GSQT – Time zone difference between learning online is very hard. Every deadline is 4-5 hours earlier than the foreign friends. This is the common situation of the majority of international students during Covid-19 pandemic.

Le Vu Anh Thu, who is studying the first year with a bachelor’s degree in hotel tourism management at La Trobe University in Melbourne, Australia, said that 2020 is quite difficult for international students for both students who have been and will be study abroad, because most international students have to stand between the difficult choice of whether to reserve Vietnam to avoid epidemics or in exchange for their health to stay abroad.

“When I returned to Vietnam, online learning was in the wrong time zone, so it was very hard. Every deadline is 4-5 hours earlier than the overseas ones”, Anh Thu herself also had to ask her friends in Australia to buy books for her to study.

Hoang Nguyen Khanh An, an international student who is currently a first-year student in international business at Eotvos Lorand University (ELTE) in Budapest, Hungary, said that 2020 is the year of international students during Covid-19 pandemic. Because of the pandemic, Khanh An made a reservation in the middle of the year and started to study abroad in Hungary. The second period was also when Covid broke out, so she had to adapt to studying online very quickly.

Khanh An shared, “when I first arrived, I almost had no time to get used to life but had to make papers to stabilize, learn more languages ​​and learn about culture, while studying at school, so it was quite stressful. Currently, I am gradually familiar with the way of studying in Hungary as well as the pace of life in Europe, so I am somewhat more stable.”

Nguyen Hoai An, who is currently a grade 12 student at a famous specialized school in Hanoi, said that she has completed the procedure to next year to study in Australia. Up to the present time, her family has had to spend more than a billion VND on the first year tuition, dormitory… Paying for a while with such a large amount but Hoai An worries if the pandemic continues, it may be pushed back to early 2022 or beyond.

Similarly, Nguyen Hoang My, a grade 12 French student, said that in 2019, her mother brought her to France to visit schools. Up to this point, all the procedures have been completed, however, “I do not know the time when the international students during Covid-19 pandemic like me can go to study this year or until early 2022.”