http://www.straitstimes.com/Breaking+News/Singapore/Story/STIStory_347482.html
FOREIGN STUDENTS IN SINGAPORE
Facing loneliness, stress
Schools here have counselling and programmes to help them integrate, but some may slip through the cracks
By Shuli Sudderuddin , Estelle Low and Teo Wan Gek
Cambodian student Sopheaktra Phann sometimes feels so lonely here that she just wants to drop everything and go home.
The bubbly 20-year-old, a business student at Singapore Management University (SMU), said it has not been easy to make friends as she feels that Singaporean students are not always friendly.
'Sometimes, when I'm alone in my room, I can get emotional and have thoughts about just quitting school and going home,' she said.
Ms Phann has lived here for five years. Previously, she studied at Anglo-Chinese Junior College.
She is not alone in feeling the blues here. A friend, another foreign student, was so lonely and homesick that at one point she stopped attending class and stayed in bed.
'I got very worried about her and had to check on her every day till she felt better,' Ms Phann said.
The pressure that foreign students face in coping with their studies and living in Singapore came under the spotlight a week ago.
An Indonesian student at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), David Hartanto Widjaja, 21, died on campus after falling four floors. Earlier, he had stabbed an associate professor during a discussion in the latter's office.
Widjaja, who had had his Asean scholarship revoked, cut off all communication with friends two weeks before his death.
A Ministry of Education spokesman said foreigners comprise about 20 per cent of the 49,000 students in the universities.
Read the full story in today's Sunday Times.
FOREIGN STUDENTS IN SINGAPORE
Facing loneliness, stress
Schools here have counselling and programmes to help them integrate, but some may slip through the cracks
By Shuli Sudderuddin , Estelle Low and Teo Wan Gek
Cambodian student Sopheaktra Phann sometimes feels so lonely here that she just wants to drop everything and go home.
The bubbly 20-year-old, a business student at Singapore Management University (SMU), said it has not been easy to make friends as she feels that Singaporean students are not always friendly.
'Sometimes, when I'm alone in my room, I can get emotional and have thoughts about just quitting school and going home,' she said.
Ms Phann has lived here for five years. Previously, she studied at Anglo-Chinese Junior College.
She is not alone in feeling the blues here. A friend, another foreign student, was so lonely and homesick that at one point she stopped attending class and stayed in bed.
'I got very worried about her and had to check on her every day till she felt better,' Ms Phann said.
The pressure that foreign students face in coping with their studies and living in Singapore came under the spotlight a week ago.
An Indonesian student at Nanyang Technological University (NTU), David Hartanto Widjaja, 21, died on campus after falling four floors. Earlier, he had stabbed an associate professor during a discussion in the latter's office.
Widjaja, who had had his Asean scholarship revoked, cut off all communication with friends two weeks before his death.
A Ministry of Education spokesman said foreigners comprise about 20 per cent of the 49,000 students in the universities.
Read the full story in today's Sunday Times.
the boys all that can fuck off.
