First Person: Feeling overwhelmed as an international student is common

After a 30-hour flight from Beijing to Winnipeg, I arrived at my new study place, a high school beside the Red River. After my parents and auntie talked it over, although I was just15 years old, I would spend time with my cousin studying abroad in Canada.

I was looking forward to meeting my new classmates and began to envision my future life as a high school student in Canada. But things didn’t start out as I thought.

I’m sure every international student goes through the same tough times. While today, I know that there are many people out there who can help you, teenage-me struggled in those early days.

First off, the school wasn’t what I thought it would be. Compared to my school in China, the building of this high school looked short. Also, the hallway was furnished with lockers for students to use, but we don’t have them in China. Students are asked to keep their things neatly in the classroom.

Upon entering the classroom I saw students sitting casually in their chairs and some were eating nachos in their hands. This was another shock to me because it’s not allowed at all in China, well at least in my city. Eating and drinking in class is seen as a sign of not respecting the teacher enough.

I asked the teacher politely for my seat, but he said to sit wherever I wanted. I could feel the teacher’s kindness, but he spoke too quickly for me to fully understand with my sparse English vocabulary and basic grammar.

This day was torturous for me, this was completely different from the first day of school which I was looking forward to. I couldn’t understand what the teachers were saying in class, I didn’t understand the jokes the teachers were telling when they were interacting with the students. I was the only one sitting in silence while everyone was laughing. I felt like I didn’t belong there.

Seeing everyone sitting with their friends at lunch, I had to run to the library and pretend to be busy to ease the embarrassment. When I got home I couldn’t take the overwhelming emotions any longer and broke down crying in my room.

In the evening I got a video call from my mum and I finally got a chance to speak Chinese. I cried to my mum and told her I didn’t like it here and I wanted to go home. While don’t really remember what she said, she just kept comforting me.

Later, I realised how upset she felt when she heard me break down. “I felt so sorry for you,” my mum said. “I made a big decision to let you go to a strange country by yourself at such a young age. I thought you would adapt well to life there but I didn’t realize it would make you so sad.”

Things took a good turn in the next day. When I entered the ESL class I felt a different atmosphere. I saw that there were international students like me in the class, and even though we came from various countries, we seemed to share a common feeling.

I quickly became friends with them, and we expressed our feelings and comforted each other in our poor English. I didn’t worry about saying anything wrong when talking with them because they always understood.

With the help of my ESL teacher, I began to adapt to school life. I started to communicate with other teachers and students, and I completed my first quiz on my own. Although the results were poor, I did it. What went up on the test paper was not only the score but also my confidence in life and learning.

The new term at Algonquin College has started and if you’re a new international student, I know you are probably going through a tough time right now. But the school will offer you a lot of help.

Philip Olayori, an international student in the business management and entrepreneurship program, is now a mentor for the International Peer Mentors program offered by the International Education Centre. He says he understands the stress of this culture shock. The IEC organises a number of activities to help new students settle in more quickly.

“We welcome all international students to join us and take part in our activities such as coffee breaks to enable international students to get to know each other and help each other,” Olayori said.

Please remember: if you’re feeling the pressure of adapting to life here in Ottawa, it’s not your fault. You’ve been brilliant and brave. You’re going through the tough times that all international students are dealing with.

Xinyan Chen, a level-1 student in interactive media design, said she had a similar experience to me when she first came abroad.

“Local students speak very quickly and it can be difficult to fully understand full English lectures at first,” she said. “But this aspect will improve over time as well.”

This is my seventh year studying in Canada, and every time I think of this experience, I always marvel at my own experience and growth. I am now fully settled into life in Canada and have made a lot of friends. Things are already starting to move on in the direction I’m looking forward to, and if I can do it, then you will definitely do fine too.