Inter group and Intra group barriers of Communication in VUM

Educational infrastructure everywhere throughout the world is diverse. Studying in an

international university might be not easy on the off chance that you are accustomed to
something different.
I study at Varna University of Management (VUM) a Bulgarian university with English taught
programs. The geography of students in our university is very diverse. In fact, there is a big
number of Russian speaking students and at my opinion many of them experience problems with
integration into English speaking society. Russian-speaking students are often quiet during the
classes, not very participative in group assignments or discussions, and aloof in instructional
exercises. One of the reasons to this might be different educational approaches to studying
English language in schools in different countries. In my opinion there is more emphasis to
English language studies in Bulgaria rather than in Russia, Ukraine, and Belarus. Also, it is fair
to mention that almost every English/American movie, TV programs are being translated into
Russian language in these countries, while in Bulgaria most of them are broadcasted in original
language, but have Bulgarian subtitles. Due to some reasons described above Russian speaking
students have less English communication and knowledge experience comparing to students
from other European countries. Such differences may create false impressions of Russian
students intelligence among teachers and other students at the educational society.

The most common issue for Russian speaking students is communication issues. Students face
learning challenges at university due to the cultural and communication barriers. At the point
when Russian students can't comprehend their teachers or class mates also influences others to
comprehend them, they, for the most part, ascribe the correspondence issue to their English
capability, for example, vocabularies and linguistic uses. Most of the problems occur because
students cant understand the context of communication. The absence of shared or common
interest is a general boundary to correspondence between Russian speaking and other students.
They have discussions with Bulgarian, Portuguese, French, UK etc. students on different events
and interactions throughout the classes.

Administrative staff and academics in the university are aware of these issues and do everything
possible to make the integration process smooth and easy. Major part of teachers and
administrative staff understands and speak Russian very well. Sometimes, Russian students feel
themselves too comfortable in such environment, which in some cases is, actually, slows down
their integration to English speaking environment.
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These are some recommendations, which in my opinion will help VUM to eliminate some
communication barriers:
Additional classes and workshops should be organized to help Russian speaking students
to catch up with their English language knowledge and provide opportunity to improve
their oral skills
More leisure events should be organized to encourage students communication with
each other, to be able to practice language skills, share different cultural experience, etc.
To organize some activities to make students be more interested in different exchange
programs provided by the University and to persuade them to take part in them
President of Students Council should be regularly meeting with representatives of each
students group (Russians, Spanish, Portuguese, etc.) to make sure that all issues are
solved and report directly to the university administrative authorities.

The fact, that over 80% of Russian speaking students become successfully integrated into
intercultural society within VUM, shows that now, university is well-prepared to break the
communication barriers and help foreign students, Russian speaking in our case, easily
communicate and integrate.

Part 2

In this part of my essay I would like to identify and discuss some other factors which can
influence the process of communication and integration of Russian speaking students into
international study society.

Our university holds one of the top places among universities in Bulgaria as one with the biggest
percentage of foreign students. Students from more than 40 countries receive their education at
VUM.

A group of students coming from Russian speaking countries, such as Russia, Ukraine, Belarus,
Kazakhstan, etc. is quite significant at our university. In my opinion size of a Russian speaking
community at VUM has positive as well as negative impact on different areas of their students
life.

Russian speaking students usually tend to form a tight group where they dont need to put effort
to communicate in any other language rather than in their own. From one side it the helps them
to adapt in difficult life situations, when parents are far away and they can only find help and
support from their classmates. However, from the other side the new-formed so called family
often doesnt like any interruption from outside the group. Usually, they are not very eager to
interact with other groups of students, when they have quite big community of friends speaking
same language.
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In this way Russian speaking students, who often have lower English language level comparing
to other European students are doing a process of English language learning and integration into
English speaking society even more slowly. It can have bad influence at their overall
performance and even create unlikely tension among all students.

Also, I would like to discuss the age difference between school graduates from Russian speaking
countries and other European countries. Students coming from Russian speaking countries
usually graduate from school at their age of 16-17, while in Europe it is 18-19. This two years
difference can significantly influence attitude of the younger students into different aspects of
students life. For example, the fresh comers, who just finished their schools and left their homes
coming to study at different country have no more parents control and can do whatever they
want. Usually, a young age and yet not fully formed personality of the students as well as lack of
family control allow them to spend a lot of time at night clubs or just with their friends and not to
pay needed attention into their studies, skip lectures, etc. This can lead to lower marks and even
to problems with passing exams and meeting deadlines, which again means lower performance.

In order to help Russian speaking students integration into society and keep them on the track,
I would suggest VUM to make emphasise on group assignments; moreover lecturer should create
international groups avoiding Russian Speaking groups.
Another important thing, which I would recommend is strict supervision over classwork and
homework as well as attendance.