7 Feb 2008 2:19:00 am

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yikes, who's willing to go with me.
i don't wanna be lonely!


SYDNEY - YOUNG Singaporeans are the loneliest of overseas students at Australian universities, a new study has found.
Every single one of those surveyed by researchers from Victoria's Monash University and the University of Melbourne admitted to feeling friendless and isolated.

There are 7,519 students from Singapore studying in Australian universities, according to 2007 figures from Australian Education International. Of these, 6,454 are undergraduates and slightly more than 1,000 are postgraduate students.

Students from Malaysia, Indonesia and China were not that much happier, according to the study.

Overall, 67 per cent of female and 62 per cent of male international students said they experienced 'periods of loneliness and isolation' Down Under.

Some of the young men and women polled said they felt like they were in 'a very strange place' and likened their experience to being 'lost in a jungle'.

'I just stay in my room - sometimes I cry and when I cry out I feel better,' a Malaysian student was quoted as saying.

The results of the study suggest a failure, by Asian students in particular, to assimilate into predominately white academic institutions.

The research, which involved interviews with 200 overseas students at nine Australian universities, was conducted by Dr Erlenawati Sawir and Prof Simon Marginson from the University of Melbourne and Dr Ana Deumert, Prof Chris Nyland and Dr Gaby Ramia from Monash University.

They identified culture shock, personal isolation and difficulty in making friends with local students as the main reasons for loneliness.

'It is significant that 65 per cent of those who experienced loneliness or isolation had faced barriers in making friends across cultures,' the report found.

However, not all Singaporeans are convinced by the results yielded by the study.

A quick survey by The Straits Times found that Singaporeans who had studied in Australia did not feel lonely or depressed when they were there.

Mr Tian Kah Wai, 30, a business development executive, said he socialised mainly with Australians when he was studying at the University of Melbourne in 2001.

'I even got to know their friends and soon we were all hanging out in a group,' he said.

Architect Cherie Wong, 28, spent five years in Perth at the University of Western Australia and did not feel alone either. 'I was surrounded by fellow Singaporeans and had several Australian friends who went through thick and thin with me,' she said.

But others admit that Singaporeans have the tendency to stick to their Singaporean cliques and this could be a reason for their inability to fully assimilate into Australian life and culture.

The language barrier, due to the Singaporean accent, was offered as a reason for their hesitation in initiating conversations.

'Most Australians don't understand Singaporean-accented English,' observed Ms Wong, who said she had to speak with a more neutral accent to be understood.

Other reasons cited include different interests and the fact that Singaporeans tend to view their stay in Australia as temporary.

Perhaps mindful of a widening gap between young Australians and overseas students, the study urged the university authorities to help the two groups bond by organising shared classes and encouraging participation in sports and social clubs.

'Helping them to improve their English and setting up buddy systems might also ease the problem,' the authors of the study said.

While cultural and social integration has always posed challenges, the study is the first of its kind to identify the full scale of the problem and the emotional difficulties overseas students face at Australian universities.