Asian students relish NZ lifestyle

(Asian Magazine, 2007)

Bright young Asian girls studying in Christchurch have ambitious goals for their futures - but they probably won't be in New Zealand, reports David Killick.

Friendly, attentive - but just a little bit cautious of the reporter who has come to grill them, the four young female students from Asia are gathered in the international room of Rangi Ruru Girls' School in Christchurch.

Around the room: photographs from different countries, a few Chinese ornaments, teapots, laptops, and, in big print, "Wanted", and "IC 2007". (The letters stand for International Club, and "Wanted" refers to pictures being sought of senior girls for the wall.)

Rangi Ruru is one of New Zealand's top girls' schools, with a first-rate academic record. Another plus, as an independent school, is the individual attention students receive. They pay for the privilege, though: fees cost $22,000 a year for international students, and $12,930 for New Zealand residents. On top of that, boarding fees set their parents back another $8,984 a year.

(The school points out that many state schools charge international students around $10,000 p.a., and don't offer boarding.)

The school has 14 international fee-paying students, as well as overseas students resident in New Zealand. I am meeting four of them: Lucy (Sae-Rom) Jo, 17, from Korea; Yun Liu, also 17, from Taiwan; Miki Matsushita, 15, from Japan; and Nathasha Wong, 15, from Singapore.

I want to know what these bright young girls think: what their goals and ambitions are, what do they like about New Zealand and New Zealand society, what don't they like about it. Living and studying here, even if for just a few years, will be a formative part of their lives.

As we chat some more, and both the girls and I relax, the answers are revealing.

If you had the impression that Asian students tend to be serious and highly motivated, academic high achievers, especially in the sciences, well, this bright bunch will only reinforce that impression. But they have lively personalities and a sense of fun, and are not just fixated on study.

Lucy is staying with a family in Christchurch. Her father came here on a business trip a few years ago, and thought New Zealand would be a great place to learn English. (Lucy, her sister, cousin and mother lived here for a year, but her father had to return to Korea. Lucy and her sister stayed on to study.)

Lucy says she is enjoying other subjects as well as English. "Now I think it's really great to learn subjects that I want to focus on. I took three sciences: bio, physics and chemistry - and maths, and I'm taking classics."

Chemistry is her favourite. Lucy is doing fencing (that involves foils, not number eight wire.) Yun Liu, from Taiwan, is a permanent resident, having been in New Zealand for 10 years. She lives with her mother and sister. Her brother is studying at an American University, and her sister is going on a study exchange for a year in Japan. Her father still works in Taiwan. Grandparents live in the United States and Taiwan, so her family is truly international.

With some of the family living in America, with American citizenship, she nearly moved there, but it was easier to enrol to study English in New Zealand. But, like Lucy, she has thrived at other subjects as well.

Yun is also studying accounting, statistics, chemistry, physics, and Japanese. Last year, Yun achieved top marks in Japanese in the NZQA Scholarship examination.

For relaxation, she plays badminton and practices karate.

Miki came from Japan as a baby and lived here for eight years. She then went back to Japan for five years, and has returned to Christchurch as a boarder. As well as core subjects, she is studying physical science, economics and art. "Right now I'm liking art a lot, because it's a period where I can just do what I really want to do."

Miki plays social volleyball, indoor soccer and hiphop. "They're all fun.

Nothing too competitive, so you can just do it even if you know you're not that good at it."

Nathasha, from Singapore, is an international student and boarder. "I think the reason why I came to New Zealand was mainly for more options in studies, not just the core subjects which Rangi offers as well, like languages…

"I think New Zealand is very nice place to study because of the seasons, which we don't get in Singapore, and also nature.

"I think the reason my parents want me here also is because of the education system."

Classes are smaller. As well as core subjects, Natasha is studying economics, French, and physical sciences.

Natasha finds indoor soccer and hiphop appeal as leisure activities.

Students are not keen to stay in New Zealand; after secondary school, they want to "get out and see the world".

Lucy's ambition is to enroll at university and study biochemistry. It will probably be at an overseas university, though.

Yun may go to university in Melbourne and study commerce.

Miki says she has no idea what she will do eventually, but will probably return to Japan for university.

Nathasha is flexible. "In the future I'm planning to be a vet in France. Either that, or maybe I want to be a hair stylist in America." She laughs. Nathasha has plenty of time to make up her mind.

All four students have enjoyed New Zealand, and find the lifestyle more relaxing here.

Yun says Taiwan is pretty busy. "In primary school I got up at like six every day and caught a bus to school, which was nearly an hour because of traffic, and then school lasts till about four in the afternoon, but I have to wait for the school bus, so I stay at the school till five, and we do the cleaning ourselves, we clean the classroom, we sweep the floor."

After that, senior and junior high school students then go on to "cram school" to study some more until about nine, ten or eleven at night.

Here, you don't clean your classroom. It's much more fun.

Lucy says in Korea they can study up to 14 subjects. "My mother told me even pre-school students have to study hard to achieve good marks. It's much easier here."

Kiwis' energetic outdoors lifestyle seems to appeal, too.

"Really active," says Yun. "New Zealanders don't want to just sit around. They just go about and play or communicate with people.

New Zealand is safe. In Taiwan, at the start of last year, our house got burgled. Compared to Taiwan, you just get used to all the murder cases - it's like, oh, another one today, but in New Zealand it's big news."

Miki believes personal attention from teachers makes a difference: "One thing I really like about New Zealand education is they really support the students, and the system they have for supporting them is really developed…like, in Japan, it's not really normal to have, like, counsellors and stuff, at school, but right now, I think that's what Japanese education really needs.

"There's so much bullying. New Zealand has put the topic on bullying [on the agenda] from really early on; but only now really has Japan's started to focus on it."

Nathasha enjoys boarding school. In Singapore, you only board at university.

"People are friendly, smiling, easy-going," is her verdict.

As teenage girls, you would expect cell phones and the latest technological gadgets to appeal, but it seems these girls are not obsessed with them. Or, perhaps it's just that they accept them as an everyday part of their lives.

"I think they are pretty big in Asia, because Japan manufactures them, " says Miki. "But I think New Zealand gets them just a little bit later.

"No, I don't have the latest cell phone, but I still have a cell phone. I'm not, like, I need to have the latest iPod or something, it's not really necessary for me."

She ponders. "I must say, when I first came to New Zealand, I already had an iPod, and people were really surprised, but it was really normal in Japan.

"I just have a normal cell phone… and I barely use it."

Music is not the latest teen stuff either; in fact a lot of the girls' favourite music comes from their home countries. Yun likes Korean music.

Miki says she listens to Japanese and English songs "that are quite old. I listen to the ones my Mum listened to….I don't really like the latest English music, the lyrics kind of don't make sense to me." (Surely, she is not alone on that point.)

In the boarding house, says Nathasha, "We always have the radio on. I like the music on the radio; I kind of learn to like it."

Favourite movies? "The Pursuit of Happiness", says Yun. "The Butterfly Effect", "Lord of the Rings", says Miki.

Yun's favourite books are on Japanese culture, The Count of Montecristo and Three Musketeers. Nathasha is a fan of Wild Swans.

Boyfriends is a subject that draws an embarrassed pause. It's just that there is little to say. Sometime, yes, quite probably boyfriends and marriage will appear on the horizon. But not now. If parents living halfway around the world are anxious for their daughters' well being (and what parent wouldn't be?), they can breathe a sigh of relief.

One thing all the girls really miss at home is their Mum's cooking.

Lucy finds going out to a Korean restaurant is not the same here as in Korea. She would prefer to try broader cultural experiences. If she can't get her Mum's cooking, spaghetti is her favourite. During Cultural Week at school the girls have an international food day, to support a small school in Kenya.

Yun says: "My Mum cooks all the time, she makes Chinese food; I'm not really used to New Zealand food, this sausage, I'm not really used to it…I like potato and cheese and beef, that's OK, but vegetables I think Kiwis just boil them, not much flavouring. I prefer my Mum's cooking." Miki says: "I'm just now completely used to it. I just know now how much I appreciate the cooking that my Mum does for me."

Nathasha: "It did take me a while to adjust to food in New Zealand.. but yeah, just once in a while I do get homesick for food…there's no other person here that can cook like your Mum."

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