The university students always have to handle a lot of stress, especially
overseas students: except the stress from modules, they still need to resolve
problems about language and social problems in a different place. As one of
them, I am going to talk about the main sources of stress for Yong Siew Toh
Conservatory of Music (YSTCM) and how can we try to resolve it.
After researching, there are three main source of stress for YST students:
students spend too much time doing homework can not make new friends and
they do not have a big social circle.
Many students complain that they spend too much time on homework. For a
simple example: they have to practice several times for operating the software
Finale 2010 well. But the locals or the students from English countries only
need half or less time to figure it out. The reason they spend much more time
is the language. They can not remember the functions of each menu in only
one or two times like the locals. They put most of time to adapt the English
software that is why we spend more time than them.
Many of my friends are totally different when they meet foreigners and
countrymen. For instance, one of my friends is very active in my opinion. He
has so many topics when he is talking with me, and the topics all are quite
attractive. But he is so quiet every time when we have lunch or dinner with
other friends from other places. He only looks his food and eats them without
any words. Why are they closed to the foreigners? Of course the reason is the
language. The language influences their confidence: firstly, they do not
understand the foreigners` meaning. Then they would not talk because they
feel being isolated and after that they do not have confidence to talk.
In NUS, you can participate many activities and make many friends from
different areas but if you do not have English skill, you would lose them. For
example, in many activities you would know many other students from other
faculties. Obviously you will use English to communicate. If you can not use it,
you would lose the chance to know the people from the different places and
you would not have a big social circle. It is not good for your life and career
both.
Generally, we can conclude: language is the main problem. So how can we
try to minimize its effect? Here I have two suggestions:
First is you should use English more. The more you use English, you get
improvement faster. I know a Japanese girl. When she came here 4 years
ago, she did not know English at all. But she catches every chance to practice
her English in any case. In food canteen, class, store... And she improves
very very fast. Now she can speak fluent English.
Second is, just study English. Vocabulary, grammar, dictation... everyone
hates them but you need to learn them if you want to improve your English.
