Looking Back: Experiences of Foreign Students at St. Mary's College, Quezon City

Abstract

With the increasing number of foreign students at St. Mary's College, Quezon City, the need to explore their experiences has become apparent. In this study, the researchers looked into these experiences to find out foreign students' motivations and inspirations, the difficulties and challenges they faced, their adjustment strategies, and the period of time it took them before they finally identified themselves as fully adjusted within St. Mary's College. There were nine participants in the study. They are citizens of Asian countries: Indonesia, Myanmar, and Vietnam. Individual interviews with them became the main source of data leading to the achievement of the objectives. Based on the findings, language is the first problem encountered by foreign college students at St. Mary's College, Quezon City. Hence, these foreign students had made efforts to adjust. Their adjustment, however, was not limited to language alone. They had also adapted to the locals, the Filipinos, as well as other foreign students. Certain Filipino values and attitudes towards international students had also been observed.