Some students abroad suffer from depression, commit suicide

Some students have problems when studying overseas

On a forum about health and psychological disorders with 16,000 members, overseas students often share problems they face studying overseas. Many students find the curriculum too difficult to follow, but say they cannot give up and return to Vietnam because of the high expectations of their parents.

Linh Nga, with an MA in psychology, said she had treated hundreds of cases in which overseas students had to return to Vietnam after suffering from depression.

Linh Mai, a student in Russia, spent one year learning Russian in the host country before she began following the official curriculum. 

However, she could not listen and speak Russian well. She could not understand what professors and friends said and could not express her thoughts. She was absent regularly at lectures.

When Mai came to see Nga, her depression was becoming more serious. She would get panic-stricken when seeing Russian words.

Thanh Xuan, a student in the US, had psychological problems because she could not integrate into the ‘open’ lifestyle of other students in the same dormitory.

“They usually bring boyfriends to our room to sleep, gather for parties, and throw things everywhere. When I cook Vietnamese dishes, they complain that Vietnamese dishes produce an uncomfortable smell,” Xuan said. 

The female student felt suffocated in the living environment. There were very few Vietnamese in the area where she lived. The 18-year-old student isolated herself and dropped out so much that the school sent a notice to her family. 

Xuan later was reproached by parents after they received the notice. She said she felt she was the loneliest person in the world, and if she died, no one would cry for her.

Another student, Duy, left Vietnam for Australia when he was 18 years old. He did not intend to study at a university in Vietnam because he believed a bachelor’s degree granted by a foreign school would help him find better job opportunities.

Only after beginning study in Australia did Duy feel pressure. After the first semester, he lost 7 kilograms because he spent one month of consecutive sleepless nights. He had no appetite and was frightened seeing lecture halls.

Nga, the psychologist, said that the biggest problem of many Vietnamese students abroad is that they don’t want to return because that means they will have to admit that they failed.