Difficulties I Have Had As An International Student
Studying in UCSB is my first experience of studying aboard and living by myself without care of parents. As and international students, there are a lot of challenges I have faced that I believe most international students also experience when they first come to United States.
The first one I have to face is cultural differences. The ways that some things are done here in US are definitely be different from the ways I do in China. For example, I did not know the process of paying the bill and rule of giving tips at restaurant when I just came to America. It was always the super awkward moment for having no idea how to do things and asking waiters several times. Another big challenge is communication. Some times I have difficulty understanding an accent or catching up with a fast speaking rate. And I am always be shy to talk. I think the only way to overcome these problems is open to people and try to communicate. Home-sickness is also an unavoidable problem. Fortunately I already made some new friends and they really give me al lot of company.
Beside the above challenges, the foremost one for me is academic challenges. The biggest barrier is language. Though most professors I meet speak in a moderate speed and clearly, many times I still cannot understand all his word. Maybe because many ways of expression is so native that I have never learned about them in English classes when I was in China. This phenomenon is more severe in section. TA always talks very fast and use many informal ways of expression. The solution of I used to overcome it is talking to professors and TA. Take the advantage of office hour to ask about the content which I missed or do not understand. If I do not discuss with them, they will never know what I need. They are always very patient to answer me and explain the concepts even more in depth than in class. When I have other classes during their office hour, I usually send emails to them and it is also very helpful. Another thing in which language issue immediate apparent is reading. There are always reading assignments before or after lectures. Some times it is a thirty or forty pages reading which maybe only take 2 hours for native students, but the time may double even more for me as an international students. I used to fell overloaded by reading assignment. As I reading more and more, I find a way to improve the efficiency. Whenever I begin to read, I intentionally read in a very fast speed and do not stop until I finish the goal I set. I found that reading in this way I can have a better aggregate comprehension of the content than the way which check up dictionary whenever I meet unfamiliar words. Through employing these ways to study, I improve the efficiency a lot.
International students do have many challenges to face. What we can do is to try harder to learn more about native culture, to improve english, and to enjoy our lives.
