If you are living or studying far from home, you have probably felt a little more homesick during major holidays before. This year, the Chinese New Year’s celebrations will kick off all around the world celebrating the Year of the Dog.
The Chinese New Year is the most festive and long-awaited event of the year for the Chinese. It is a time during which people go home to celebrate with their loved ones. Families gather together for meals to catch up and continue the traditions that have been shared over the many generations.
Being far from home during such a major holiday can be hard on any one’s morale. Fortunately, there are easy ways to help tame this home-sickness feeling and still enjoy the Chinese New Year.
Have a Chinese New Year’s Eve Dinner
While it may not be possible to have every dish on your wish-list, Chinese food is fortunately extremely popular and available in most parts of the world. If you are not quite the chef like your mother, reserve a table at your favorite local Chinese restaurant. Or on the other hand, if you prefer to cook or would like to eat something that may not be served by the local restaurateurs, head to the closest Asian supermarket and get everything you need to make those traditional meals at home.
Invite Locals or Other Expats
It is always fun to share your native customs with friends that may not be familiar with your culture. Use the Chinese New Year’s celebrations as an opportunity for your local and other expat friends to get to know you and your culture better. You can invite them to prepare and enjoy a traditional meal with you or to come to a parade or festival in your town.
Go to a Chinese New Year’s Parade
From Sydney to New York, most major cities in the world have a Chinese district, or “Chinatown”, and will likely host Chinese New Year’s Parades and Festivals. Check out your local news and event calendars for details on scheduled events near you and make sure to bring friends to celebrate with you!
Video Call Your Family
Seeing someone on live feed rather than solely talking over the phone will make you feel a little closer to home. Block some time to call your family using a video-call app on your computer (WeChat is the most popular) or smartphone. You will need plenty of time as your family members will certainly be all together and will love to pass the phone around the room and catch up with you. With so many technical platforms available, it will feel like you are in the room with them!
Keep Up with the Traditions
In China, families usually decorate their houses with bright red garlands, golden banners, and lanterns. Head to your local Chinese supermarket or Chinatown and get everything you need to decorate your home, just as you would if you were back home. Don’t forget the oranges!
Another big tradition is the exchange of little red envelopes, called “hong bao”, filled with positive wishes and “lucky money”. Thanks to technology, this is a tradition you can keep up with very easily. Apps such as WeChat now offer the possibility to send electronic red envelopes to family and friends. Last year, over 46 billion electronic red envelopes were sent between January 27 (the eve of the Year of the Rooster) to February 1.
Wishing you a happy and prosperous Chinese New Year! Gong Xi Fa Cai!
I attended an international student orientation recently at one of our client schools, Graceland University in Lamoni, Iowa. Diana Jones, the Director of the Intercultural Office, opened the orientation by asking the international students how many were homesick and why.
For a moment, no one raised their hand.
Then a male student shyly raised his hand. He said he enjoyed being at Graceland, but he hadn’t been home in two years. That first domino had fallen. Hands started going up. You would think these students would miss family and friends, but other things started being revealed as well.
How International Students Deal With Homesickness in College
One student terribly missed the food from back home. A female student missed her Latin music and dancing weekends with friends. Another missed driving a car due to his license not being valid in Iowa. These students can only work on campus while attending college, so it made sense that a male student missed regularly working a job and being productive outside his academic classes. Another male student missed conversing in his Peruvian Spanish dialect. By the end of the session, 100 percent of the students had volunteered experiencing some sort of homesickness. These results fall in line with a recent study conducted by YouthSight (and released by the Nightline Association) which shed some surprising light on what international students face.
As this continued, my heart just broke more and more. Some of these students literally have oceans between them and their families. I’ve been at LewerMark for six years and this conversation opened my eyes to the challenges these students face above the more obvious ones of missing parents, siblings and friends.
Help Your Homesick Students with 24 Hour Counseling Services
Diana Jones asked about homesickness in college because she wanted to loop the students into the benefit LewerMark provides through our partnership with Lifeworks. The My Student Support Program (My SSP) provides students with 24/7 access to support and the platform, which integrates with existing campus resources, connects students to professionals and counselors who speak their native languages and understand the unique cultural challenges faced by students living abroad. Immediate support is available in six core languages, and ongoing support is provided in more than 60 languages via app, chat, web, telephone and video.
Additional Benefits of our International Student Support Program
My SSP covers services not often found in traditional health insurance packages for international students such as:
- Students struggling with peer pressure, loneliness, stress, depression, and anxiety
- School-related stress including debt advice and management that can occur from tuition and other expenses
- Students trying to balance multiple responsibilities while experiencing a new culture
- Students coping with bereavement, harassment, eating disorders, substance abuse, gambling, domestic violence, and gay/lesbian/gender issues
- Students dealing with pregnancy and childcare issues
My Student Support Program complements existing student counseling services and other resources. For example, we offer 24/7 access to counselors to provide live support outside of traditional campus counseling service hours, which includes multiple languages.
- A 24/7 free, confidential counseling service toll-free phone, e-mail, or instant messaging
- Face-to-face and/or online counseling services in multiple languages
- A multidisciplinary network of expert counselors who can identify presenting problems or needs
Resources for Students Homesick in College
There are many online sites that offer advice to students to combat homesickness. Here is a sampling:
Ithaca College Homesickness Guide
Tips for Dealing with Homesickness
Kaplan’s Homesickness Tips
A Student’s Guide to Dealing With Homesickness
As great as these online sites can be, they can’t replace a sympathetic and understanding counselor. Not every international student may need to tap into his or her health insurance when studying in the states, but it sounds like from my recent experience at Graceland University, almost all international college students could benefit from at least an understanding voice.
