Family background

Lam was the first person in her immediate family to attend university. Her father is a ‘business-oriented person’ who gained his qualifications through an apprenticeship. Her mother is not from an educated background and did not think it was important for a girl to be educated. As a result, she would disturb Lam’s study:

Lam did not think much about what she wanted to do as an adult when she was a child. She loved drawing and family members told her ‘you’re a genius in drawing’. Lam noted that ‘[m]ost Asians’ are conscious of ‘how successful you can be in the school’, but neither of her parents pushed her ‘to do much’. Her father had more expectations of her than her mother but ‘he didn’t really care about my progress in study’.

Lam had a lot of discussion with her father when she was choosing subjects to study at university. This led to conflict because she had decided that she would be ‘better off to work with people in the community’, but he felt that ‘you can earn more money in business’. He also thought that Lam would be ‘not good at handling’ people who were ‘homeless, drunk, alcoholic’. An important family experience that influenced her was that her brother developed schizophrenia when he was at secondary school. She felt that she was a ‘caring person’ and ‘not really money-oriented’.

Lam’s mother’s attitude to education for girls did not change and she did not offer any suggestions about career directions:

Consequently, Lam’s father was ‘the main person for me to be influenced by’, and she stated that ‘[despite] a bit of conflict with him … I still respect him’.

At the time she was considering options for university study, she was influenced by a campaign in Hong Kong promoting overseas education and applied to study in Australia, arriving with her boyfriend. They had studied at the same high school and both enrolled in the same foundation program in Australia. Initially, her parents were not happy about her boyfriend accompanying her, but Lam was becoming more independent and although she felt that it was not good to be away from her home, there were ‘a lot of difficulties’ in her family, including her brother’s illness and the stress involved in the conflict with her father. She felt that she ‘couldn’t handle it’ and that it was better for her to leave, acknowledging that maybe she wanted to ‘escape from my family’. Although her father did not initially agree to her moving overseas with her boyfriend, ‘he still allowed me to go with him at the end’.

She took a further step in escaping from her father’s conditions by doing ‘a very naughty thing’ when she began the foundation course: she enrolled only in arts subjects and did not take mathematics, with the result that she ‘couldn’t choose any type of business course’. She confessed that ‘I did it deliberately!’ Her boyfriend was an arts-oriented person and gave her a lot of support.

Educational experiences

Lam attended three years of kindergarten and then six years of primary school in Hong Kong, where there were about 30–40 students in a class. She was ‘dropped off at school, and got academically fair to average marks’. She considered that she was not ‘that smart’ but was happy because of her friends: ‘I … still have those primary school classmates and still keep in touch now.’

Lam started at the same primary school as her brother: ‘In our system when you live in the suburb you would probably choose the school around the suburb.’ However, her family considered that this ‘very low band school’ was ‘not particularly good in reputation’ so she changed schools at the end of the first year. This required an examination to gain entry to another school. She did not achieve her first preference, but was accepted by another school and she and her brother moved schools.

Later, Lam was accepted into her first choice of a prestigious girls’ secondary school based on her primary school results. The social aspects of her educational experience were still important to her and this was where she met her best friend:

She completed five years at this school, but was not able to stay there for the two additional years required for university entrance, owing to disappointing results at the intermediate level public examinations. Lam’s commitment to education was evident at this stage because, although ‘[t]he perception [in Hong Kong] is that after five years you will have the minimum requirement to get the job’, she wanted to continue to complete her sixth and seventh years.

Having to change schools was difficult for her:

Prior to this, Lam had experienced a setback at the end of the third year of secondary school when students were streamed into arts or science. Although she was better at science subjects than arts subjects:

She was ‘not that good at writing … at that time’, but she thought that her future was still ‘pretty good’, although she ‘didn’t know what I can do and what things I would like to do’. She was not a ‘genius’ at science and mathematics, but she had thought about becoming a nurse, before confronting another obstacle. Lam needed to study human biology if she wanted to become a nurse, and this would have been possible within the arts stream. However, on entering her fourth year, ‘[t]hey cancelled … human biology’ and only computer programming was available, so she enrolled in that. It was after this that Lam began to think about community work.

Lam (and her boyfriend) were accepted into the one year accelerated foundation program in Australia on the basis of their seven years of high school. They did ‘quite well’ in this course and Lam’s result was ‘quite nice’, allowing her to enrol at university.

Her objective at this point was to get to university (‘I didn’t think too much about courses I have to take … ’). Although she had already ruled out business studies, Lam was still aware of her father’s conditions and so she chose psychology, partly because her brother’s illness gave her an interest in mental health, but also because

She enrolled in the three year course but subsequently realised that this was not a well-considered decision:

Lam did not realise until the second year of the course that she would need to complete Honours and Masters degrees as well (a total of six years) to become a psychologist.

Her choice of psychology, while pleasing her father, was not proving to be the right path for Lam. As a result, on completing her degree, she decided to find a job to reinforce her eligibility for further education related to community work. She found it ‘rather amazing’ that she was able to find a position as a coordinator at an Asian community elderly day-care centre. She worked there for two years:

While working, Lam was aware of her need for further study to ‘enrich my knowledge, to enhance my skills to work … for the people’. She ‘felt satisfied with what I did’ but also considered that she lacked knowledge in the area:

Lam gained access to her current course on the basis of her psychology degree. She felt that her two years’ experience had given her ‘more confidence to work in the … area’ and she was keen to adapt to Australia and join ‘the mainstream society’. Her approach to her new course was different from her previous study. She did not see it as ‘just assignment[s] that I have to submit … and pass the marks’ but rather was keen to ‘gather all the knowledge and skills that I can acquire’ to become part of ‘this Australian society’. Developing her knowledge and putting it into practice were important now. Consequently, she was ‘pushing’ herself to work harder, though she was aware of the need to improve her spoken and written English.

Planning

In her immediate planning to make the transition from work to study, one of Lam’s first challenges was to write ‘a good resignation letter’, as she had not written such a letter before. Another aspect of her preparation was the enrolment application, requiring ‘full-on essays’, which she found ‘quite daunting’ wondering, ‘What should I focus on – things the department would like to hear about?’

Lam gave up her paid work, but continued with some voluntary work. Planning how she was going to manage financially was a concern (‘I still need to find another job so I was kind of struggling in the beginning’) as she embarked on study involving full fees. However, she gained permanent residency and became eligible for a government funded place, which allowed her to defer her tuition fees until her income reached a certain level.

Managing

Lam felt ‘quite shocked’ in the first week of her course:

But she also recognised that ‘this … is my aim and this is what I choose; I couldn’t go back.’ Her emotional distress at this stage was also related to her problems with the English language. Although Lam found the course interesting and thought she was suitable for this area, starting the course was a ‘struggle’ as after working full-time in a Chinese-speaking environment, she suddenly had to ‘talk in English’ again. Despite a lot of contact with the ‘outside world’ in liaising with other agencies, she found the need to ‘pick up my English’ for the course was ‘really different’, involving ‘quite a bit of struggling’ to adjust to ‘all the emotional change’. Written English was also difficult:

Lam had found it easier to study during her previous course – she was more equipped to study immediately after completing her foundation year than returning to study after working (‘when you go to work you forget’).

She did her best to cope with the assignments. As well as problems with the grammar and general writing skills, she was also challenged by managing time, including studying and reading and ‘[t]rying to pick up more of the thinking – the critical analysis’.

To address her need for income, in the first three months of her course Lam worked at a girls’ high school as a kitchen hand, initially for two days per week, from 8.30am until the end of the school day, but she dropped back to one day ‘because I find it’s too hard to cover my study and work’. By mid-year, Lam had found a casual paid job in a community health centre, usually for one day a week, which, in her second year, increased to two days per week. This posed an additional challenge in time management.

However, as she embarked on her second year, Lam was ‘quite OK’ about her management of the previous year. She was ‘not satisfied with everything’ but felt that she could ‘learn … from my past experience’ and ‘manage it better this year and try to make the most of the time’. Lam hoped ‘not only [to] focus on the study but also try … to give myself a break – going out with friends – trying not to focus on the study during the weekends’. She felt that ‘sometimes I need contact with my friends’ and was ‘trying to balance my life. Have a social life and a study life together.’

Lam also continued the voluntary work she had commenced before starting the course ‘because it’s … my interest and also the way of contributing to the community’. This involved visiting an elderly lady for two or three hours a week. Other demands on Lam’s time included her involvement with her church, which began during her course, and sometimes attending a parish group on Tuesday nights.

Lam continued to be concerned about her writing skills into her second year. Her lecturer recognised her ‘argument in the essay’, but encouraged her to ‘check the grammar and refine some of the words’. Consequently:

To manage her study time along with her other commitments, Lam tried to be as efficient as she could. Having learnt from her experience the previous year, she tried to plan ahead using a year planner on which she highlighted all the assignment due dates. Her new study plan was a significant shift away from the previous year, in light of her work demands:

Following her plan to have a social life and a study life, and also to get away from home, Lam sometimes went out at weekends to ‘meet some people rather than isolate myself’ or ‘have a walk … just [for] a few hours and then get back to study’.

The number of nights Lam studied per week depended on how many assignments were due:

She studied most nights of the week, sometimes doing ‘some reading for a few hours’. Lam was at the computer ‘most of the time’, reading and ‘extract[ing] out some of the words and put[ting] them into the computer’ from 8.00pm to 11.30pm or midnight and at weekends ‘[m]ost of the time I spend the whole day for the study’.

Lam’s work in community health assisted her studies:

The resulting time commitment made it difficult to manage at times:

However, Lam was fortunate in that:

Support

At the beginning of her course, Lam sought support from university language and learning services in an effort to improve her English:

She did not find this helpful because she required proof-reading assistance, but ‘they only have a very limited consultation time … always the time I find it is not enough because they really … have a lot of work’:

Consequently, Lam felt let down by the support centre and she sought her friend’s help. This was the only university-level support that Lam sought, although she attended some of the centre’s short courses on topics such as paraphrasing and summarising. She found this a good experience because it involved group activity.

Lam did not require any other specific help from the university, but thought that the department in which she studied could do more ‘small group gatherings’ to build up class relationships. She thought that ‘whole class activities, like a fun day together where we can learn from each other … [and] we can know each other more’ would have been helpful. She considered that this should occur throughout the course, not just at the beginning.

Her most difficult time was at the beginning of the course when she felt ‘a bit lonely and lost … [with] stress and the pressure of the course and all the things happening’. At that time Lam thought about giving up: ‘it seemed like it was really hard work to start with’.

Her friends and her own determination helped Lam through this period:

Lam’s boyfriend at that time was also ‘a good supporter – encouraging me as well’. He subsequently left to work in Hong Kong, but they then communicated via the internet.

Lam knew that she could approach academic staff if she had difficulties and would do so if ‘they’re free’. However, her course peers and friends were her main sources of support: ‘Sometimes we just try to brainstorm some of the questions. We share and discuss together.’ Her friends outside the course provided ‘mental support’ that was not focused on her study. It was these friends who supported her through the difficult period at the beginning of her course. Lam’s peer support network within the course continued to develop: ‘We learn from each other and share things together.’

Summing up, Lam considered that the best forms of support she received during the course were from ‘my parents, my partner and also friends [outside the university and] … the classmates in the class’. Her parents provided her with ‘[v]ery spiritual and personal support’:

… I have greater participation in the class, like questioning and also engaging in the group activities.

… I’m not familiar with the environment at that time and I was new in the class and so was feeling that I was a bit unsure whether my questions were relevant and [I] fear to make any mistakes.

I do feel a bit more independent in learning. I have more … self-esteem than before. I feel like I have … increased in the knowledge.

Very open to learning. A very proactive learner. I seek … clarifications and I also seek any criticism. I’ve also been a reflective learner. I think the whole process of my learning in the … course is a reflection.

… they can only afford maybe one or two children to go to … school and only the boys go to school. The girls live at home and do some housework … Even the girls that go to work … have to take their salaries to their parents to support their brothers.

… the boys and the girls are the same. Now – even though I’m a girl – when I … [have] my own family and I have my own job … I also have to support my parents … but before it’s only boys’ responsibility.

He just said that if you want to study and you have studied well, I can afford [it] … even if you want to study a PhD.

‘Why should you let her … go to other cities to do the so high level education? And you put a lot of money out for her and it will … never come back because … she will marry … ’

Educational experiences

The kindergarten that Zelin attended when she returned to live with her parents was not a formal educational institution. There was one kindergarten teacher for 20 or 30 children and the teacher’s son, who was a high school student, taught Chinese characters and some simple maths.

Zelin considered that she was very lucky at the primary school where she commenced her formal education because ‘there are a lot of people in China, so most … schools … have a lot of classes in the same grade’ but in her ‘comparatively expensive’ primary school, there were only two classes in her grade. The students were also very good because they were selected on the basis of their ability. Her teachers supported her early ambition to become a doctor.

Zelin completed five years of primary and four years of secondary high school, commenting that ‘in the Chinese education system, the primary school is six years and the secondary high school is three years.’ Three years of high school follow that, making a total of 12 years. However, at her ‘kind of special’ school, primary and secondary high school were combined in the one school, with a shorter period of primary school education and a longer period of high school education, because ‘they want us well-prepared for the test for the end of high school.’

Because Zelin stayed at the same school with the same classmates for nine years, she had ‘very, very good relationships’ with them. Some were ‘just like my family and even now they are my best friends forever!’ Consequently, when she changed schools in order to go to high school for the final three years, she felt very isolated. This school was ‘very selective … the most famous one in the whole province’:

In this competitive environment it was ‘difficult to be someone’s true friend’: ‘[Y]ou knew each other … and you used each other’ to keep up- to-date with the work in different subject areas ‘because we have to go to the college, and the university, and compared to the rest of the world, there’s very few in China.’

Zelin found the academic work at high school ‘extremely hard’:

By the second year, students would work until ‘one or two o’clock in the morning’, and in the third year, ‘I can’t stand to remember that – it’s terrible!’:

She put on about ten kilograms in the third year of high school ‘because at that time I didn’t move – just stayed at the study desk, and my mother bring some food for me and I just eat it and continued studying’. She did not feel she had any other choice:

Zelin finished high school when she was 18 or 19 and at that time had no ambitions for her future career. She was preoccupied with studying well and ‘get[ting] into some good university’. Consequently, when she chose majors, she based her decisions on ‘whether the requirements are suitable for university, not just my own interests’.

Zelin’s mother had some friends whose daughters had been at the same high school and ‘they went to some famous university and … performed very well’, and then went to another country. Consequently, Zelin’s mother would say to her: ‘You should set that as your course … making new friends is just a waste of time.’ Zelin did not make good friends at high school, but she kept in touch with her primary school friends, some of whom had entered the same high school with her.

Zelin did ‘quite well’ in her final high school exams and had several options open to her. One was to go to law school and aim for ‘some job in the economy’ but she was not interested in business. She enjoyed reading and literature and so she enrolled in a ‘quite famous university in Peking [Beijing]’ where she completed a four-year Bachelor of Arts degree, majoring in English linguistics and literature. Moving to this university meant that she was living 23 hours’ travelling time from her parents’ home.

She lived in student accommodation, but found that ‘[b]eing with your classmates [is] not good!’ Although it was ‘very difficult for you to enter the university … once you’re in there … it’s comparatively easy’; there was ‘still some competition’ and when ‘you’re living with your classmates … they will always be looking at you [and saying] “Oh, you’re still studying?” ’

Zelin was also uncomfortable in her first year because, having come from a very small city, she sometimes felt ‘not good enough in that university’ and that ‘all of my classmates are very good’, particularly those who had come from schools with foreign teachers. These students had ‘very good [English] speaking and listening skills’, but Zelin was ‘just good at academic reading and writing, but not so good at the speaking’. She lacked confidence at that time, so sometimes ‘I just felt … I should study more than them and use more hours at the study room’.

When she finished her degree, Zelin found that there were not many jobs that suited her major because ‘English is a language – it’s a kind of a tool.’ She could have become ‘someone’s secretary, or something like that’, but she did not want to do that. Another option was to ‘continue my study in China, do the Masters of Linguistics’ but she did not want to stay where she was and lacked confidence in enrolling in another university. She decided to talk to her parents to gain their agreement to go abroad.

She did some research and became aware of the university and department where she was now studying; she ‘want[ed] to go overseas … at my young age to widen my ideas’. She felt that people’s expectations and dreams are related to their age and if she took the opportunity to go overseas ‘when I am 30, or when I am 40 … at that time it is a different experience, a different feeling’.

Hence, she decided to complete a Masters degree in Australia with a view to becoming eligible to gain work experience in Australia and later work in China. She began this degree, not realising that she would need to complete an undergraduate degree first for professional recognition in Australia. She then interrupted her postgraduate study and enrolled in her current undergraduate course to address this. She found undergraduate study much more difficult. As a postgraduate student, she had been in a small group of overseas students. She felt that these students were given special care and marked ‘higher’ because of this. She was doing well in that course, partly because her English may have been better than the other overseas students. Although she found undergraduate study ‘much harder’, she was learning ‘a lot’ and enjoying it ‘very much’.

Zelin’s experience in Australia changed her opinions about education. The postgraduate experience had been ‘kind of similar’ to education in China with some exceptions:

She noticed a marked change when she commenced undergraduate study. Although she found it ‘very difficult’, she appreciated that ‘in fact, I can learn some … real things’. In addition to theories and concepts:

She valued the two 70-day professional placements for their links to ‘real practice’, which were very different from her experience in China:

This was in contrast to her experience when she finished her first degree in China.

Planning

For her initial postgraduate enrolment, Zelin’s planning was related to ‘all the living stuff’ involved in leaving China and coming to Australia. Prior to that, she had to sit for the international English language test, and choose the university and the course she was interested in. She then applied for enrolment in the course and received a conditional offer because she ‘didn’t do quite well enough’ in the test, which meant she had to complete a language course upon arrival in Australia.

When she was accepted into the university course, she had to arrange a visa, which took ‘ages … almost a half year’. Then she bought her ticket and other things she thought she might need in Australia. Her parents made contact with people they knew who were already in Australia. These Chinese family friends, who had been in Australia for eight years and ran their own business, met her at the airport, and she stayed with them for ‘almost a half year’.

Zelin enjoyed this because the wife (whom she called ‘aunty’) was ‘really nice’ and was living alone while her husband travelled frequently back to China on business, so there were ‘just the two of us [in a] very huge house’. She eventually moved out to reduce her travelling time to the campus at which she was studying.

Managing

For her first three months in Australia, Zelin was enrolled in the full-time language course. Although she had studied English for more than ten years, she found it difficult because, ‘I just totally didn’t get all the accents’ as most of her foreign language teachers in China had come from America. In addition, ‘I’m quite shy and just not kind of person to talk to people’, so although her writing and reading were ‘quite good’, and her listening skills were ‘all right’, speaking was more difficult: ‘it just took time for me to get used to everything.’

Later Zelin worked in her aunty’s cafeteria, which gave her work experience as a waitress and was ‘fun’. She worked ‘15 or 18 hours per week’ but when she moved out she could not continue because she lived too far away. She then found a retail position, working two shifts, which usually amounted to ten hours per week. She kept this job, but also gained another position working as a carer for a 24-year-old girl with brain damage. Zelin helped her to shop and go to rehabilitation programs, completing two four-hour shifts per week, which brought her near to the maximum of 20 hours per week she was allowed to work under visa requirements, adding extra shifts to cover her colleagues when they went on holidays.

Zelin struggled ‘a little bit’ with study and two jobs, in addition to her personal life, so when she began her first professional placement, she left the first job and just kept the position as a carer. Although the placement was full-time, she was able to arrange this with her field work supervisor, who said, ‘ … maybe you can leave two hours or three hours early on the day on your shift.’ Zelin left early on Mondays but her other shift was on Saturday morning, which did not affect the placement.

To manage her personal life Zelin began to keep a diary to schedule her time with friends. She also needed to allow time for domestic chores, and filled her refrigerator ‘with all kinds of food’ to avoid shopping frequently. There were not many Chinese shops near her accommodation, so she had to travel to another suburb or into the city to buy Chinese food. This was particularly a problem in her first year when she did not have a car, but she bought one during her second year.

After she had been in her flat about six months, Zelin’s boyfriend moved in with her. Coming from a one child family, Zelin was accustomed to being by herself:

Consequently, her boyfriend’s moving in involved some adjustment. He was two years older than Zelin and had completed two Masters degrees in Australia, the second one in the city where they now lived. She met him through her aunty as he had also stayed there before moving out to find a house. They were from the same city in China, and later found that they had friends in common and that their parents knew one another.

At first, Zelin’s mother was ‘not quite happy’ with the relationship because her boyfriend had not graduated at that time, and her mother thought there would be ‘a lot of changes in the future and it’s not stable’. Her parents were afraid that she would get hurt. Later, when he got a job, and she told her mother ‘a lot of good things about him’, her mother felt, ‘Oh, probably it’s a good thing [having] someone to take care of you when you are overseas … ’

To manage her study with ‘so many things going on in my life’, Zelin had to ‘squeeze time’ and do things at specified times to try to ‘do it all’. Sometimes she would rise early and go to the library when it opened at 8.00am to read before classes started. The library did not close until ‘around midnight’, which allowed her to spend more time there. Zelin studied mainly in the library because it was difficult to study at home when her boyfriend was there and might be cooking or watching television. If she had typing, research or reading that she could do late at night she would do that at home. She had a laptop at home but no internet access, so she used the computers in the library.

When she came to Australia, Zelin ‘didn’t know anything about cooking’. Her aunty cooked for her and they also ate at her aunty’s cafeteria. She started to cook for herself when she moved out, but, as she was by herself and frequently busy or going out with friends, she did not cook often. When her boyfriend moved in, ‘I started to … feel quite interested in that, and so I did all the cooking’, but later she became bored with it and, struggling with ‘time and other things’, they decided that they would ‘just eat healthy, get some salad and toast’. Subsequently, she cooked about three times per week.

Another challenge for Zelin when she began to live independently was the need, for the first time, to ‘pay all the bills’. She found this ‘quite a challenge’ and ‘totally different’ from China:

Moving into her flat was also a challenge, because it was a ‘totally empty room’, and she had to buy items such as a television, refrigerator and microwave, and

At that time she ‘couldn’t think about my study’ and ‘just simply went to the class and took notes and read some things’.

Zelin found it hard to judge the impact on her study of her boyfriend moving in, but he was a positive influence in that he was always encouraging her to study more, saying to her:

Despite these positive statements of support, Zelin continued to do the cooking, shopping, and bill paying because of the ‘stereotype that woman tend to do all the things in charge of the family’. So, while she was struggling to do the domestic tasks as well as study, she would think, ‘Oh, yeah, you say this and now I’m the one to do all those things.’ Sometimes she discussed this with her boyfriend, but sometimes they would ‘fight’ and she felt the situation was not fair. They would resolve some issues and then ‘other things come up’, but she considered that ‘that’s … life [and you] always have to learn how to balance everything’.

Zelin found the written English demands of the course a challenge and because there were no exams, only assignments, ‘it requires a lot of writing skills and I don’t think my grammar and expression of ideas is good enough to be competitive.’ She felt that she ‘lost some of my marks because of that’.

In other ways, Zelin had not found study particularly difficult, because ‘I’ve been studying all my life so far’. She thought that it was just a matter of ‘get[ting] used to the lecturers’ teaching pattern and what he or she wants [and working out] the most important things I need to put down’. However, she sometimes worried about her future practice. She was ‘good at all the theories’ but was conscious that she came from a country with a ‘whole different … system’. In Australia:

This led her to worry sometimes about who would employ her as a new graduate from a different background, without work experience. But the study itself ‘never troubles me … much’.

Zelin considered that time was the major challenge she faced while studying, working out how to ‘balance my study time with other things’. For example:

Zelin used a wall planner to help manage her time, writing down when an assignment was due and when she should start working on it. She found it difficult when ‘sometimes two or three [were due] at one time’. She would start to feel ‘rushed’, and worried about failing an assignment because of completing work at the ‘last minute’.

The course ‘involve[d] a lot of tutorials and presentations’ and discussion with classmates. Zelin found some of this ‘quite interesting’ but some less so and it was difficult taking part in discussion when:

In contrast, in China:

This thinking lends weight to what people say, and later they ‘respond to this talking or we start another topic’ but in the course Zelin felt she ‘just never got this time’. In addition:

Support

Zelin used the university’s language support services ‘a couple of times’ and found them ‘quite helpful’:

The staff there also suggested books she should read to improve her English and writing. She could not think of any other ways in which the university could have helped her, although she acknowledged that assistance in meeting people at the beginning of a course could have been helpful, and a presentation, or the provision of brochures or information sheets by the department in which she studied, might have helped in understanding local systems and facilities.

Zelin regarded herself as the type of person who did ‘all the things by myself’, and sought support only when she needed to. In addition to the language support services, she talked to the information technology staff if she had computer problems, and the library staff if she had a problem borrowing books. Zelin also consulted the head of department when she failed an essay by two marks ‘to talk through this and [ask] could he give me another chance to redo the assignment’. She used the university swimming pool (‘I’m at the pool all the time’) and the gym.

Zelin was in close contact with her family, receiving emotional support from her parents, as well as her boyfriend. Her parents also contributed financially to her studies and her living expenses, though she worked and saved money, perhaps to buy a house in the future. She phoned her family ‘once or twice a week’. If everything was ‘going all right’ she called weekly, but if holidays were coming up or it was someone’s birthday, she might call twice in one week. Her parents visited her and stayed for four months, which was demanding of her time while also studying.

Her friends from inside and outside her course provided a lot of support during her study. There were about 45 students in her course, but only three or four were Chinese:

Zelin found it difficult to bond with her local classmates because ‘they have their own friends, families going on and we all kind of come to the lecture room and after that go back to [our] own place’, but overseas students from [mainland] China and Hong Kong ‘usually get together … maybe … because [of] the same cultural background’.

Zelin worried about the future and discussed the issues with a friend from the same international student background:

Zelin thought the support available for new graduates was quite limited and ‘basically we are by ourselves’, though students could get assistance to update their curriculum vitae. As an international student ‘the reality is, it’s harder for us’:

Zelin had just started her second placement when a part-time position became available. She spoke to her liaison person who said that ‘you have to stick to the full-time … you have to finish the placement and get your qualification first’. However, the placements were valuable for learning about local systems and facilities, and in starting to build ‘social connections’:

… I was just totally new to everything in Australia, so basically I followed my old learning strategies and skills I learned from China, and later I found out it’s not quite the same here, because in China we basically do what the lecturers say.

… I was brought up in the kind of environment where you would listen to your teachers’ opinions and you normally don’t give your opinions, because you are young and you are a student and you are learning from others … All your opinions are built on others telling you what to do, and here I think the tutors and the lecturers actually encourage us to give your opinions, even [if] sometimes it’s immature, sometimes it’s not right … I think most of the people I meet in Australia, they encourage you to say your opinion. I think this [is a] good thing, and it actually encourage[d] me to speak out my ideas and that give[s] me some confidence and sometimes I think … ‘I’m really glad I say that because it inspired other people in some way,’ because we [are] all from different cultur[al] … [and] education[al] backgrounds, so I think it’s [a] good thing and it make[s] me feel good about myself and it helps to … [develop] self-esteem and … confidence.

… I was her first student and she’s my first supervisor, and she’s just three years older than me, so it makes us more like friends than … supervisor/student, so I kind of talked to her about things during the supervision and also during the interviews with the clients. At first, we start[ed to] kind of co-interview with clients, so after the interview … she give me some feedback and I give her some things I felt or I think about during the interview, so it help[ed] give me confidence.