Sharing of Scholarship Recipients - YUE Wenjun
YUE Wenjun (Applied Economics)
Recipient of Mr. & Mrs. Lau Chor Tak Scholarship Scheme for Outstanding Mainland Students 2019-20
Two years ago, when I was admitted by HKBU, I didn’t expect that I would reach such an outstanding achievement. As a Mainland student, I didn’t speak Cantonese well at the beginning. Also, my spoken English was quite poor due to the environment I lived in. I believe most of Mainland students were facing similar situation like me. Everything was new. Under such condition, the most important thing is to step out of the comfort zone and try to fit in the community.
Since all the courses are taught in English and there are a huge number of international students, English is unavoidable. Hence, for every class, I will go through the notes one day before to find words that I am not familiar with and write down their meanings. I know it would be much easier for me to get Chinese version textbooks, which can save lots of my time, but I didn’t do that. Because in that way, I am not stepping out of the comfort zone and I can’t make any progress in English. Therefore I stick to the English textbooks and materials even if it was extremely hard at the very beginning. Day by day, month by month, I feel much better in reading English materials and writing papers. Besides, to learn Cantonese and HK culture, I made efforts to get along with local students and hang out with them. When grouping in class, I usually invite local students and international students proactively to practice my Cantonese as well as English and make friends. Always, I can learn things besides language, seeing the world in different perspectives. All the things I did were reflected on my academic performance without my notice. Changes did happen. I surprisingly find myself grown.
Sometimes, even if you have stepped out of the comfort zone and worked hard, you hardly see the change and improvement. Don’t be worried and anxious. Be patient and persistent, keep doing it. As long as you are on the right track, all the efforts you made will be valued and growth will occur in the way you didn’t expect.