Dancing, Google and fish sauce: Vietnamese students coping with Australian universities

Abstract

ABSTRACTThis study examines the language, academic, and socio-cultural concerns of 24 Vietnamese international students (PhD, master’s and undergraduate) studying in universities in Sydney, Australia. Alongside the obvious linguistic concerns, the salient issues that emerge from this study draw attention to the struggles these students face to adapt to different educational norms, and particularly the varied expectations of supervisors, the different coping strategies these students use to overcome linguistic and other concerns, and the broader socio-cultural domains that support their studies. This study contributes to an understanding of Vietnamese international students, a growing cohort in Australia and elsewhere. Its findings provide insights that shift the focus away from the “difficulties” faced by international students and the institutional responses (or lack thereof), towards understanding their agentive modes of accommodation in the context of their degree programmes and their other lived experiences which include foods and ways of living.