WHEN Chinese students Amy, Sara and Michelle arrived in North West Victoria a lot of things changed — including their names.
Michelle picked her English moniker from a movie, while Amy and Sara just wanted names that would be easier for other people to remember.
Starkly different from their given names of Huan, Lyuan and, Yanxin, the change took a while to get used to but now that they have been in Australia for 14 months, things come a bit more naturally.
All three women arrived in Swan Hill to study a Diploma of Nursing at SuniTAFE early 2012 after varying stints completing English language studies in Mildura.
Coming from the hustle and bustle of north-west China, the move to rural Australia has been an eye-opener.
“It’s good, nice and quiet and very friendly,” said Michelle.
According to Amy, one of the biggest adaptations to be made was the weather, “especially in summer when it’s too hot and too dry.”
“Where we are from, temperatures get down to -20 degrees in winter,” said Sara.
Language barriers were another hurdle to cross.
Student support services and attentive teachers have helped them in their TAFE studies, but the pressure of having to communicate in every-day situations was a struggle for the first few months.
“Even when I went to the supermarket I was too shy to ask questions for the first three months,” said Sara.
For more on this story, see Wednesday’s edition of The
Guardian (27/03/13).
