Never Finish Learning

Introduction

Living in a distant land is not easy, especially when you have to raise children on your own. I am a German women living in United States with my two teenaged children, I look after my children on my own as my husband is in the army and is mostly absent from home; however, he has returned from Afghanistan but is stationed far away at 10 hours drive. I came to United States in 2006, in 2009 when my children got old enough to be left alone at home I started attending the school for my further studies. Although, my English is not good, but I try to keep up with my classmates, I work hard because I want to become a competent book keeper. Every now and then I miss the easy and familiar life back home in Germany; however, I love living at Ft. Walton Beach, FL., it has become my sanctionary and hpme in the foreign land.

Discussion

The number of English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL), students has more than doubled since 1980s and has recently grown significantly at North American universities. Foreign students are from different educational system and cultural backgrounds. Previous research has indicated that there are considerable challenges faced by foreign students in their academic studies at American universities, e.g., their unfamiliarity with American culture, their inadequate English proficiency, their social and emotional challenges, their financial difficulties, etc (Rector, pp. 14). For example, unfamiliar culture is very different from the culture of North America and the cultural differences have a negative impact on their academic studies. This is because students from different cultures learn in different ways, and may differ in their learning styles, self-expressions and communication styles. Potentially, all these challenges may contribute to anxiety for foreign students; and consequently anxiety negatively affects their academic learning at American universities (Sherry, Thomas & Hong, pp. 33).

I think that, international graduates face both challenges and anxiety when studying at American universities. However, these two concepts are not entirely separated in the writing. For example, major challenges faced by foreign students include financial burdens, changes in culture, legal frustrations, leaving their families, differences in classroom instruction, and anxiety. Anxiety has then become a strong challenge for international students. Furthermore, not only is anxiety a challenge itself, but it argued that anxiety can be caused by the plethora of other challenges that international students ...