3 things I wish I knew before studying abroad

Wow. This is my first day of school. Hi.

Hello. Where are you from? I'm from Vietnam. Oh, Vietnam?

Is it a country? Where is it exactly? Oh hi.

Where are you from? I'm from Vietnam. Oh, Vietnam. I know Vietnam.

Really? Do you know? Yes. I even know Vietnamese. Ni hao.

Hello, everyone. I'm Hong from Vietnam.

Yes, Vietnam is a country, and, yes, we are in Asia.

In fact, Vietnam is in the southwest of Asia.

And, no, we don’t speak Chinese. We speak Vietnamese.

Now, this is something that truly happened when I first went abroad

for my bachelor's degree in Finland.

In the last video, I shared with you tips

on how I improved my English.

And today, I will talk about three things I

wish I had known before going abroad.

And of course, if you like my video, don't forget to hit

the Subscribe button, and visit our website

weloveielts.org for more advice and resources from many IELTS experts.

So, let's start with a bit of my background.

So, when I was 19, I got seven in IELTS, and I went to study abroad in Finland.

It was like a dream come true because I worked so

hard to qualify for the program.

But soon I realized that there was more

to that experience than I bargained for.

Come on. I thought I got seven in IELTS.

It's a pretty good score compared to most of my friends.

What could go wrong? Except for everything.

To start with, when everyone seemed to have no problem understanding

the professors, I didn’t.

It was like IELTS Listening Part 4 come to life.

What I mean is, well, I mean, it's long, it's complicated,

and it's so hard to keep up with.

Well, to make it worse, I couldn't understand my friends either.

They used very strange words.

They use local words, they use slangs and cultural references.

Come on, IELTS didn't teach me that.

Finally, now, this may sound strange, but good pronunciation is not everything.

What's the point of good English, when you don't know what to say?

Hi, I'm Hong from Vietnam. Moy. I’m from Finland. Nice to meet you.

Ah, nice to meet you too.

Well, I learned that to have better conversations,

you need to listen, make good questions

and establish common grounds.

Can you tell me something interesting about Finland?

I don't know, maybe booze. Oh, you mean the Finnish vodka?

You know what, in Vietnam, we also have homemade alcohol,

pretty strong stuff.

Oh, really? Tell me more about it.

Well, because good English doesn't make you a good communicator.

So, by definition, a stereotype is a set

of ideas that people have about what someone or something is like,

especially an idea that is wrong.

Well, some examples can be English people

like to talk about the weather, or Spanish people are passionate,

Finnish people are cold, or Asians are good at Math.

Hey, are we really that good at Math?

That's ridiculous. Of course, we are.

Well, another example, I always thought that

Finnish people are very cold, aloof and distant, but with a couple of

beers they can surely start to loosen up and be more open.

How about you? Where are you from?

Are you from China, India, the UK, the US,

France or Germany?

Do you agree that everyone in your country is the same?

No, of course they aren't. Everyone is unique.

So, don't be blinded by stereotypes.

Allow yourself to see a person for who he or she

really is regardless of genders, nationalities, races or cultures.

Oh, and the last point, studying abroad should not be

just about studying, as funny as it sounds.

But when you go abroad, it's a once-in-a-lifetime

opportunity for us to explore a new culture,

a new country.

So, why don't we make the most of it?

Of course, I wouldn't recommend you guys to be lazy with your study,

of course.

I just recommend a balance.

After all, we don't go there just to bury our head in a pile of books and isolate

ourself from socialising, right?

So, get outside, explore, get to know

new people and take full advantage of the experience of being in a new place.

Oh, I wish I could have more time to share with you about my experience.

But I guess that's it for this video.

I can save other information for the next video.

So, how about you?

Do you have any plan of studying or going abroad?

Do you have any expectations about what's going to happen?

Share with me, will you?

And don't forget to leave a comment below.

I can't wait to read all of them.

Thank you so much, and I'll see you in the next video.

Bye bye.