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 to 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 USA and 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 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 think I was still worried about my language skill. I could understand classes but for speaking wise, I couldn't really express my feeling, express my opinion. It was difficult for me to communicate with other students, like join into our 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. I think 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 that kind of stuff. 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, Oh, I'm glad that I went because I can get good answers for my questions all the time so yeah. 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 people all around you so you can see that they're working hard so I should probably keep working hard as well. I guess I would say I was nervous before it happened. Even while it was happening, but as it get closer to getting down with it you feel, go either by yourself there. 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. Nothing is impossible, so always ask for help, and usually people are nice. I'd say that when you're starting a group project, try to be friendly with your group members and not stress about it, and just try to plan things out, there on you can meet and see where is everyone and help each other out there where they are stuck, that's all. Here, you can have a lot of different professors and all of them can have different ways of assigning you homework, so I gaze most important is to keep track of how different professors are going to give you homework, and what they want you to most focus on and what's most important for a grade and also for learning. So just try do organize yourself first. What I did was, I got the syllabus and all the plans are on it, like 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 or 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. So I need 10 days to finish, but one page is not that hard, maybe up to two hours or less. I think everyone can spare two hours in a day to write just one page, so I highly recommend to do that. Driving was my 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 drivers seat 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, so 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 that time, so I had to do it by myself. But you have to do it, so just do it and then your language skill will. I learned a lot through that process. Very important try to keep an open mind. Even when you're trying to push yourself don't feel bad that if you couldn't do something right at the first time, descends your either experience and don't feel bad and keep trying hard. Just try to ask help and don't try to hold on yourself and have fun, I gaze. Be strong, but don't be afraid to ask for help. Being an international student is a challenge, but you can do it.
