Have you ever studied abroad? How different is it from studying in your home country?Would you choose to live with a host family or your fellow students in a dormitory if you studied overseas? Why?
Some people may experience culture shock when they first study or live in a foreign country. Are there any ways to overcome or cope with these negative feelings?
A fellow student from Hong Kong tells us her experience studying in the UK.
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I wanna talk about my life in UK. I went to study in the UK a few years ago. The most exciting experience is that I went to a host family for my Christmas holiday in December. I went there alone…on a train, it took me one or two hours to get there, to York and then I stayed there for one week. This was the first time that I spent time with a UK family which I learnt a lot from them. They treat me like a family member, they took me out to eat, to play and to see all the different interesting culture of their region. On Christmas Day, they even bought me some presents to celebrate the Christmas.
When I went back to Oxford, which was the place that I stayed for that year, I had a chance to teach in a Chinese school every Sunday. The kids are about 14 years old and I taught them Chinese. They were all very cute but they all speak (spoke) in English. I spent lots of time to encourage them to speak in Cantonese.
During my study (studies) in the UK, I lived with few other students from different countries. They are very nice and we use to cook on our own just like a big family. Every day we will go to…every day we went to supermarkets to buy food and drinks and desserts. We cooked every day…I was not a good cook, normally I just put everything into oven. And I’ve tried to bake a cake before but failed and they all laughed at me. And every time when I bake a cake, they never taste it. We share a flat together - we share kitchen, bathrooms but we do have our own sink and bedroom. The life in the UK is quite relaxing besides study because you can explore more and do different activities at school or even some other extracurricular activities.
After I come back (to) Hong Kong, I still keep in touch with all my friends in the UK, from different countries like Italy, Malaysia, Japan, UK and other countries. Sometimes we even send email(s) to each other, sometimes they may come to Hong Kong to visit and we will meet each other again.
I really enjoy the time in the UK, I hope you will also have the chance to explore more in other different countries in the future.
