About me
Hi! I’m a Chinese student at the University of Sheffield. You can address me as Perkins. This website is a project of Digital Practice module. I choose this topic because I became anxious of being an international student in UK when I started to settle here, I have an empathy of those messy thoughts, so I hope everyone who can access to this site get some warmth and belief of love. Also I hope students who are facing problems overseas can find solutions in this site. I’m honored to be here with you all, wish you happy and well.
My experience
After a long flight, I finally landed in Manchester. This moment meant that my overseas study journey officially started. I have been to many countries, such as Vietnam, India, Kenya and so on, so every time I go to an unfamiliar country, I always look forward to it and imagine the people and things I will meet. The bus from the University of Sheffield drove from Manchester to Sheffield all the way. I listened to the enthusiastic conversations of the volunteers, looked at the British-style buildings along the road, and enjoyed the darkening of the sky. When I settled in the student apartment, I officially became an international student.
At first I was curious about everything here, but when I started to communicate with local people, I started to get nervous. Although I was confident in my English level, I was afraid of being discriminated against as an Asian. When I visited London, I didn’t even dare to sit in the subway seat, because I was afraid that others would treat me as a trouble. After all, the lifestyle here is completely different from what we do in China. While trying to figure out the location of all the buildings and going through the admission procedures, I was worried that I would not be able to integrate into the modules here. At the same time, I still encountered some small problems in life. On the other hand, I found that although I have many classmates, as a newcomer, it becomes difficult to be friends with them. When I was facing some problems, I don’t know who to ask. When all these issues occurred to me, I realized that being an international student is really a hard thing. Although I didn’t suffer from serious psychological problems, I still felt depressed.
Based on my experience and feelings, I think in addition to helping international students answer some specific questions, they should also be concerned about their mental health issues, because sometimes they may ignore their emotions unconsciously, causing the situation to deteriorate and affect their learning. This is my idea and meaning of building this website.