Is the ability to endure hardship really that important?
today shares with you some of the hardships on the way to study abroad. Friends who are on the way to study abroad may resonate with it, and friends who are moving forward to study abroad can also be mentally prepared. Originally, Yi Xin had no intention of sharing her following study abroad experience with her friends because she was suspected of being a peddler. But in the process of chatting with a beautiful best friend, Yi Xin discovered that maybe the difficult years she spent studying could inspire and encourage friends who were going through hard studies, and also provide encouragement to friends who wanted to study abroad. Provide some mental preparation. Please don’t think I’m too immodest.
If you go to a school where almost all the classes are not Chinese students, I think language will be the first problem that everyone faces . Even if most outstanding Chinese students get perfect scores on TOEFL and IELTS, they will feel inferior to some extent in classes in English-speaking countries. Compared with local students and native speakers, our English is still far behind. Germans speak English as fast as German and their English is very good. Although French people may not be very good at speaking, they have no problem with reading and listening. Not to mention the Indian students, they are the ones who like to speak Indian English and actively answer questions in class, but apart from speaking, they are good at everything else. Perhaps only Russian international students can be compared with us. Especially under the premise that listening to lectures and classroom discussions are affected, being inferior to others in English will cause a huge blow to your self-confidence.
is not just a classroom discussion. In British education, everyone reads a certain number of books and papers every week before listening to lectures and classroom discussions. Therefore, the amount of reading and understanding each week directly determines the efficiency of each class. Unfortunately, there are a lot of reading materials on the reading list every week. . . (A hundred words are omitted here)… Frankly speaking, the amount of reading I did in that half year was several times more than the amount of reading I studied in my four years of undergraduate study. Even though I got perfect scores in the reading part of IELTS several times, when faced with the weekly reading list, due to the limitation of reading speed, I could only read 30%-50% of the reading material. This is in addition to sleeping and eating every day. The result of non-stop reading. Compared with me, those native speakers and German students can read more than 70%.
Before I went abroad, I saw pictures of the Harvard library being full at 12 o'clock. When I actually went abroad, I realized that staying up until early in the morning was nothing new. There was a time when I studied in the library of my St. Peter's College until I went home at 12 o'clock, because I could only hold on until that time and was too sleepy. When I left in the early morning, the library was still full of students!
In fact, the most terrifying thing is not the English proficiency and learning ability of local students, but that despite their powerful abilities, they still study at the same level as you. Even because of their good physical strength, they may even exceed the time you spend studying! Later, I even felt that the time on the way to the library and the time spent cooking were wasted. I read non-stop from the moment I got up. I sat in the room with some vegetables, meatballs, and eggs simmering in the rice cooker. I ate when I was hungry. Continue reading until you go to bed, and continue this cycle after you get up.
In addition to directly affecting my weight, a life like this is more important. Even so, I can only read 50%. This has caused a blow to my self-confidence, because I have tried my best and still cannot meet expectations. Having always been an excellent student, I suddenly understood those students with poor academic performance who were always criticized by teachers in elementary school - I had put in all my efforts but could only read half of what others read due to limited ability. The feeling of having exhausted all my energy but still being powerless was like a nightmare that completely destroyed my self-confidence. This nightmare has been hanging over my life of studying abroad until I finished the last exam and confirmed that my handwriting could be read clearly and did not need to be retyped to the college. I immediately bought a plane ticket and flew back to my motherland without waiting for the results to come out. At that time, I no longer cared about whether I could graduate or what my grades were. I just wanted to go back to my country. Even if I didn't pass the exam and studied for nothing this year, I still wanted to go home immediately.
After returning home, I had no confidence that I would pass the exam, because judging from my class performance, I always thought that I was the worst student in the entire Oxford Masters bcl/mjur program. I was not as able to read most reading materials as foreign students. , and cannot actively answer and discuss questions like them. Even if I don’t compare with foreign students, compared with Chinese students, I still think that I am the worst. We only had three students there back then. One of the other two was a handsome guy from Peking University. He was a great talent who gave a graduation speech on behalf of the students of Peking University Law School. It is said that he had won all the scholarships for law in Beijing. The other one was a master's degree in Chinese politics and law. He was better than us. She is older and has been studying for a master's degree for a year. She is also a very outstanding girl. When we met for the first time in the class of a course we chose together, I was directly asked which school I was from, and then directly in front of all my classmates, the Chinese students told me that they had never heard of my undergraduate school. . . At that time, I wanted to dig a hole in the ground and crawl into it. Chinese people have never heard of my school. Foreigners must think how bad my school is! Fortunately, one of my Australian best friends told me later that actually they didn’t feel that way after hearing this. Instead, she thought that if my undergraduate school was far inferior to theirs, it meant that my personal conditions were far better than theirs. Studying for the same degree. Her words gave me endless comfort, and my final results proved that I was indeed too inferior at that time.
Unexpectedly, before the official results came out, my collegetutor sent me an email to express her surprise at my excellent results and her congratulations. Everyone knows that Oxford has a college system. In addition to its own professional college, each student also has a life college. In that college, there will be a tutor to take care of your academics and life. my college tutor She is a beautiful woman, Jewish, who also graduated from the same master's program. She stayed in school to work as a teacher. She is very smart. However, when I arrived at school and felt that the language was a bit difficult, I asked her for advice on how to improve my English. She said, "If you If you feel that your language skills are not good enough, then don’t study. The pass rate of our program is very low, and even students whose native language is English may not be able to complete it. It's better for you to give up now than to fail the exam. If you give up now, I can tell the college to refund your tuition fees, but you can't refund them in the future. "I was naive at the time. I thought that the tutor should encourage and help me overcome difficulties, but I never expected her to have such a reaction, and her answer also caused a shadow on me. During her time at Oxford, she also had a particular preference for two other students. We were in the same program, and the other two were handsome guys who graduated from Harvard Law School. Even when I applied for a PhD at Oxford, my tutor refused to write me a letter of recommendation, but he actively recommended two other students. Looking back now, I don't remember how I got through it at that time. I just held my breath and wanted to show this tutor who was biased against me with my study and performance, but I kept being criticized for my weak performance in class. One blow at a time.
It wasn’t until I received her email at home reporting my results that I couldn’t help but burst into tears. Her email said this: Your grades surprised me. They are a grade higher than the other two students (that is, the handsome guys from Harvard). I apologize for what I said to you before, I'm sorry. You made the right choice. This incident made me realize, Chinese student is Chinese student!/Chinese students are Chinese students!
I don’t remember the grievance and dignity contained in the tears at that time, but I only know that they must contain a kind of pride as a Chinese. Children who have been abroad may feel the same way. Your patriotism will burst out for a while. Even you yourself don’t know that you love your motherland so deeply! When someone around you talks about China, you will listen with unusual sensitivity.
You will stare at the Spring Festival Gala, even watching it several times. When the rocket launches and the spaceship takes off, you will watch it over and over again, crying every time you watch it! I still remember that during the exam, the foreigner next to me wrote so fast that we Chinese had to speed up because we couldn’t let others think that the Chinese were inferior to them! Many people cannot understand why overseas Chinese love their motherland more, and why foreign students are so excited when the Olympic torch is passed abroad, and even regard it as more important than their own lives. If you live abroad for a period of time, not as a tourist, but actually live for a few months, you will naturally understand. Deep down, we all deeply love our motherland.
is a bit far-fetched. Continue to talk about my experience shamelessly.
Actually, my results surprised me. Although I am not as good as those very powerful European classmates (a German friend scored 77 points and received the exam award that year), my results are much higher than many local British classmates, who are all talented students who graduated from Oxford LLB. , also including some classmates from Harvard’s small group. Before the results came out, I had always been very unconfident and almost didn't dare to go into the examination room - but in the end I mustered up the courage to take the exam, just like when I applied to Oxford shamelessly. On the contrary, many of my foreign classmates ended up not taking the exam. It's funny. It is those native speakers who usually perform very well, but do not have the courage to step into the examination room. Maybe the low pass rate of Oxford's program is a bit exaggerated. Not all overseas study programs have such a strict pass rate. Let's just think that my case is an extreme one. But what I want to say is that if I don’t have the courage to enter the examination room in the end, I won’t get my degree, and this year of study will be in vain. This experience tells me that sometimes a person's inner potential is not even aware of it, and success or failure often depends on that little bit of courage.
This kind of courage has no direct relationship with whether one's own conditions are excellent or not. A very good British man in our major did not have the courage to walk into the examination room. There are many such students. He received an undergraduate degree from Oxford Law School and received many scholarships. During his master's degree, he performed particularly well in classes. He also participated in discussions on British Parliamentary Bills on behalf of the masses. I also saw him on TV asking questions with dignity and confidence. I always looked up to him and admired him in class. At that time, I thought that I was less than one-tenth as knowledgeable as him. However, the moment we were about to enter the examination room, he gave up on his own. However, I felt that I did not review well and was not capable of obtaining this degree. This quite surprised me. Indeed, many people have failed, but many of them are very outstanding British and Americans who graduated from Oxford, Cambridge, Harvard and Yale, so there is a legend in Oxford: international students never fail. Among these international students, the Chinese are absolutely I can proudly say: Chinese students never fail! Why? In fact, Chinese students are definitely not as good at English as local students, and their knowledge of humanities such as law is far inferior to them, let alone learning cases from scratch. The starting point is not as good as theirs, but Chinese students can pass the exam smoothly. The most important thing is The reason is that we can endure hardship.
As a Chinese, some traditional culture cannot be forgotten. One of the most important qualities is self-improvement and the willpower and perseverance to overcome difficulties. Although my experience may not seem like much in the eyes of many friends, it has had a profound impact on my life, because no matter what degree I study, I will always think of the period I spent in Oxford where I had no self-confidence at all. Years of extreme low self-esteem. I would tell myself that I have gone through such days, what is there that cannot be overcome, what degree cannot be obtained? Maybe it's a bit arrogant and proud to say this, please don't take it off, but this is indeed my true feeling. I am ashamed to write down my experience of studying abroad and share it with everyone. I ask my friends to forgive me for being immodest. I hope this can inspire all my friends on the road to studying abroad.These last pictures are reproduced from the Internet (copyright protection, this picture comes from "When God Lets You Jump" and is reproduced from Enjoy Slim Life Every Day), and I think it represents my voice very well. I hope everyone can realize their dreams.
fan group exclusive benefits!
Here are seniors from more than 30 universities taking turns to answer questions.
Here are friends from various schools who will go forward with you.
Here are red envelopes, book lists, and course PPTs!
Everything is wonderful after 8 every night (Beijing) !
4/9 Senior exposure: University of East Anglia, Media major
WeChat ID
ukdreamchaser
- THE END -
Original ▏Selected ▏Video ▏Q&A ▏The public welfare
was jointly created by more than 30 British university study abroad parties.
shares the most real learning, living and working conditions of studying in the UK.
University of Cambridge/University of Oxford/London School of Economics and Political Science/Imperial College/University College London/King's College London/ University of Warwick/University of Bath/Land University of Castle/University of Exeter/University of Leicester/University of East Anglia/University of Leeds/University of Manchester/University of Birmingham/University of Bristol/University of Sheffield/University of Southampton/University of Reading/Birmingham City University/Newcastle University/University of Liverpool/University of Edinburgh/University of Glasgow/University of York/Loughborough University...and more
▼
Click on "Confessions of a Senior" to view our founding story
Click on "Hook You" and do something fun with us
▼
