For the senior year of my school life in France, I desired to go to a university outside of my country. I choose to go Cal State San Marcos in California. Being an international student is a bit difficult and one has to be ready to learn new things. One is subjected to a transition period where I face a lot of challenges and problems before fully adapting to the new environment. Despite the difficulties, I had to be strong enough. You discover a new culture and you have to deal with the changes positively. Personally, I’m from France and in my native country, we don’t speak English. Also, the working methods are completely different from the ones in California. Furthermore, making friends is more difficult when you are not in your country. The biggest challenges for me was on language issues, working programs, and socialization.
Speaking, writing and internalizing English was one of the biggest challenges for me. It led to language barriers since I was poor in English opposed to my colleagues who had excellent abilities. Improving my English seemed to be impossible having in mind I had less time to learn. At times to purchase a product and ends up getting a totally different good from the desired one due to miscommunication. It is really complicated for you to buy the real thing that you want. At school, the situation is similar in that if you don’t understand what the teacher said, completing any given assignment is close to impossible. To overcome this problem, I have changed all my habits. Tim Ferris thinks “Focus on being productive instead of busy.” My phone and MacBook Pro are in English now. I also have an English class that is really helpful to understand the basics of the Shakespeare language. In addition, I have my others class in English that help me to improve profondly my English. Face these challenges take some patience and energy and the working program has also been an obstacle to achieving good grades.
Working methods are different in each school and country at large. Between Epitech and Cal State San Marcos in California there is a huge difference between the working methods and program. The biggest difference is that in the current school we have teachers while Epitech School doesn’t have teachers and we worked as if we were in a company. In Cal State San Marcos we have teachers and it is really good, especially for English because to learn a new language you need to interact and speak with real people. Also, the ways to evaluate and grade students are different in the United States. In my former school, mentors used to evaluate our project. This is a completely different in my current school where teachers evaluate often all types of work completed. If you want to succeed and have good grades you need to feel comfortable with working methods. I was very attentive to every teacher’s council, so as to adapt to these different working methods. I was also attentive to course syllabus and teacher’s assignment to overcome this challenge. Adapting to different working methods was a challenge but make friends in another country was another challenge to get over.
Making friends in another country is not as simple as you may think especially a situation where there are language and cultural barrier. In my native country I have old friends. Here, I need to build a new friendship. Here people have different beliefs, habits, and the entire life has distinct characteristics. Also, my age mates in the different countries lack similarities of hobbies due to the diverse interests in the countries. For example, in the United States, most popular sports are Baseball and American football, while in France soccer is the most popular sport. Having the differences, it has been so hard for me to make new friends and build strong relationships. What action have I made to overcome the challenge ? Tim Ferris has traveled all over the world and make friends everywhere, in his book The four hours work week he says, “Sports just happen to be excellent ground for learning foreign-language, avoiding stage fright and developing lasting friendships while still sounding like Tarzan”. I go to the gym and have been able to make a significant number of friends from here. I have also tried to speak to other people in the English language as much as possible. In addition, my English has been improving and communication has been simplified. Making friends in another country was an outstanding experience and challenge too.
Going to the United States from France is accompanied by sudden cultural changes. The biggest challenges, for me as an international student in the United States of America, were the language barrier, the different working methods and making friends in another country. Despite all this, it has been an amazing experience to face these challenges and be able to overcome them. Charles Lipson is an American professor who helped a lot of international students think: “The experience is as challenging as it is exciting”. In fact, in 3 months I learned more in English than in 9 years. It is a really good experience. The good thing is that I was able to overcome them. Being on another lever where I can communicate in English is really exciting and is advantageous in my learning career. It has made me be able to rebuild my social life and make a new friend. Indeed have learnt a lot in the United States. Something’s I would have never gotten a chance to learn.
Working methods are different in each school and country at large. Between Epitech and Cal State San Marcos in California there is a huge difference between the working methods and program. The biggest difference is that in the current school we have teachers while Epitech School doesn’t have teachers and we worked as if we were in a company. In Cal State San Marcos we have teachers and it is really good, especially for English because to learn a new language you need to interact and speak with real people. Also, the ways to evaluate and grade students are different in the United States. In my former school, mentors used to evaluate our project. This is a completely different in my current school where teachers evaluate often all types of work completed. If you want to succeed and have good grades you need to feel comfortable with working methods. I was very attentive to every teacher’s council, so as to adapt to these different working methods. I was also attentive to course syllabus and teacher’s assignment to overcome this challenge. Adapting to different working methods was a challenge but make friends in another country was another challenge to get over.
Making friends in another country is not as simple as you may think especially a situation where there are language and cultural barrier. In my native country I have old friends. Here, I need to build a new friendship. Here people have different beliefs, habits, and the entire life has distinct characteristics. Also, my age mates in the different countries lack similarities of hobbies due to the diverse interests in the countries. For example, in the United States, most popular sports are Baseball and American football, while in France soccer is the most popular sport. Having the differences, it has been so hard for me to make new friends and build strong relationships. What action have I made to overcome the challenge ? Tim Ferris has traveled all over the world and make friends everywhere, in his book The four hours work week he says, “Sports just happen to be excellent ground for learning foreign-language, avoiding stage fright and developing lasting friendships while still sounding like Tarzan”. I go to the gym and have been able to make a significant number of friends from here. I have also tried to speak to other people in the English language as much as possible. In addition, my English has been improving and communication has been simplified. Making friends in another country was an outstanding experience and challenge too.
Going to the United States from France is accompanied by sudden cultural changes. The biggest challenges, for me as an international student in the United States of America, were the language barrier, the different working methods and making friends in another country. Despite all this, it has been an amazing experience to face these challenges and be able to overcome them. Charles Lipson is an American professor who helped a lot of international students think: “The experience is as challenging as it is exciting”. In fact, in 3 months I learned more in English than in 9 years. It is a really good experience. The good thing is that I was able to overcome them. Being on another lever where I can communicate in English is really exciting and is advantageous in my learning career. It has made me be able to rebuild my social life and make a new friend. Indeed have learnt a lot in the United States. Something’s I would have never gotten a chance to learn.