Academics examine integration issues of Chinese and Vietnamese students: Cultural differences create room for misinterpretation

It is understood that currently, there are approximately 100,000 foreign students enrolled in various Singapore schools and institutions.  The Singapore government awards about 1,000 scholarships to students from overseas to pursue their undergraduate studies here each year. Mr Xu Wei Fu, a Senior Researcher with the Institute of South-east Asian Studies, estimated that there are about 4,000 Vietnamese students in Singapore now. Among them are 1,400 students who are studying at NUS, NTU and SMU. Phan Anh Tuan, a 21 year-old Vietnamese student from the SMU Lee Kong Chian School of Business, said that when he came to Singapore from Ho Chi Minh city three years ago after receiving a Singapore government scholarship, he was only able to understand 50% of Singlish spoken by his Singaporean peers.  Today, he feels that he is able to grasp 90% of such conversations.  He also observed that most of his SMU schoolmates are extroverts, diligent in their studies and possess an entrepreneurial spirit.