terests you, or even when you feel intimidated as an international student or an immigrant in a new culture, you just need to encourage yourself to go on. And you will benefit in many different ways.” Professor Zhang uses her Chinese background to explain some of the things we need to learn. “We Chinese tend to settle more,” she said. “We see something, we don’t talk about it in a straight forward manner. We try not to hurt people. But you know what, if you do this here, eventually you are going to either not be efficient or get hurt. So just learn to be frank. And,” she said, “of course you need to be strategic. The lesson I learned is how to express yourself, promote yourself, and market yourself.” TWU’s International Student Programs Assistant, Mandy Wang, came to Canada eight years ago, when she was 17. She went through the whole process of learning the language, doing undergraduate studies, and working in Canada. “I know it is a long process,” Mandy said, “and when I talk to students I work with, I encourage them to realize that the process may seem long, but it passes by while you are enjoying the culture when you are learning. Why do I work here?” she asked. “Because I try hard to encourage my students to enjoy their new home and to have great experiences when they are in Canada, so they don’t regret coming here or don’t cut themselves from the culture and just study in their own circle.” Of the problems people may have when they move to Canada, “Culture shock is always the most common one,” Mandy said. “Culture shock is tricky because sometimes people are not aware of it. They do not know what it is, or when they are in culture shock. So international students may feel like it is boring and depressing here. The students don’t want to join Canadian events; the food seems horrible. All of these are signs of culture shock,” she says. “It can be treated by the person himself. One just needs to be sensitive and admit that he is in culture shock. And,” she suggests, “you have to put yourself out of your comfort zone and find some-
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thing interesting you can talk about instead of staying in your own culture group. For example, the Chinese tend to stay with other Chinese people because the language is easier for them and the food is more familiar.” My personal story is one of food culture shock. My stomach cannot tolerate dairy products. Even when I smell a dairy product, I feel nauseated. Lactose intolerance is very common in Asia and includes reactions to milk, yogurt, butter, cheese. In my family in China, we always have rice-based congee for breakfast, never milk and cereal since dairy is not our main food. There, we rely on rice,
noodles, and bread buns. When I came to Canada, however, everything changed. That was a really sad day when my homestay mom prepared milk and cereal for my breakfast; lunch was two pieces of pizza; dinner was spaghetti and meatballs with cheese on top. Every meal my homestay mom made had dairy in it. I was so upset because I could not eat it. I still vividly remember what I had for my breakfast and lunch instead—a package of crackers I brought from China. At that time, I felt shy and nervous to express my feelings about Canadian culture. Finally, two days later, I told my homestay mom about my diet preferences. I felt really happy that I could stand up for myself. This was the first thing that I straightforwardly told her: “I don’t like dairy.” I am still proud of myself that I did that; otherwise, I would have let myself down with the culture shock and would never have been happy with the food. To the people who feel uncomfortable with culture shock Mandy offers good advice. “Be prepared to come to Canada,” she advises. “You need to research and learn what kind of country you are walking into and what kind of culture sensitivity you will be facing. If you want to keep culture shock to a minimum, you need to study the language, bravely open your heart and, with no sense of fear in mind, face the country and welcome whatever is coming to your life.” As an international student myself, I fully understand Mandy’s point. Some international students feel lonely and helpless. Often, they do not like to go out and talk to people; they are not ready to receive the new culture. To protect themselves, they form their own groups and find their security there. Maybe they are not ready psychologically to go out and try to speak English and get involved in the culture. Instead, they decide either to hang out with their Chinese friends to speak the same language or stay at home and play video games. Jeffrey Chang came from Taiwan in 1998; currently, he is a consultant at a financial investment company in Vancouver. He spent his study years here and is now building his career. He found out that it is not easy to make a living or sustain a career in Vancouver, but it is still achievable if we work hard. He is really happy to share his experience with other people. His experience is in many ways similar to Man-
dy’s. Both of them believe that volunteering is always a good thing. “No matter where your are,” Jeffrey said, “volunteering helps us to know the people, especially on our own personal base level. To help others is a way of helping ourselves. The way we learn about other people is by putting trust in others. Volunteering is a chance to go out and meet new people,” he says. “It is a chance for us to get to know other people out there.” International students may be encouraged by Professor Zhang’s experience. “I was a really good student,” she said, “and I studied very hard — even harder than I did in China. Because I studied all the subjects in English, I felt the urge to spend more time and take it more seriously. So that’s why I felt that in my PhD studies in Ottawa I was a really devoted student. As a result,” she said, “I excelled in the advanced economics class.” She recalls a tough midterm where she was the only one in her class who achieved 90 percent. “So the professor came to talk to me and it was really an honor. Then I became kind of famous,” she said. Both Canadian students and other international students talked to her and asked her questions. One day, some students announced they had nominated her to a student leadership role, to represent the economics department. “But I firmly said ‘no,’” she admitted, “just because of some weird feeling of being shy. Now when I think about it, it was really one the biggest mistakes I made. I was so overwhelmed by everything around me in the new environment. I said ‘No.’ I don’t know how I made those students feel,” she said, “but I will not make the same mistake with our students.” Prof. Zhang’s is an essential lesson for any international student to learn: we need to catch every chance we get because the may not come back again. Do not let the chance pass by and have regrets later. “No matter whether you are either trying to be polite or responsible for yourself,” Prof. Zhang insists, “when you are approached, think twice before you say ‘No.’”
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