‘English humour is really weird’ and everything else you know as an international student at uni in the UK

You all have that one foreign friend on our course who seems so incredibly exotic to you that being an English citizen seems utterly boring. We speak in another language to our family or maybe even in class with some other student who happens to be from the same country as us. We get higher grades than you even though the English we write in is not our native language. And some of us don’t even express ourselves in English apart from on paper. But how do we see you?

You're not considered international if you're from Europe

Everyone seems to think that "there are not many European students, mostly Japanese or Chinese students". This is something I looked into and as it turns out this is a well noticed fact. The University of Leeds ranks as the 19th most popular University amongst international/EU students. With China having sent 91,215 students in the academic year 2015/2016 and runner up Malaysia 17,405 it's clear there's a big difference.

Megan, an English Literature with Creative Writing student said she always wondered ‘what they even studied, something international?’. UKCISA answered this with a list of the most popular studies among international students with the leading course of "Business & administrative studies", which could be very international indeed. However, Ella, also an English Literature with Creative Writing student raised the next question of "why the Hell England?! Your country is so much cooler". Which of course it is.

Our dedication is worth over double the amount of money it would be in our own country

Another pre conceived idea of many English students about international students is that they "must be very dedicated to the course because they have travelled a long way to do so". Not only did we travel a long way, most of us also pay about double the amount we would have paid in our own country for the course. So yes, we are very dedicated. Our dedication is worth nine thousand two hundred and fifty pounds a year, at the moment.

We might seem quiet but we can be quiet in over four languages

Georgia, an English with Creative Writing student believes that the international students "keep to themselves" and "don’t speak english very often". This is where I would like to chip in as being one of the international students. Fact is that in my motherland (The Netherlands), we get taught at least four languages at secondary school which we have to pass and progress in for a minimum of three years. Of these four languages, one obviously is our own, the other language we have to pass and continue for the rest of our secondary school is English. Some people learn five languages intensively for six full years, which is a hell of a lot more than the educational system in England can say for itself with its ego tripping "English is all we need to know" mentality. So no, we don’t only speak English, and sometimes we refuse because we have got other languages to attend to.

English humour is really weird

I spoke to students in Middlesbrough to get an idea of their mindset and whether it differs to Leeds and there was one topic that hadn’t been touched upon by the Leeds students: "I wasn’t sure whether they would understand our sense of humour". "A non-europeans student on my course was always on his own" a student explained to me, "and my friend tried to befriend him but he shouted at us and ran away because he assumed we were being mean". In the end they became friends as soon as they explained they weren’t being mean to him.

The English humour is a rather sarcastic, satirical kind of humour. Everyone is always "taking the piss" (no, they are not actual urinating, they are just joking with you, at your expense). After a while you will "get the hang of it" and just take it "with a pinch of salt", they are not being mean, laughing at your expense is the English way of expressing how fond they actually are of you.

Being passive aggressive is SO English

England seems so much fun on the telly and people seem so polite and lovely with their beautiful English accents, so to live the English life would be the absolute dream. After a year of exhaling the English air I have slightly changed my mind about my views on England though. Yes, the people are polite but they can also be incredibly rude. I have learned that passive aggressive is the way to go so confrontations are not necessary and we can all just ignore each other without having to talk about it. "Two faced" you could say. I am not generalising English people, but admit it, you also are guilty of carrying a grudge for that person you never dared to confront.

We also have some pre-conceived ideas of you

However, not only do the English students have a pre-conceived idea of the international students, we also have some of them ourselves. We all think that the men must love football and eating pie and sitting in the pub with their pint. We also think that the girls are all part of the Geordie Shore clique. Or maybe we think all english people wear suits and dresses all day and investigate murders in their spare time.

We can make this work

There is a certain arrogance to only speaking one language because you owned a big part of the world and at some point it just needs to go. Try to learn a new language, don’t expect the rollercoasters in Disneyland Paris to have an English narration just because you don’t understand French and there is always Google translate. We would love to talk to you if you are willing to put in some effort too.