As an international student, my freshman year was my first year in US, and the first year in my life experiencing cultural shock and home sick. Though lots of people said to me that the US is an open country and is a mix of lots of culture background, I immediately feel incompatible with the country.
I used to be a very outgoing person when I was back in my hometown: I could spiel into any group and any topic. However, I closed my mouth most of times, especially when I’m surrounded by groups of English speakers. My English was not really good and fluent at that time, and my vocabulary was poor. Sometimes people couldn’t get what I mean because of my accent. It’s really awkward if you need to rack my mind to use different words and try multiple ways to explain what I mean. That’s the time I got afraid to use English to communicate, and I didn’t even pick up phones. What’s worse, most of my roommates are Chinese, and I always hung out with people who speak Chinese since we share the same language and background. So when I finished my first semester, I found out that I didn’t get any improvement on my English at all.
The situation became severe when I took the CAS class on second semester. My classmates could barely get what I was talking about and my voice was way too low to be heard from the back of the classroom. Of course I got low grades on this, that’s the time when I realized that I needed to really stand out and face my problem. I talked several times with my CAS professor and got lots of help from learning center. Then I dropped my CAS class and promise I will make progress when I take it again next year. I then forced myself to talk to American students in my class and lived near my dorm. I started to answer questions in class and visit professors during office hours. As advised, I joined a choir and a club, and there I met people who share the same interests with me. I even chose American roommates for my next year apartments.
Of course my efforts paid off. Now I can talk quite fluently in English, although there’s still sometime that I cannot explain myself clearly, but I’m afraid of talking to people. I’ve gain self-confidence back, and most obviously, I got a pretty good score when I tried the CAS class the second time. Surprisingly, I made lots of American friends during my efforts. They are all friendly and nice to me, and patient when I try to think up words to use. They helped me a lot.
I learned a lot from my own experience, and as there are increasing numbers of international students study abroad, I think this is suitable for everyone. What I believe is that no matter what terrible situation you are facing, deal with it directly. Escape never helps.