The purpose of this paper is to discuss the contributions that a psychoanalytic perspective might bring to understand the condition of foreignness. To achieve this we interviewed a group of students linked to the higher education programs from countries whose official language is Portuguese. The analysis revealed that foreignness can be experienced by the subject as a conflict inherent to its nature: the helplessness facing everything that is unfamiliar may be reinforced in case of the contradiction of the "same" language spoken. The subjects referred to certain conditions and experiences of foreignness that may hinder the acceptance and identification with the new culture: the reasons for the choice of Brazil, the arrival, integration, school partnership, affective and sexual relationships, the perception of Brazilians and the difficulties encountered. From this emerges a vulnerability of the psychic sphere that reveals the deconstructive potential realized only when it occurs.
foreignness; language; exchange programs; psychoanalysis