of reading in a strange language, and the long-term separation of relatives and friends in Beijing began to overwhelm her.

Want to know what happened to you, Helen? Gao began to reflect on his efforts. She observed the experiences of other international students in China during that time, and everything seemed to be just a little unsatisfactory: absent from class, complaining about insomnia, suddenly unwilling to participate in group activities for several months, and posting all kinds of melodramatic long articles on social media. ...

But the fact, is it really that insignificant?

Depression and anxiety of international students

Source analysis

According to China Education News, in 20 16, the number of China students studying abroad was 544,500, of which more than half were in the United States. These students all went through a series of painful exams such as IELTS and TOEFL, and brushed countless after-school English exercises before coming to their dream university.

However, behind this growing group of international students, there are psychological problems of international students that are not optimistic.

According to a survey data released by Yale University researchers in 20 13, 45% of China students studying in Yale reported that they had depressive symptoms, and 29% reported that they had anxiety symptoms, while the proportion of depression and anxiety among American college students was only 13%. Other university surveys, including Australian and British schools, received similar feedback.

So, what caused these students' depression and anxiety?

First, academic pressure

As students, for most people, despite the challenges of language barriers and cultural differences, the most serious problem is academic pressure.

Although great efforts have been made before going abroad and preparations have been made for accurate grading, most international students in China do not really understand the requirements of the American higher education model. Because in the previous ten years' learning experience, they are more adapted to the result-oriented learning style, which undoubtedly conflicts with the American learning style that emphasizes analytical process and critical thinking.

Therefore, under this premise, the harder students work, the more likely they are to deepen their frustration abroad. Their piles of carefully arranged notes can't form an outline of a paper. History exams usually ask questions about hypothetical situations, not historical events they try to remember. All this is undoubtedly frustrating.

B, unable to gain the trust of the mentor

Another problem that is often overlooked is that it is difficult for international students in China to establish a fruitful relationship with academic tutors, which undoubtedly deepens their frustration.

In a survey of 19 China graduate students conducted by a university in the southwestern United States, they all said that their pressure came from the difficulty in gaining the trust of their tutors. Some people even worry that language barriers may make tutors doubt their intelligence level.

Others admit that sometimes they can't sleep at night, thinking over and over again about what they didn't say when chatting with their tutors during the day, such as unpleasant conversations, or whether there are inappropriate words in emails to their tutors. ......

These problems seem to be common. In fact, many American students will encounter similar difficulties. But for China students, these problems are particularly troubling.

Because they accept the idea that their future has a lot to do with their academic performance. However, after studying abroad, this beautiful fantasy often brings them a strong sense of uneasiness.

C. Economic pressure after high tuition fees

At the same time, for many international students in China, their pressure also comes from the fear of failure-the price of failure is unimaginable. The vast majority of China students pay full tuition fees to study in the United States, and the annual expenditure is as high as 50,000 to 60,000 US dollars, which is about ten times the per capita disposable income of urban residents in China.

Therefore, among the international students in China, many working-class children were sent abroad after their parents spent all their life savings or sold their houses. Although parents will not hesitate to give generously for their children's future, the pressure on children will not be alleviated by generosity-

Those children from Shenzhen, Changsha, Beijing and other cities, while trying to keep up with the progress of the school, are inevitably tossing and turning for economic pressure.

Earlier, a China student in Chicago expressed a general anxiety of international students in an interview with the media: whether her grades are worthy of the large tuition fees paid by working-class parents, which even goes far beyond the anxiety of the college entrance examination.

The latest graduate salary survey seems to have aggravated their anxiety in this respect: according to the report jointly released by China, Global Think Tank and Zhaopin in September 20 17, more than 80% of returnees earn less than 1500 US dollars a month-and this figure is only slightly higher than that of domestic university graduates.

D, unable to seek help from a psychological counselor

* * * With confusion and anxiety, international students spontaneously formed a mutual aid alliance. However, even the most open students, receiving psychotherapy is still a distant concept.

Although, after the suicide or sudden death of international students in China, the school always mentions the hotline and counseling methods of psychological counseling at the end of letters sent to all students, it still seems to be a drop in the bucket for international students.

According to the previous survey of Yale University, although the proportion of foreign students with psychological problems in China is staggering, only 27% of them know that the school has mental health counseling services, while only 4% of the students have actually consulted.

In the eyes of these students who have received psychological counseling, its existence seems to be quite insignificant: apart from the long waiting period and limited counseling time, the greater dilemma is that language barriers are the source of pressure for many China students, so it is difficult for them to express their confusion and emotions in English.

As for the psychological counselors sitting in the consulting room, the only connection with China may be that they have eaten takeout food from panda express (a chain restaurant that operates American Chinese fast food), so it seems unrealistic for them to understand the nostalgia of China students for delicious food at home.

At present, some support groups and outreach projects led by school consultants are being supported by Asian students, and Helen? Gao also expressed the hope that these programs can be extended to international students in China, so that universities can hire well-adapted China students as community consultants to help those students who are not well-adapted.

"In most American campuses, China students are the largest group of international students ... University administrators should make greater efforts to meet their psychological needs-at least as hard as these students are trying to get into universities."