By Leon Lin
Edited: Katherine Chiu
Hi I'm Leon Lin and am in my second year of study in Australia. I'm doing my Masters in Psychology at RMIT Bundoora.
Coming to Australia as a research student was really difficult. First of all I had nowhere to live so finding somewhere decent was really hard and time consuming. It ate up a lot of my time into research.
Also the way in which research is done in Australia is different to China. In China we were always instructed by our teachers. But in Melbourne I had to be an independent learner. That was a culture shock to me. I had a supervisor who was helpful and knowledgeable. At RMIT I joined many clubs and societies all of which were supportive to me. The main thing that you need is support and understanding of the pressures that you have studying a Master degree.
Making friends in Bundoora was not a problem as there were many other Chinese boys. I was a huge fan of sport so I joined the sports clubs.
But the downside of that is that there is hardly any International student support out here as they are all based in the city. So I couldn't get any help if I was feeling depressed or under pressure. I couldn't get much help with English. I could only talk to my family once a week due to the time differences.
In my first semester my English was really poor and that reflected in my first few drafts, hence I failed. But after that and due to the fact that I made some local friends my English improved and I passed one draft. Am on to my second one
Some tips before studying a Master Degree:
* Brush up on your English and writing skills as they will assess you on this
* Do some reading about your topics
* Do some research about your campus, ask current students what they think.
* Make sure that you choose a good supervisor as they are a key to your success.
Edited: Katherine Chiu
Hi I'm Leon Lin and am in my second year of study in Australia. I'm doing my Masters in Psychology at RMIT Bundoora.
Coming to Australia as a research student was really difficult. First of all I had nowhere to live so finding somewhere decent was really hard and time consuming. It ate up a lot of my time into research.
Also the way in which research is done in Australia is different to China. In China we were always instructed by our teachers. But in Melbourne I had to be an independent learner. That was a culture shock to me. I had a supervisor who was helpful and knowledgeable. At RMIT I joined many clubs and societies all of which were supportive to me. The main thing that you need is support and understanding of the pressures that you have studying a Master degree.
Making friends in Bundoora was not a problem as there were many other Chinese boys. I was a huge fan of sport so I joined the sports clubs.
But the downside of that is that there is hardly any International student support out here as they are all based in the city. So I couldn't get any help if I was feeling depressed or under pressure. I couldn't get much help with English. I could only talk to my family once a week due to the time differences.
In my first semester my English was really poor and that reflected in my first few drafts, hence I failed. But after that and due to the fact that I made some local friends my English improved and I passed one draft. Am on to my second one
Some tips before studying a Master Degree:
* Brush up on your English and writing skills as they will assess you on this
* Do some reading about your topics
* Do some research about your campus, ask current students what they think.
* Make sure that you choose a good supervisor as they are a key to your success.
No comments:
Post a Comment