Ma 1

Xinyu Ma

Professor Ian Cole

English Composition 102

02/18/2020

Studying abroad

I believe that everyone has an unforgettable memory that cannot be erased. For me, it

was an experience to improve my English by studying in the United States. Before I decided

to go abroad, I was just an ordinary 16-year-old high school student who had just finished the

torture of high school entrance examination. I lived with my parents in Shenzhen, in the south

of China, and at that time I was very happy and satisfied that my English got a high score in

the high school entrance examination. To my surprise, a sudden decision broke my peaceful

life. It took place one day in the spring, in 2016, I still remember that day’s weather is very

special, it is sun shower. My parents decided to let me go abroad to study. It’s hard to find a

words to describe my feeling. On one side, I feel very curious, I am a strong interest for the

unknown life and study. On the other side, I am sad, because I need to go abroad to study for

a long time without parents. No one will cook food for me, no one will wash clothes for me,

no one will take care of me. I have to depends on myself, I have to “grow up”. The

destination was the United States. Around August 2016, I begin my journey of study in

America high school. My mother and uncle accompanied me to America for the first time.

The first time I stepped into this strange country, I was both nervous and excited. What made

me nervous was that I would study and live alone here for a long time. What’s exciting is that

I’m interested in everything here.

 Ma 2

A week after my mother and uncle sent me to the United States, the school opened

and both my mother and uncle returned to China. I began to face all the problems by myself.

Remember at the beginning of the first English class, Mr. Fass, who is my ESL English

teacher, asked each of our classmates to introduce themselves, including our names, countries

we came from, our grades and so on. “It’s your turn to introduce yourself,” Mr. Fass’s voice

rang out. Due to the teacher speak too fast, I did not hear clearly and could not know what the

teacher said. I was immediately feeling very nervous, I tried to ask Mr. Fass if I could say it

again, but I found that I did not have any idea to ask him in English “if I could say it again”, I

was very muddleheaded, and restlessness in my movements. My mind went blank and only

left the word “pardon?” This is what I can remember from my mind, which was taught to me

by my Chinese English teacher. It means repeat. I just pick the word, but I was still worried

about if Mr. Fass can hear my voice. At the same time, I felt my face directly turned red. Mr.

Fass found that and asked me in a very slow voice, and he added a gesture, “Can you

introduce yourself?”. I finally understand! I was excited and happy. I gratefully said “thank

you” to him and began to introduce myself in English. After class, he noticed that my English

was not very good, and said to me in a very slow tone, “Jojo, if you don’t understand

anything, feel free to ask me, I will help you! You can try to communicate with your

classmates and teachers. Don’t be afraid. We will help you.” Then he patted me on the

shoulder. His words gave me a lot of courage, it let me suddenly feel that I have enough

courage to solve my fear, I tried to follow his suggestion, and constantly to communicate

with teachers, students. Soon, I found that my English skills improved a lot, although I feel

my communication is still stumbling, at least I can understand some words that the teachers,

students said, and gradually can catch up with their speed. I was pleasantly surprised by this

discovery.
 Ma 3

In ESL English classes, maybe the students are not study hard, or listen to the teacher

carefully, but the teacher must be the hardest, such as my ESL English teacher Mr. Fass. He

was very responsive to each student. He helped me a lot during my first year in senior high

school, in the United States. He was an admirable man. I remember there was a period that I

was struggling to memorize vocabulary, no matter how hard I memorized them. I read the

texts, read notes, and tried to memorize each vocabulary every time after I finished class.

When I took the exam, my brain crashed like a computer, cannot remember anything. No

matter how hard I tried to remember how the words are spelled, I just cannot remember them.

Sadly, I only knew the meaning of the words. At that time, My grades were decreasing a lot. I

was very panic and did not know what to do. Just then a sentence popped into my head, that

is Mr. Fass said to me “Jojo, if you don’t understand anything, feel free to ask me, I will help

you!” Therefore, I went to see Mr. Fass and asked him for help. At this time Mr. Fass would

take me to his office and then taught me how to memorize the vocabularies in a short time.

He told me that it would be relatively easy to memorize the spelling of the words according

to the pronunciation of the words. For instance, the word fantastic can be divided into three

parts of memory according to its phonetic symbol [fænˈtæstɪk], that is, “fan”, “tas”, and “tic”.

It can be spelled out naturally. I tried to use this method to memorize the vocabulary, as a

result, this method is efficient. “I remembered it”, “I remembered it”, “I remembered it” I

shouted very loud. Since then, The speed of memorizing the words was increased much more

than twice. Usually, I would spend more than ten minutes to remember the words. But now I

can completely remember it within a few minutes, and very fluently spelling out. I literally

hopped with excitement, it improved a lot in the study efficiency.

Since then, I have gradually discovered that some of my habits have changed. Before

going abroad, my learning methods were outdated and rigid. I firmly believe that my learning

method is right, and when I encounter a problem, I will not trying to ask teacher for help.
 Ma 4

Instead, I will continue to use my now way to try my best to solve it, and it usually cannot see

any progress. This result in my low learning efficiency, also, if I could not use the knowledge

that I learned, it was equivalent to learn nothing. Through Mr. Fass’s help and guidance, I

gradually realized that I could not always insist on my methods. Sometimes my method was

wrong, and could not solve the problem. I used to choose to avoid problems, but now I

choose to face them positively. I will find the right and efficient way to figure it out. In the

past few years of studying in American senior high school, I changed my learning method,

tried to communicate with teachers and classmates, and bravely expressed my confusion. As

time goes by, through my efforts, my English skills gradually improved. I was not only

improved my learning ability but also made many good friends by communicating with them.

There is an old saying: “Where there is a will, there is a way.” Now I seem to understand the

true meaning of this sentence.