This paper examines the learning needs and adaptation problems of foreign graduate students, and is based on the experiences of the five co-authors' graduate studies in Canada and the United States. It reviews the factors that contributed to their decision to study abroad, pre-sojourn expectations and arrival, their arrival in the host country, cross-cultural adaptation, language teaching and learning, and returning home. Issues such as culture shock, the difficulties of adapting to the host society, the acquisition of "social literacy" in the host culture, the contrast between professor-centered and student-centered learning, and the difficulties encountered when returning home are considered. Extensive quotations are used to illustrate individual perspectives. The paper also recommends that higher education institutions hosting foreign students provide comprehensive and up-to-date information about academic and nonacademic life, familiarize students with course outlines and reading lists before they arrive, provide socialization experiences to help integrate students into the institution and locale, provide academic assistance targeted at foreign students, internationalize the curriculum and learning methods, and provide pre-return assistance to students returning to their home country. (Contains 58 references.) (MDM)