My International Student Experience

Hi all,

I am Sepideh and I hope you all went great during break. As you might understand from my name, I am an international student at FedUni and I got some experiences during my study here that may happen to you as well! As I remember from my first year of studying, after the break I was struggling with all my bloody assignmnets, haha, but surprisingly I passed them all with high marks. What may surprise you is that when I saw my first assignment question, I did not even understand the question! So, how did I pass it? At first, I thought that if I ask my lecturer or other students, they won’t help me, but I was definitely WRONG. I truly fought with myself to ask! Ask and ask. This is how I did so well. You can ask them privately in their office, so, if you are a bit shy, please go and visit lecturers in their offices for all your questions. As a result, please ask whatever you hesitate about instead of giving up. I promise it will work.

Another experience I got here at University was how to find a friend or a partner for doing group work. To be honest, it was my first experience living abroad without my parents, so I was badly homesick unfortunately and ignored getting new friends, but I had to overcome it because I needed some new friends not only for the teamwork, but also for myself to come out of that terrible situation. So, what did I do? I asked my lecturers to introduce me to some other students to work with them. Or I started to talk to my classmates with no particular reason everywhere I saw them, even on the bus! You might be a really hardworking student but I am sure you will be definitely be better if you express your ideas in a group or hear other students’ ideas. You can come and enjoy PASS classes as well to see how you feel in a group environment.

I hope these experiences help you even a bit. I’ll be really happy if I can help you in any kind of subject you’ve got problems with at university.

Sepideh

Proud to be International: My experience as an international student

photoG’day! To start with, I would like to say congratulations guys! Believe it or not, you’ve made it to Week Five! I still remember my first semester. It wasn’t that terrifying, but the main reason being that I was basically staying at home all the time. Well, that’s not recommended! It wasn’t until the second semester that I suddenly realized that outside my room there was such a wonderful world. So, now, as I have been through this, why not let me tell you something that you’d probably find quite familiar and helpful! Alright!

Communication. This is probably the first thing you do when you get here. There are a couple “rules of thumb” here:

1) Be confident. You have to believe yourself because you are good enough to pass the English test and made it all the way to Australia. There is nothing you cannot do!

2), Talk to other people in English. They could be your roommates, your friends oreven your lecturers. As you are probably aware, communication is really at least a two-man job. It could be as simple as “G’day”, “Hello” or “Morning”! I am very sure that they will wave back to ya. This is the easiest but most important one. So next time when we meet, let’s give each other a big smile. What do you reckon?

Lectures. I have to say this is the best part of my everyday life. Unlike the others, I like what I am studying (Just kidding, lol). From my experience, study at FedUni is really the sort of thing that, if you spend time on it, you will definitely get equivalent grades! No jokes. And the most significant parts of this study process are you and your lecturers. They are professionals. They are experts in their teaching areas, and they’d love to communicate with their students so that they can better improve their teaching quality. Therefore, let’s make an appointment and have a chat with your lecturers about how you get along so far and what study suggestions they can give to you!

Social Activity. This is also important. Like I mentioned before, my first semester was boring from a social point of view. Let’s just say studying 10 hours a day was not that fun. I regret that I didn’t do anything back then. If I could start university all over again, I would definitely first join the university soccer team and have some easy games every Monday (or other sports of your favorite). Then I would talk to Kate Toner, who is our International Student Support worker, to join the international student committee and get involved in all kinds of interesting social activities. Next I would probably ask my friends to watch few movies. You know, stuff like this will really fulfill your life!

Know your rights and make a difference. As an international student, it is also necessary to know your rights! Know what you can do and what you don’t want to touch. If you have anything that you are not sure of, I highly suggest that you don’t do it and ask for help. Not sure where to seek help? The ASK service is located at level 2 (the third level) of the cafeteria building (U building). You can basically ask us whatever you want to, and when I say whatever, I mean no matter what. But we can choose not to answer it. Haha, just kidding. I mean we will try our best to help you or to guide you to someone who can help. Remember, there is always someone in our uni who will be able to help you make a difference!

Dong