------写给即将来英国的中国留学生

当你终于等到了学校发来的offer，开心、激动兴奋之余，对未来的茫然和未知是否会让你觉得些许的紧张或不安呢？试想一下，你将一个人到一个人生地不熟的陌生的环境里生活、学习，远离最好的亲人朋友，一切问题都要自己面对和解决，那么你真的准备好了么？

不要小看留学，因为他绝对不是一件简单轻松的事情，当你踏出国门，你会发现世界很大，而你变得如此渺小。离开了熟悉的环境，家人的呵护，你要面对的不仅仅是考出好成绩，更重要的是学会坚强，学会独立生活。留学不同于出国旅行，因为旅行是度假休闲，是满满的快乐，但它只是暂时；而留学则不同，它是一种生活，而生活总是饱含酸甜苦辣。

所以，现在的准备工作就变得非常重要。正如孙子兵法中所说：“知己知彼，百战不殆。”下面我就来具体说说该如何从细节事务到心理上做好全方面的准备。让你预先知道留学生活中可能遇到的困难和挑战，这样我们就没什么可怕的啦。

for students in the UK

Ageing society and increasing life expectancy. Two phrases commonly used to describe the apparently inexorable demographic changes currently taking place in the UK and many other countries around the world. I’ve used them myself and they form a policy “given”, from which likely issues such as loneliness, likely prevalence of ill health, and costs of care for older people are subsequently discussed and estimated.

So it was of real interest to hear that for the first time since 2003 life expectancy has fallen over the last two years. Perhaps it’s just a blip but it’s certainly worth considering Oxford University Professor,Danny Dorling’s comments linking this fall with the impact of austerity and cuts in public services.
Also recently reported was  The Guardian’s article Loneliness twice as unhealthy as obesity for older people in The Guardian. In a study of 2,000 people over the age of 50, those who reported being lonely were 14% more likely to have an early death. Yet, surprisingly for The Guardian, they only mentioned in passing that poverty increased the likelihood of an early death by 19%.

In other words, poverty is almost three times as unhealthy as obesity for older people. The article goes on to quote John Cacioppo, a psychologist at the University of Chicago, who has researched and written about loneliness. He has used the term “silver tsunami” to describe the demographic changes around the world as the baby boomers grow old. He goes on to talk about the need for people “to think about how to protect themselves from depression, low subjective well-being and early mortality” as they grow old.

Two observations from this. Firstly, should it all be down to the individual to protect themselves from loneliness and poverty? Or do communities and societies have a role to play as well? Both loneliness and poverty are surely things that are often beyond an individual’s control. Secondly, “tsunami” suggests something unpredictable and devastating. But as already indicated increasing life expectancy has been known about for many years and in many respects is a cause for celebration. Silver myopia more like, on the part of policy makers. And we will be even more short-sighted if we don’t at least consider that they may be associations between the age of austerity, loneliness, poverty and falling life expectancy.