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This completely invalidates the headline! Go study in Japan or anywhere, and you will see that foreign students mostly hang out with each other. Certainly their

This completely invalidates the headline! Go study in Japan or anywhere, and you will see that foreign students mostly hang out with each other. Certainly their close friends will be fellow foreign students. This is mostly because local students already have an established friend group. Besides, many are on short exchange programmes. How close friends can you really become during a 1-2 year exchange? How many of those 40% had just arrived on the last couple of months?

Symbiote 10y ago
> This is mostly because local students already have an established friend group. I don't think that's correct, at least outside small countries. I certainly didn't find it unusual when all my school friends went to different universities. Two others from my school were at the same place I was, but they weren't friends of mine. My university was in London, and had a very large proportion of foreign students. Many of the Chinese students hung out together. The Europeans (including the British) and other westerners mixed together, divided more by interests and age than nationality. Some groups (South Asians, Japanese) mixed with some British students with similar ancestry. I ran a social club for a couple of years. The students on short exchanges, like ERASMUS, seemed to make much more effort to join in with clubs, teams and societies, since they were only there for a few months.
- TorKlingberg 10y ago
  I was thinking of students who go abroad after a couple of years. I suppose in the US and UK it is more common for foreign students to start from the beginning with the locals. As for socializing with people from your own country vs. locals and others, I observed two factors: 1) If you are from a big country, it's easier to stay with your own countrymen. If you are from Belgium or something, you have to find friends from other countries. 2) International students motivation tends to vary between adventure/experience and opportunity/academics. Those who are abroad for the experience are more motivated to get out and meet different people. This is largely orthogonal with introversion/extroversion. But, students from rich countries more often moved for the experience, as the opportunities were similar back home. Students from poorer countries are more often motivated to get a better education and future opportunities, and may have more pressure from home to focus on their studies.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
  - waqf 10y ago
    > If you are from Belgium or something, you have to find friends from other countries. But country boundaries are not the only cultural divisions, and national/international is not a simple dichotomy. Belgians in the US might hang out with other Western Europeans but continue to spurn Americans.
senthil_rajasek 10y ago
"Go study in Japan or anywhere, and you will see that foreign students mostly hang out with each other." That is not a right comparison. The U.S is not Japan.
- thaumasiotes 10y ago
  Full points for worthless technical accuracy on "the US is not Japan". Zero points for accuracy of any kind on "the US is not anywhere".
  - senthil_rajasek 10y ago
    Yes. If you know any history, the U.S is singular. I deserve more than zero points for highlighting that.
- uremog 10y ago
  And yet the conclusion is still right.

Symbiote 10y ago

> This is mostly because local students already have an established friend group. I don't think that's correct, at least outside small countries. I certainly didn't find it unusual when all my school friends went to different universities. Two others from my school were at the same place I was, but they weren't friends of mine. My university was in London, and had a very large proportion of foreign students. Many of the Chinese students hung out together. The Europeans (including the British) and other westerners mixed together, divided more by interests and age than nationality. Some groups (South Asians, Japanese) mixed with some British students with similar ancestry. I ran a social club for a couple of years. The students on short exchanges, like ERASMUS, seemed to make much more effort to join in with clubs, teams and societies, since they were only there for a few months.

TorKlingberg 10y ago
I was thinking of students who go abroad after a couple of years. I suppose in the US and UK it is more common for foreign students to start from the beginning with the locals. As for socializing with people from your own country vs. locals and others, I observed two factors: 1) If you are from a big country, it's easier to stay with your own countrymen. If you are from Belgium or something, you have to find friends from other countries. 2) International students motivation tends to vary between adventure/experience and opportunity/academics. Those who are abroad for the experience are more motivated to get out and meet different people. This is largely orthogonal with introversion/extroversion. But, students from rich countries more often moved for the experience, as the opportunities were similar back home. Students from poorer countries are more often motivated to get a better education and future opportunities, and may have more pressure from home to focus on their studies.
- deleted 10y ago
  [deleted]
- waqf 10y ago
  > If you are from Belgium or something, you have to find friends from other countries. But country boundaries are not the only cultural divisions, and national/international is not a simple dichotomy. Belgians in the US might hang out with other Western Europeans but continue to spurn Americans.

senthil_rajasek 10y ago

"Go study in Japan or anywhere, and you will see that foreign students mostly hang out with each other." That is not a right comparison. The U.S is not Japan.

thaumasiotes 10y ago
Full points for worthless technical accuracy on "the US is not Japan". Zero points for accuracy of any kind on "the US is not anywhere".
- senthil_rajasek 10y ago
  Yes. If you know any history, the U.S is singular. I deserve more than zero points for highlighting that.
uremog 10y ago
And yet the conclusion is still right.