The end of Galileo in space. The start of Galileo in print. 

Vol. 1,  Issue i. October, 24, 2003

How to solve international students’ problems

by Jong-Muk Lim

  Obviously, the education business is the most important part of Vancouver's economy. You will meet foreign students whether you want or not. That being the case, how much do you know about their opinions of Vancouver.

The purpose of this survey is to find out what they are thinking. I approached more than 20 of the international students who are staying more than 6 months in Vancouver. Most of the people were admitted into our research.

Who did we survey?

We surveyed non- Canadian students staying more than 6 months. Our research was limited to people who are 20 to 40 years old due to focus on younger generation. I contacted each of those people by phone or in person.

Where do they come from?

Most students are from Asia(98%) and quite a few people are from Korea(60%). The rest of them are from Japan. They study various course, such as Business, Tesol and Toefl , after having finished basic ESL. (100%).

What kind of accommodation do they live in?

One of third of students lives in shared apartments. Over 15% of students live in home-stay with Canadians. The rest of them are staying in a relative's house or a dormitory. According to the research, most people who are sharing apartments had experiences home-stay. (90%)

 You can see from this basic information that one third of the people chose to share an apartment. It also shows that their main goal is learning English. However, most people complained that they are always using their mother tongue because Vancouver has too many Chinese, Korean, Japanese. According to the data, students were really confused about where in Canada they best enjoy living and receive the best language training.

Let's see the next research. You might be surprised.

How many roommates do you live with?

Over 30% of people have one. The remainder of them have two roommates.

How many people talk with roommates more than 2 hours each day?

5% of students speak in English with roommates less than 30 mines a day.

25% of students speak in English  with roommates more than 2 hours a day.

70% of students speak in English with roommates less than 1 hour a day.

Besides learning English, are you satisfied with your Vancouver life?

65% said “NO”.  30% said “YES”. 5% said “I don’t know”.

Did you think about moving to another province for studying.

Definitely true (30%) Yes(50%) No(17%) Definitely not (3%)

What is your opinion of Vancouver's quality of education?

Pretty good (60%) Good (30%) Bad (5%) I don't know( 5%)

How is the city of Vancouver, itself, as a place to learn English?

Pretty good (5%) Good (30%) Bad (60%) I don't know (5%)

 (Many students commented that too many other people spoke in their mother tongue so that they were not forced to speak English more.)

GET OUT OF THE CLASSROOM INTO THE WORLD!

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