LookAtVietnam – For many rural students heading to big city universities isn’t as perfect as they imagined it to be.

“People here don’t understand me. They always ask me to repeat myself. I find it hard to communicate so now I only talk with friends from the same province,” said Nguyen Thi Hoai, a new student of the HCM City University of Culture.

Many other students from the central provinces like Quang Nam, Quang Ngai, Binh Dinh and Phu Yen, also say they find communication difficult as a result of their accent. Many admit to becoming quiet in the class and feeling lonely.

Le Thi Bich Huong described herself as a dynamic person who always previously joined in class’ activities. However, she has become quite different since she became a university student. “The saleswomen at the market could not understand what I wanted to purchase. My friends in the same room always joke about my accent,” she said.

‘One time, I came to the market to ask for a bottle of soya sauce. However, the saleswoman asked me to repeat the word so many times that I felt ashamed and I left,” Huong said.

She said friends just point to the things they want to buy, while they dare not speak. Sometimes they have to purchase products at high prices because they dare not bargain.

Meanwhile, other students are also facing problems in daily life.

“Everything is expensive here in HCM City. A bunch of rau muong is priced at 5000 dong, while it was just 1000 dong in my home village,” Thu, a new student of the HCM City Transport University, said.

That explains why many students, who had two million dong in their pocket when they arrived in HCM City and hoped make the money last a month, have run out after just two weeks.

The life style in also unfamiliar with students from the provinces. “Elder students automatically think that I am a house maid. They ask me to do everything. One of them has even borrowed my new shirt to go out,” Dao Minh Tam, a student, said.

Nam, a student of the HCM City University of Culture, complained that he was asked to organise a party in order to be recognised as the new member of the room in the dormitory.

“I wasted 200,000 dong and I got drunk,” he said.

VietNamNet/VnMedia