大三出國、全英語課程 - 國際視野 : 淡江大學大三出國通報及學分採認系統

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2018大三出國輔導通報系統 - 留學心得報告[編輯]

語言 405810341 　林倢廷　　留學學校：賓州印第安那大學

(一)基本資料

University: Indiana University of Pennsylvania/ Location: Indiana, PA/ Duration: Aug 20th, 2018- May 10th, 2019. I took Japanese 1, composition, psychology and common media in America in the first semester. The second semester I took Japanese2, Korean1, composition2, and public speaking. These classes are all suitable for international students, they are not very difficult. (52字)

(二)課程學習

【照片說明：最後一堂日文課】

My favorite class is Japanese. Maybe some people would think we should enhance our English ability during our study abroad year, not take other languages. Nevertheless, it is not strange to learn Japanese when I am in IUP. Taiwanese and American students both like Japanese culture. Although not all, some people have an interest in Japanese culture. In fact, there have been some American students who took Japanese class with me, and it was fun to learn with them. For example, there is no “r” sound in Japan, however, American students still tended to pronounce the “r” sound because of their native language. My Japanese professor is a Korean professor as well. He is Korean but his Japanese is just like a local Japanese person. He was kind and had the patience to teach us step by step even when we did not keep track with the schedule. In class, we had a chance to speak to every classmate because we were practicing our speaking after finish the teaching goal on that day. It is really helpful for our Japanese speaking to have this kind of interesting practice and gave us a chance to know each other. One day, I saw a girl who wears a hoodie with an Anime logo I know. I talked to her and we had the same topic to talk about. She also gave me the same Anime T-shirt. We all are newbies to Japanese, so we still can speak a little bit of English with American students in the class. Sometimes we still need to communicate with English and when we took Japanese 2, our Japanese ability had already enhanced enough to be able to communicate with basic Japanese. It was fun to communicate with English and Japanese at the same time. For that student who was the same as me who wanted to learn Japanese but did not have a chance in Taiwan, it is really good to take Japanese here.(327字)

(三)生活環境

【照片說明：宿舍前中庭】

Indiana is a small town in Pennsylvania and it takes 2 hours from Pittsburgh to IUP. It is not a big city so there is not too much shopping, restaurants, or anything else. However, IUP has a fresh and nice quality of air without too many cars and crowded people. Also, the residents here are kind and full of passion. Since it is a small town, there is a less of chance there will be dangerous thing happening. By contrast, IUP is really perfect for me. The IUP campus is really big with a beautiful courtyard, many lush tall trees and a lot of cute squirrels. Exchange students live in Wallwork and each floor has a CA who will help us to resolve our problems. They decorated the dormitory’s wall and designed each person’s name tag as well. The only disadvantage was this building was poorly soundproofed, so some students may have to change rooms because of noise. When we want to buy some foods or goods, we take the route 12 Indigo bus then we can go to Martins, Walmart, Indiana mall, and other shops. If we take other routes we can also go to a farther market. The important thing is showing our I-card and it will be free. In spring to summer time, the sun was going down around 7:30 pm, I saw the beautiful sky and fell in love with it every day. In the winter time, Indiana was colder than the big city which means we could enjoy the snow frequently.(255字)

(四)自我成長

【照片說明：我和我的homestay】

The first problem that most international students will encounter is that we do not understand what Americans are saying, because they speak too fast to follow what they are talking about. Sometimes when I finally figure out what Americans are talking about, they are speaking the next sentences. I am always slower than them, however, I did not feel dispirited or grief but felt “Wow! This is the authentic American English.” In order to enhance my English ability, the best way is applying to the conversation partner and international friendship program. IUP will help you pair with an American student and American families. And it makes a lot of chances to speak English, not only to get used to their speaking speed but also enhance our speaking ability. However, when I took psychology in the first semester, it was still hard for me. It has many technicalities and a vocabulary we do not often use in daily life, for example, body organs like the kidney. This kind of word I’m not familiar with, and even had never heard before. Usually, I was spending many hours studying and completing homework for one chapter, and it worked! As long as I finished reading a chapter and taking notes, the quizzes and exams were not too difficult. The best thing was when I completed an assignment or got a nice grade on an exam. It was very fulfilling to learn new things. For the culture shock, the most impressive thing is Americans do not have an umbrella when it rains. It’s not a big deal but gave me a strong impression and it is cool.(274字)

(五)大三出國建議

Do not bring too many clothes or sweaters to America, because you will buy a lot of items here. When I was packing in Taiwan, I had prepared too many clothes even though my senior sister had already said many times “You don’t have to bring too many items to America.” It’s true! You might think IUP does not have many shops, as well as not having time to go to a big city to buy items because of starting class right away when arriving IUP. That is wrong! One or two weeks after the semester begins, there is labor day weekend in America which means you can visit other cities at that time. I believe everyone will buy much while visiting other cities. As I mentioned, IUP provided the conversation partner and friendship program for international students. I’m not sure if other exchange universities have this program or not. But it’s a really great program for us, first of all, you will have a chance of looking around American’s houses and know what food they usually eat. Americans are full of passion, so most families who apply to this program will invite us to their homes to eat with them. Sometimes they will invite us for Christmas and Thanksgiving. It is a nice chance to know their culture and understand why these holidays are so important for them. Secondly, you can practice your English ability which is the most important. That’s why we want to study abroad. For the debit card, IUP will teach us how to build our account during the welcome weekend and we usually use PNC bank. For cellphone providers I recommend using AT&T mobile, because they have a family program which means more people are in this program and each person can pay less. But the maximum is five people. If you want to mail packages from Taiwan to here and want to know the address, go to the post office and they have a poster on the wall that shows what your address is. In conclusion, we are lucky to have a chance to exchange for one year, so do not stay in your room the whole day. Hang out more and get new friends, these will be irreplaceable memories and experiences in the future.(388字)