[chronic6l]

> To put it into perspective, consider a US college where there is only a few Chinese or Indian students, chances are they will naturally interact more with locals.

No, they aren't. Your original premise is incorrect. Those Chinese and Indian students are going back to their dorms/apartments and watching TV shows in their own languages and communicating with friends/families back home. The number has nothing to do with it. It's all about culture.

[thenewwazoo]

You seem awfully confident in your assertions about the behaviour patterns of a demographic to which you presumably do not belong. Can you provide any independent analysis of these behaviours, or systematic investigations of them?

[paradite]

Your observations may be true, but in this case there are more than one possible explanations apart from the numbers.

First, like you said, the cultural issue makes them more reserved and less open to others. But it can also be a pure personality issue, or a mixture of both.

Secondly, it could simply be a result of some prior events, like failed attempts to overcome language barrier, unwelcoming attitudes from local students, or even discrimination in some cases. All these could contribute to such things happening, and I think it is usually a mix of factors, not just culture.

[zhemao]

> First, like you said, the cultural issue makes them more reserved and less open to others.

Except Indian and Chinese culture are not reserved at all. As the guide mentions, it is very common in China for people to socialize outside of work with their classmates or colleagues and even with their professors or supervisors. This often involves going out to eat and drink together. And when I say drink, I mean drink. It's amazing how much alcohol gets consumed in a country where acetaldehyde dehydrogenase deficiency is common. I'm not as familiar with Indian culture, but from speaking with Indian friends, I gather it's quite similar.

The issue is that Chinese and Indian international students have left behind all their social connections back home. It's not easy for anyone to start their social life from scratch. Then you add on the language barrier, and it's no wonder that they may appear unsociable.

[chillacy]

> Then you add on the language barrier, and it's no wonder that they may appear unsociable

I went to poland for only a week for a foreign language meetup, and I'm very surprised at how much more introverted I became, with nobody to speak english to. It's definitely harder to socialize in a second language.

[zhemao]

Salvatore Sanfillipo. the author of Redis, has a very good post about how he is more reserved when speaking in English as opposed to his native Italian.

http://antirez.com/news/61

[usrusr]

Is that a pattern particular to Chinese and Indian or is that just generally an effect of trivially affordable global communications? It now takes decisive effort to have your mind in the pace of physical residence. Today I could move to the opposite end of the globe and still get hung up on the petty infighting in the city council of my hometown instead of opening my eyes to my new surrounding. I don't think that it is culturally determined at all, we just happen to see more or less of it depending on plain numbers (you see more Chinese than Swedes) and different "cultural distances" that influence the extra effort required to pull the mind out of medial diaspora. But the latter is perfectly symmetric for any two cultures.

[msie]

It's really hard to socialize no matter what culture you come from. It's just human nature to seek safe environments. Also one has their priorities. Party or do well in school? I question how you can be so sure of your assertion.