Studying In A Foreign Country Education Essay

Studying In A Foreign Country program line EssayMy university experience till date has been mavin of the most unique, interesting, febrile and highly confusing in terms of adapting to a life I could not as yet imagine to begin with. Its been a blend of fun and aspiration to stay nidused, which is a continuing process and difficult to manage. I necessitate this reflective essay an fortune to pen down my experiences, strengths and limitation that I encountered during my archetypal year as a BA (Hons) Business trouble and Studies student. These experiences influenced my day-to-day life and the exploitation of my schoolman skills both(prenominal) directly and indirectly. through surface the year, the numerous assignments, presentations and early(a)(a) module-related coursework presented disputes I cast off not encountered before and was both looking send to and frightened by on a sure level. However, looking back on how I managed to organise my succession instructio n and balance my personal time, I am happy to say that semester one was a lesson to learn from and I am confident in thought I am prepared to face new up advent challenges with an approving attitude and determination to keep improving.Being an international student, studying in a foreign country, a way of life from family and loved ones, has been overwhelming and challenging. The first challenge I was faced with was adjusting to the new culture and environment around me. Students feeler from antithetic cultures go through a phenomenon known as the finishing shock (Carroll and Ryan,). Culture differences include the physical environment, accommodation, the transport body and food for thought which take time to get used to. Considering I come from a country with rich and colourful cultural background signal, getting used to the diachronic and cultural aspects of living in the Great Britain was a struggle at first. However, there are other theatrical roles of shock the studen ts from other cultures encounter as well. The so called Language shock had a lesser tinge on my comfort as I hold up been studying English as my first language previous to coming here, but distinct parlance of Wales made it hard for me to communicate to locals, which I find intimidating. And lastly, (Carroll and Ryan) explain that students from different cultures often encounter he so called Academic shock. The academicianian system here is very different examined to how I was educated in my collection plate country, accordingly giving me an opportunity to explore new ideas and perhaps experience new learning techniques that help me gird academically. Of course, there were some difficulties I encountered on the road to emendment and m any(prenominal) to a greater extent are to be expected, just I did not benefit it would prepare such a signifi dismisst impact on my previous abilities and knowledge. For example, writing assignments in an academic fashion is a new experi ence for me and finding relevant selective in organizeation and sources opened a new avenue of knowledge I had antecedently not encountered and guard to befool struggled with at the inception. However, the valuable feedback I authentic from my first essay helped boost my confidence and will to mend at all times.So far, the many new experience turned out to be both controlling and negative, having a different kind of impact on my learning and personal life. Probably the first and quite oversize difficulty I have encountered was the Harvard Referencing System and dealing with plagiarism, which we discussed at the informant of the year. In India, my home country, we are not required to produce essays and other types of assignments consisting of references to other texts and sources. hence the world of British Academia based on avoiding the infamous plagiarism and always producing evidence of what is your own work and what is not, reminded me of exhausting to learn how to ri de a bike. There were a few locomote but in the end I managed to pick myself up and focus on the task, helping me learn and better a skill that has been altogether foreign to me beforehand. The amount of different types of sources, such as written text, academic journals, presentations and websites was initially over-whelming, which made me tang insecure about my abilities. However, I have soon reachd that it does not have to be such a struggle and as I previously mentioned, the determination to learn and comply won in the end. The scoop help I had at the beginning of this process was S. Cottrells break away on different types of referencing, which is a source that can be used at any point in my studies, even if another type of referencing will be required in my subsequent years as a budding academic. (Cottrell) As stated by Allen (2005), finding and using information is a strategy that makes ones work easier. ace has to focus on what is needed and read a lot of publicati ons in order to get relevant matter from sources. I have put this knowledge to use hopefully successfully and hope to improve in the rising. Receiving an encouraging A grade for my first assignment, made me realise that no student is perfect at the beginning if their academic jaunt and experience, and therefore I started believing in simply giving my best to any work I produce, which essentially is what is expected of me.As previously mentioned, the first semester was a lesson to learn from and the value of feedback was something I did not realise until it helped me improve radically. I have come to see that the reason why feedback is so pregnant is that it gives all students a board to bounce off. The wish of references and relevant material in some of my essays was pointed out to me in a manner that was both professional and instead of making me feel defeat actually made me to push myself into improvement. In order to improve as I wish, I need to be more organised and have a clear understanding of what is expected of me from each assignment before collecting any information that might be relevant to the topic. Therefore I have been inspired by my fellow students who work harmonise to a study plan which helps them organise their time, stay on transit with their assignments and leave some time in order to contact the inculcate if any difficulties or miscomprehension arise.According to Burn and Sinfield (2003), ag separate work is a technique designed to reduce work load and share fair to middling responsibility among throng members to achieve goals in a limited time period. Group presentations became my favourite way of learning and something I look forward as a part of each of my modules. We usually work in a separate of 3-4 masses and during both the first and the second semester we had the line up of preparing and presenting 3 group presentations. According to the Marxist views on education, working in groups at university prepares us to for t he world of work by introducing us to any team work that we can encounter in our early employment, as well as authority respect and audience awareness. The limitations of our first group presentation experience varied from getting to know and work with people I did not know previously, and organising time for group meetings. One of the group members was, to put it as a laic, rude and had no consideration for other team members opinions, as well as wanting to do more work compared to others. His behaviour and attitude made me and the others feel less important and willing to work with him, as we could not contribute in the way we wished to. Since the lack of appropriate way of communication was so pronounced and comparison in work section was non-existent, our feat was average and resulted in unusually low grades to all members. For our next assignment as the same group, we have decided to clear any issues that arouse during our first presentation to improve both our working rel ationship as a group and our performance to gain better grades and improve based on the feedback we trustworthy. The discussion helped us in many ways as we managed to assign equal contribution of work and made working together as a group less stressful and more of an enjoyable experience. Our presentation was not save spot on as required, but our teamwork has improved rapidly and was find by the tutor, receiving positive feedback as well.Burn and Sinfield (2003) have suggested various tips and gave valuable advice concerning group work, in order to make it more successful and productive. This advice include a variety of group work forms and processes, such as Belbins group roles, organise group work techniques and Adairs processes. Personally, I have found the SWOT group work technique to be most inspirational for my future enhancement and wish to include this technique in the future duration preparing assigned presentations. SWOT analysis of the group allows one to identify the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats in a group. This helps nullifying the weaknesses at an individual level, and promoting the strength of the team members on a holistic level. The lack of knowledge of various presentation techniques inevitably resulted in, what I personally consider, an average, bordering on abysmal performance during my first presentation. Upon personal reflection, I realise my own limitations in the area of working with people and therefore wish to improve inter-personal relationships as a part of my personal development plan.The A levels I completed in my education in India consisted of subjects in the Science field and some related to it. Hence, not having a background in studying business and economics on a original level alike my fellow students was a considerable disadvantage, just like my lack of knowledge in the referencing ethics. Since I did not possess the canonical knowledge of business, I was considered to be a slow learner compare to other students in my modules. Understanding economics was one of the biggest struggles I experienced and till date still find it difficult to comprehend, which I admit is highly discouraging. The regular economic quizzes provided on the blackboard helped me improve exponentially, however that does not mean I still do not feel like a fish out of water in this field. pay however is a subject I enjoyed greatly, compared to how economics made me feel, and received valuable feedback on which allowed me to improve and gain better results. It was the subject I enjoyed studying the most and even considered majoring in it.All new modules I had the opportunity to study provided many new ideas and concepts for me, but with every positive comes a slight drawback. Each module requires a certain type of assignment, either a report or an essay. Both types of assignment form were foreign to me before my life as a developing academic and therefore the lectures on how to write an essay, reflecti ve or other, helped me greatly in understanding the way in which my work had to be written and presented. communicate style assignments were a struggle as a concept, closely laced to not having experience in studying business and management beforehand, where I believe such skills develop more gradually and improve at university level. Therefore instead of improving upon a skill I already had, report and essay writing is something that I had to learn consequently to coming to Britain and only now, after gaining some experience with assignments, I can improve on whatever skills I have gained predominantly in the first semester.Lastly, managing time is a rare resource or rather a skill, and there can be severe consequences if not grasped and developed correctly. not only as a student but as a future employee as well, working in a demanding environment requires having a firm grasp of time management. Without this expected and highly demanding skill, future employability whitethorn bec ome an issue, which I would rather not face. Since I am provided with the opportunity to learn how to manage my time and organise my schedule as university, I would consider it a personal failure if I did not develop these skills in order to gain better employability.Gaining new skills and improving upon the brisk one is a continuous process, however I take it as an opportunity and a challenge to improve not only academically but as a rounded human being as well. My experience in Great Britain will hopefully become something to cherish and my determination and strengths something to focus at while looking for a future employment as well.http//books.google.co.uk/books?id=3GZ-cbg04cYCpg=PA150dq=guide+to+international+students+facing+difficultyhl=ensa=Xei=HtdeT5KZPOyY0QXHvp2fBwsqi=2ved=0CDEQ6AEwAAv=onepageq=guide%20to%20international%20students%20facing%20difficultyf=falsehttp//books.google.co.uk/books?id=3GZ-cbg04cYCpg=PA150dq=guide+to+international+students+facing+difficultyhl=ensa =Xei=HtdeT5KZPOyY0QXHvp2fBwsqi=2ved=0CDEQ6AEwAAv=o