When I first came to Singapore I was excited since that was
my first time abroad. Everything was new and wonderful, and I had fun exploring
around without feeling a bit tired. I enjoyed my life for the first couple
weeks with friends, but soon I felt confused and nostalgias and couldn’t fit
myself in.
The toughest barrier in front of me was the language. Unlike
in Singapore, English was a foreign language in china. I only learned
elementary level in my high school, with most materials in British or American
English. I could barely understand what a local Singaporean spoke. Most of the
time, they just gave up and communicated with me in Chinese instead. Soon
enough, I decided to use Chinese whenever possible.
However, I felt panic when I found myself having difficulty
following classes along. The good news was that, for computer science, there
were all sorts of open courses online and virtually every university conducted
pretty much the same syllabus. I skipped most lectures and instead, I watched
lecture recordings from top universities like Stanford and Berkeley. At first,
I tried my best to keep up with the pace of the videos. I started to ask
questions and read answers online in English. I tried to read programming books
in English. Thankfully I could get pretty good results for my exams.
A year ago, there was a group project for the database
course I was taking. I got assigned into a group of 3 Singaporeans. I felt a
bit worried at the beginning but surprisingly I actually could understand what
they talked and I was also able to express my basic ideas in simple English. We
got along quite easily and managed to finish the project with good quality.
From my experience I understand that, for overseas students
from non-English speaking countries, language barrier is always the toughest
cultural barrier that we have to overcome. There are no easy ways to get around
with it. You have to try your best and eventually you can feel yourself
improving.
Hey Lin Huan! I believe you took a lot of effort to master English language and you are doing really fine now. Keep up your good effort! I believe at the end of your university education in Singapore, you will be able to communicate in English effectively.
ReplyDeleteEven though English is the main language Singaporeans communicate in, most Chinese Singaporeans are able to communicate in Chinese as well. I wouldn't think that they have given up on speaking English with you instead. Probably they thought Chinese language was the language that they can communicate with you most effectively. What I think you could have done was to ask them in a polite manner the reason for not communicating with you in English after a short while. Singaporeans in general are fine with people being frank with them. Alternatively, if given a chance, you can work with non-Chinese Singaporeans so that they would not have a chance to speak to you in Chinese.
Yes Lin Huan - you seem to have coped quite well. Keep speaking English and imrpoving - you'll find yourself getting more confident in cosmopiltan situations.
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