When the first time I arrived at the London Heathrow International Airport, I started to feel uncomfortable as a newcomer and foreigner. Walking around me are all tall British men. When I withdrew some money from the ATM, I could not get used to the English operating system. The street were opposite because drivers were all driving along the right. The thing that I couldn’t understand most was that you have to pay at least 2.7 pounds (27 RMB) for a salad. But I had to buy it to fill my stomach. Then we took the bus in the airport to University of Southampton led by senior students. It took only 90 minutes from the airport to our destination, which was quite convenient.

Wessex dormitory is the one closest to our campus. It took me less than 10 minutes to school. Staffs in the reception were friendly and warm to me, which made me feel a little bit less insecure. Living conditions was quite good and the community was quiet. After marked the location of the supermarkets and city center on the second day, I went to buy some necessities with my friends. Still, I couldn’t stand the price 10 times higher than at home!

Of course, learning language is my main objective. Two tutors in charge of me were really nice, patient and responsible. More important, what they were teaching is practical and useful. Every skill was well prepared for my master course curriculum. Keys are as follows:

Listening: curriculum was more than daily conversation. It was more important to know how to grab key points of different lectures. It was not difficult for students who were good at English. There is no need to be upset if your English was poor, because you would get progress rapidly in the short term in a great language environment.

Speaking: The aim of this course is teach students how to deliver a brilliant presentation, which is essential to oversea students. We also need to learn how to make proper PowerPoint closely related to contents. Therefore, the daily practice is all prepare for the final presentation.

Reading & Writing: First of all, the reading part of the IELTS test requires that you finish 3 long articles within an hour. Actually it’s not about how many vocabulary we have mastered, but about how to read fast and grab useful information. When writing an essay, you need to be suasive. We don’t have enough time to finish all the long references, which is quite ineffective and impossible. So the skill of fast-reading will help us put useful information into our essays. The writing part of IELTS test is much easier than the long essays. So when I finished several essays with hundreds of characters, IELTS won’t bother me anymore then.

The hardness of language curriculum did make me feel stressful. But our teachers always organized some interesting activities and take us around. Not only for calming down, but also for improving our listening and speaking skills gradually. Fortunately, it works for me! Thanks for Greg and Amanda again!

Southampton is beautiful and the air is clean. It’s a pretty livable city with a small population. Living and studying here is quite a happy thing. All in all, I will never regret to choose to study in International College and University of Southampton. Thanks everyone for helping me and University of Southampton for giving me the offer to finish my master degree in such a wonderful university!

(Wu Peishan, is currently studying in MA Design Management, University of Southampton)