The woes of foreign students

Most of Hyderabad’s foreign students study at either English and Foreign Languages (EFLU) or Osmania University (OU). While the level of academic instruction might be vigorous at both institution, studies are not these students’ only problems.First of all, the registration process at both universities and with the police commission is ridiculously slow. Often, one has to wait in queues all day just for one signature. “It is very difficult to wait for one signature for a whole day. You can tolerate it when you already familiar with the system of education here, but when you come to a country for the first time, it can get very intimidating? And at the same time you are homesick,” moans Marifat Rustambekova, a first year MA English student from Tajikistan.For Cambodian Chham Chhavrath, an MA student at EFLU, food in the primary issue. “In my country we eat very different food. In India they use a lot of ginger and too much spice. If I want to eat tasty food, I have to cook myself. Which can get very time taking,” he says. That is not the only problem he faces. “I also have a lot of difficultly in travelling. I have been cheated by auto drivers only too often — I always end up spending far too much money,” adds Chhavrath.He is not the only one with an issue with the city’s auto walas. Auto drivers have a tendency to quote astronomically high rates. Suggest using the meter, and you will be left without a ride. According to Garibsultan Sultonmamadova, a second year MBA student at OU from Tajikistan, “I have a lot of difficulty in getting to the University daily. Everyday I have to argue with the auto driver. In my country we have fixed rates for travel.”But money is the only issue when travelling in autos. Most female students are wry when it comes to travelling in autos alone. Tajik student Manuchehra Azizova, who is pursuing an MA in Linguistics at EFLU, had a pretty bad experience one night. “Once, when I was returning to the hostel, the auto driver refused to stop the auto. Instead he kept driving. After I shouted at him, he stopped and tried to proposition me. I was so scared, I just handed him some money and ran for it!”Language differences are also the source of many woes. According to Mary Sung, an MA student at EFLU from Taiwan, “The language is the main problem — I speak Mandarin, and it is the most common spoken language in Taiwan. And here everyone speaks in Hindi or Telugu. I can speak a little bit of Hindi, but I speak no Telugu. So communicating with people who don’t know English can get very difficult.” The weather in another point of contention. The heat and change in weather has cause many a foreign student to succumb to fevers, headaches, weakness and so forth. Nasiba Qodirova, an MA student studying Political Science at OU and another Tajikistani, says, “From the day I have arrived in this city, I have been falling ill. And this hot weather is awful! I feel so weak, and despite this I do my best to study hard.”