Disclaimer: This blog post is written based on my personal experience and should not be considered as a generalization of any national cultures.
You don’t understand what the locals are saying (at first) - even if they’re speaking English. True story!
Being mistaken for coming from China / Japan. That’s alright. These things just happen.
Cultural shocks. And then reverse cultural shocks. They never disappear.
Living out of my suitcase. Being constantly on the go does not give me too many options. 3 months here, 3 months there.
Having weird fantasy about your favorite Vietnamese dishes: Pho, Com Tam, Ca Phe Sua Da. The pain is real, folks.
- What does being international mean?
‘International’ or global mindset is such a buzzword nowadays. It sounds cool and it actually is cool. The travelling, the mix with many cultures and languages are very tempting to those thinking of studying abroad. But there’s more to being an international student than you might think.
I remembered being 18 years old and carrying my suitcase boarding the air plane to my first foreign destination: Finland. It’s my first time being abroad, away from home. At that time I was not thinking about how I was gonna cope with the homesickness, the freaking cold weather (it can go to - 30 degrees and it did) and the foreign language (put your hand up if you’re still struggling with Finnish like me). There was one thing I knew: I am gonna make the most of this opportunity to explore the world even though I don’t know how. That’s the one thing you should definitely bear in mind as well. Only that you'll know how.
1. Research, research, research
Try to get close to the reality as much as possible. And I don’t mean just using the university websites or the international handbook.
Go onto Facebook and search a Facebook group of students from the university, of students from your home country. Read through the pinned posts and the recent posts, they tend to be very informative on the day-to-day matters: shopping, travelling etc.
Then try to connect and talk with the students in the group on issues that you’re not sure of or don’t know where to find the information. People have the expectation that you can independently navigate your way anywhere now that you are an international student (or about to).
Try to find any bloggers who share the experience you’re going to go through, you’ll learn more than just relying on the university portals. Youtube is great for this, or blogs like mine (hopefully). I still remembered watching tons of videos on Youtube where people told stories about the introverted nature of Finns, the sauna tradition and the personal space. It really helped to reduce the gaps between my expectations and the reality of life in Finland and eased my way into the Finnish life.
2. Get your mindset right.
As an international student, in a foreign country where people speak foreign language and probably have different ways of life, there are tons of things you will have to handle besides studying at school so just come to terms with it. I just talked to my friend about how much we have learnt since studying abroad: cooking, budgeting, finding accommodation, time management and handling paperwork with the immigration centre, etc. If you are already used to managing life on your own, that’s great. If not, you can start now.
First thing first, have an open mind and willingness to learn. I know it may sound obvious but in the midst of thousands of new things, it’s easy to feel overwhelmed and think about how comfortable, easy it was for you at home. I did the same thing. It was the second year of my study and I was having some problems with visa application for an exchange study in England and my shared apartment, I was very frustrated. I had expected that all of this would end by my second year, but I still had to cope with paperwork, moving in - moving out, then I thought how life would be for me back in Vietnam, where I wouldn’t have to worry about being kicked out of the country or having no place to go. It’s easy to lose perspective and forget the reason why you are here: to learn something new. So everytime it gets too much, try to take a deep breath and step back, think of why you want to travel 8000 km to study here. Look at your old diaries or pictures before or just when you arrived in the new country, recall your excitement, your curiosity and openness. Once you have set your mind right, everything will fall into place.
3. Culture and traditions
I remembered when my teacher told me the point is to understand why people are the way they are rather than differentiate between us and them. That’s the most useful advice I have heard and applied. As you travel across countries, people may have different ways of doing things. It will be beneficial for you to go out of your comfort zone and experience new things. I’m not saying that you should always say yes to whatever people urge you to do, but stay open-minded and give it a try. Shout out to my Finnish / international friends who encouraged me to try and find out my favorite types of alcohol *wink emoji*. The idea is to explore the country, the culture you’re living in, to explore yourself without stretching yourself too hard. I would never have had discover that I actually enjoyed Finnish sauna so much if I did not give it a try first. That’s a funny journey of a Vietnamese girl going to the Finnish sauna where people striped down with strangers. Yeah as you could possibly tell, it’s not the heat that was scary for me at first :). Anyway, the main thing is, make use of this opportunity to expand your horizon.
If you find yourself uncomfortable, remember this: you can always go back to your comfort zone.
4. How does it work
If this is your first time abroad, it’s probably the first time you handle paperwork and arrangements such as visa application, flight booking, accommodation finding. It might be different for different people, but for me I find it quite useful to have a rough idea of how things work in ABC country. For example, as I studied a bit about Finland before going there, I knew that people respect the laws and the systems. So my approach to this would be to do my homework on their requirements, double-check any submissions and ask where I don’t know. This is different than in Vietnam where I would turn to the officers, representatives with mutual acquaintances first as we tend to rely more on relationships. However, some might prefer asking their friends, using agency to manage these things. I would definitely recommend being independent because that’s how you can learn a lot.
5. How do I take care of myself
This is so crucial when you’re studying abroad. If this is your first time away from home, you might probably have been used to the privilege of self-cleaning bedroom, ready home-made meals, fresh and dry laundry everyday. Yep, it all ends now. You’re going to have to drag yourself into the kitchen and cook dinner after a long day at school. You’re going to have to put on layers of clothes and get your butt out of the house to do grocery shopping in the Finnish winter of -27 degrees or you’ll starve. So it’s wise to find a way to enjoy it. Think of what brings you joy and incorporate them into your daily life. Put on an upbeat song for household chores, try cooking your favourite dish, buy yourself tons of Fazer dark chocolate (my favorite one xD) as a treat for being so adult about this. Keeping in touch with family, spending time making friends and doing things you like. I can go on forever about this, but the key thing is it’s time to be mindful of what makes you feel happy, what self-care means to you and do it.
6. It’s a learning experience.
Just a warning in case you are a perfectionist and always too hard on yourself, you’ll end up doing couple of stupid things. This is not only applicable to international students, but I found this recognition tremendously helpful when things seemed to fall apart. You might book the flight for the wrong day, oversleep an important interview to significant occurrences like failing to meet requirements for a visa renewal, loss of personal documents / money. These things just happen to everyone at one point or another, probably differing in frequency. This is where you can practice your solution-oriented mindset and problem-solving skills that the employers are talking about. Give yourself time to process your emotions about whatever sh!t had happened, then think of your available options and solve it. Then learn something from it. It’s only considered stupidity if you make the same mistake thrice (yeah, some are slow, some are fast in learning, but as long as you’re trying to learn something, that’s fine).
There are thousands of other things that I cannot cover in this post but these would be good ideas for you to start your own journey of being international. Good luck!
Stay strong and be kind,
Vy.
