Welcome. Before we start this course, let's take a little time to think about why you're here. What do you hope to learn from the course? What are your goals for your education and your life? Is there anything that concerns you about the thought of studying in a university in an English-speaking country? Along with many exciting academic and personal opportunities, going abroad to study might be a little scary. But you're not alone. Thousands of students from all over the world study abroad every year. There are many practical tips that can help you be more confident and successful in your future study. In these courses, we'll share some of those tips and give you some background knowledge that will help you be a successful student. What is it like to be an international student in an American university? Let's hear from two international students at the University of California Irvine. Kanna is from Japan and Rudra is from India. They'll tell you about themselves and share their experiences at UCI, and their suggestions for other international students. My name is Kanna Saito Luong and I was a previous student at UCI ESL. After that, I went to UCI master's program, and I studied Public Policy, and I graduated in 2020. I am working as a consultant in Japan right now. My name is Rudra, and I'm originally from India, and I'm third year at UCI, and studying Biological Sciences. This year is actually going to be my final year because I'm trying to graduate early. The next spring quarter is going to be my last quarter at UCI. When the program started, I was still worried about my language skill. I could understand classes, but for speaking-wise, I couldn't really express my opinion. It was difficult for me to communicate with other students, like join into discussion and whatever. That was the hardest thing. Also, I had to write a long essay in second language, so it's really difficult. What I did was using office hour a lot. I visit my professor all the time and discuss about my essay so that I know how to write, I know what to write, and that doesn't lead to wrong direction of my essay. What international students can do is always visiting office hour and ask questions as many as you want. Usually, all the professors are really nice. I always tell the professor that I am international student so I am still learning language, but I'll try my best so professor would understand my situation, and they were always helpful. I still remember my first day of visiting my office hour. I was really nervous but always didn't regret. Like, "Oh, I'm glad that I went," because I can get answers for my questions all the time. I'd say try to be more open to other people, and asking for help, and don't try to do it all by yourself because there's mostly language barrier, and I'd say international students myself I might feel shy to go and ask for help. It's important to push yourself even though you might feel you may not want to ask for help and try to work with others and not just by yourself. You have other people around you is willing to, so you can see that they're working hard, so I should probably keep working harder. I guess I'd say I was not always before it happened, but- Even while it was happening, but as you get closer to getting done with it you feel good about yourself that you did it. First, practice. A lot of practices will help, definitely. I always try to ask local student to help me to fix my pronunciation or fix my grammar so that I know what's right and I can be more confident. Almost impossible so I always ask for help. Usually, people are nice. I'd say that when you're starting on group project, try to be friendly with your group members and not stress about it, and just try to blend things out. Later on you can meet and see where is everyone and help each other out wherever they are stuck. Here, you can have a lot of different professors and all of them can have different ways of assigning you homework so I guess most important is to keep track of how different professors are going to give you homework, what they want you to most focus on, and what's the most important for a grade and also for learning. So just try to organize yourself first. What I did was I got the syllabus and there's plans on it. All the plans are on it; exam date, paper due date, and stuff. First when I get syllabus, I always put all the important dates on my schedule and then make plans. Oh, maybe this essay, I need to start in April because I need to submit in May and stuff, so that I don't have to do overnight studying, and I don't have to be in a rush at the last minute. I've never been up all night for any studying for two years. For example, if I had to write 10 pages paper, what I did was one page per day. I need 10 days to finish, but one page is not that hard, maybe like up to two hours or less. I think everyone can spare two hours in a day to write just one page. I highly recommend to do that. Driving was my first first challenge. I had a driver's license in Japan, but I lived in Tokyo so I didn't really need to drive. I had to learn how to drive in the States. Everything is different, right side and left side is the opposite side and driver's seats is opposite side, so first I needed to get used to driving in the States. When I went to Irvine for the first time, I was still worried about my language. I was really nervous to open my bank account. Going to bank is really hard. That was scary. I didn't have any friends at the time so I had to do it by myself. But you have to do it, so just do it. I learned a lot through that process. It's important try to keep an open mind. Even when you're trying to push yourself don't feel bad if you couldn't do something right at the first time. Just enjoy the experience and don't feel bad and keep trying hard. Just try to ask help. Don't try to be cold on yourself and have fun, I guess. Be strong, but don't be afraid to ask for help. Being an international student is a challenge, but you can do it.
