After I graduated from my undergraduate university, I made a hard decision to continue higher education in the United States. Since I have already been involved with sports for more than fifteen years, I chose sports management as my major. One of my friends recommended George Mason University to me. She told me that GMU would be suitable for me because of its special pathway program for international students, which helps international students adjust more quickly. According to de Araujo (2011), English fluency, social support, the length of stay in the US, perceived discrimination or prejudice, establishing relationships with Americans, and homesickness were the most significant variables related to the adjustment of international students. For most of international students, including me, the biggest problem we faced was learning to read, write, and argue in English. So the pathway program is a wise choice. On the one hand, we have English class with other international students. On the other, we can take one or two major classes to study with America students.
The pathway program in GMU is very helpful. All the professors that in my class are professional. I have learned many things such as pronunciation word correctly, understand the reading in a short time, or write a beautiful sentence. For example, in the past, I confused with the words “work” and “walk” because they are similar. If I speak the wrong one when communicate with others, people may not understand what I am talking. Thus, it is critically important to make correct pronunciation. After 6 months of learning, I improved my pronunciation a lot. I felt more confident to speak with people. In addition, my teacher told me that he really surprised with my progress. Those words inspire me and I have confident that I can do as great as I can in my graduate study. However, in my major class study, I found that I still feel struggled with my English. For example, sometimes, when all the America students in my class were laughing, I felt like a “dinosaur” that I am because I can’t understand the joke they made. I know this is America humorous culture, but it is too hard for me to understand. As a result, I realized that I had better try my best to involve in this new environment and culture, otherwise, I would be “dinosaur” during my whole graduate study. Fortunately, one of my America friends gave me a favor. He decided to set a group meeting for international students to better learn American culture. Many international students were interested in this event. Every Thursday night, we meet in different restaurants and had a different topic. Although I couldn’t speaking very well, and I didn’t know how to build good relationships with others, I frequently told myself that I should speak more and don’t worry about making mistakes in public. We shared our experience with each other, I made many new friends who come from other countries. With the time going, I feel more and more comfortable to stay in my formal class. I found that I can understand things that I never thought in the past. I had a great performance in my mid-term exam. I was so happy that I improved myself a lot.
Have a better understand America culture plays an important role in our abroad study. If you take the time to improve yourself step by step, you would be fine. It’s been almost 1 year since I came to the United States. It doesn’t mean that I don’t have language problems anymore, but, most important thing is I don’t feel afraid to show my opinions in public. I started to give my response to the professors when I was studying in class. After passing the pathway program this semester, I’m going to continue to study America culture in the meeting group, also, I want to make more friend who has same interest like I have.
In conclusion, I had a great experience in my abroad life last year. For an international student, It is important for us not just keep learning knowledge from books or classes, but get great opportunities to experience a different culture in other countries. We must have adjustment issues when we first came went to an unfamiliar environment, not matter what it is, we should try our best to overcome it.
Reference
de Araujo, A (2011). “ Adjustment Issue of International Students Enrolled in American College and Universities. ” Higher Education Studies.