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No One Said It Would Be Easy:
Settling-In To An International School
By Jenny Early
My short sojourn in an international school taught me so much more than I was expecting. There is always something torturous about moving to a new school. There are new rules to adhere to, new friendship groups to break into, new teachers to adapt to… The work is different and even simple aspects of school life – the uniform, the assembly times, the tables and chairs – seem unusual and daunting. For me, there was also another country to get used to, a new language to learn and a new home to settle into. In this sort of situation, learning lessons seems to happen in every aspect of life, not just the classroom. There are some things I shall never forget…
- No one said it would be easy. Nobody back home, nobody I met in my first few weeks, and nobody I lived with told me this experience would be a simple move. It’s not. All those who have packed up their satchels and moved to blackboards new know just how hard it is to start a school in a foreign country. Even if your school is in the same language as your last, and even if the syllabus is the same, international schools have an utterly different atmosphere to the schools I was used to back in good old England. There were people (teachers, mostly), who preached that international schools have an air of superior acceptance, that anyone who enters through the doors will be accepted straight away into a friendship group because these groups are used to, and welcome, new members. These teachers seem to forget they are dealing with teenagers. Friendship groups are solid and in a situation where people come and go regularly, some are unwilling to let you in straight away, lest you leave immediately and destroy such a powerful group dynamic. I soon learnt that developing the firm friendships I dreamt about would take time. It will happen, oh yes it will happen, but it will take time. Just as in any new school, it takes time to get to know people, to work out who you work best with and to build the bonds that are so important. No matter how hard this may seem, along with all the other types of adapting you will be doing, the best medicine is to wade through those first weeks with a smile, and wait for the mist to clear.
- Get out of the house, see the sights. A new country brings new opportunities, new people and new surroundings. As soon as you feel comfortable with this, you will start to feel a lot better about the smaller things. Scouting around the local hip venues with classmates, shopping with new-found friends, taking a tour of the scenery on your own. Every little step I took to becoming more comfortable in my surroundings had a great impact on my school life. I found that I worried less and less about the fact I was in a new country, and more and more about what I was going to wear into school the next day. As trivial and ridiculous as it may sound, this meant I was adapting, concentrating more on my school work and developing friendships. Soon you realize that you have become not a fish out of water in a new and incomprehensible town, but a new student in a new school. The latter is a lot easier to deal with.
- You’re not just there to learn your ABC’s. Studying abroad is a futile pursuit if you don’t try to learn something about the country in which you are at school. It pays to learn a little from the people you are working with too, be they international students from all over the world, a native of the country you are in or from your home town. There are fewer opportunities that I can think of where you can be surrounded by such astounding people, each who have very individual backgrounds, values and ways of life than at an international school. I found that my French lessons were complemented by my francophone friends, and my Spanish by the music blasted in the common room by the boy who had lived in South America. Going out on a Friday night, watching a movie at a friend’s, going on a train journey to the nearest big party town, all took on new shades of meaning and culture, new aspects brought by not only the country I was living in but the people I was meeting. To let your own culture and your own thoughts merge with this mixture is fascinating, and one of the major perks of studying abroad.
- Make the effort. It’s so easy, when faced with a daunting situation, to cower back and let it all wash over you without thinking. This is the worst thing you can do, trust me. Find people you have something in common with, whether this be the classes you take, the music you like, the position of your locker… and talk. The best way to integrate is to put yourself out there. When it comes to work, there is no reason to let it slip because of a new situation. If you have moved specifically to study, or you have been given (like I was), no choice in the matter, there is still work to be done. It’s an excellent way of taking your mind off whatever worries you may have, and the quicker you get yourself into the swing of the work load, the quicker you can forget your initial qualms about your new school. One thing that was really hammered home after my time abroad was that time goes very fast, and before you know it your day, week, term and year will be over. It pays to make the effort whilst you can, and not lose sight of what you have to achieve – be this a new qualification or simply to gather some new experiences.
- Embrace it! With so much going on – new friends, new country, new school – it is so easy to forget what an opportunity this is. Not one other person I knew back home had been given the chance to finish their education in such an amazing way. Now, through the other side, if I could only give one piece of advice it would be this: embrace every little thing, every little quirk – good and bad – and appreciate whatever it is you are there to do. Not only are you getting the benefit of an education, but this education is being given in surroundings that, in themselves, can offer some form of lesson. No one said it would be easy, but it gets there in time. Like any expat experience, it is best not to lose sight of the reason you are where you are, but to grab every little opportunity you can to do so much more than you hoped for. Go on school trips to other foreign lands, join international competitions, dive into the culture of your country. Don’t keep your learning to the classroom, and what’s more, become part of your school and teach a bit of yourself and your own background to those around you.
May 2008
Thanks go to Jenny Early for sharing with us her experiences. Jenny moved from the UK to The Netherlands for her final two years of school.
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