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International students at MSU: Yulong (China)

My name's Yulong, I'm from China, and my major is Mathematics and Economics. I came to United States, well MSU in 2006 August. That was the first time I came to United States, or ever went abroad from China. So, a very funny story that I always share with everyone is, I call it the Subway Experience. I was ordering a sandwich, starting my American experience, but I had no idea, due to the language barrier; I was not able to pronounce items in the country: how to say tomato, how to say lettuce, how to say cheese. So I'm looking at all the millions and millions of things in front of me and the guy at the counter was asking me very impatiently, saying "What do you want on your sandwich?" He kept asking that, while there was a huge line behind me. So the only word that came to my mind was "everything", so I said everything and he ended up giving me every single thing on my sandwich, including every single kind of dressing. So, it was the most horrible sandwich I've ever had in my life, and that happened on my second day. I finished the sandwich and I told myself, "That's not gonna work, I gotta work on that." So that's a very, very great story and since then, I guess I was more open to the surrounding environment, more open to people who are different from me, more open to the cultural shock, more humble and modest in terms of asking questions, in terms of clarifying cultural differences. So that was a really really bad sandwich, but it was a really cool experience.

Most of the time, from my own personal observation, international students tend to stay in their own community as a first step. I think that's a great resource, I think that people from your own country who speak your same language, who have been here for no matter how long, they can give you very, very important advice on getting around and getting familiar with the culture of life here in the U.S. and in MSU. But I also think that from my personal experience, there is a huge, way bigger world out there for you to take advantage of. I always tell myself it's really exciting to meet people from other countries and realistically speaking, I think that's a really great way to practice English, because when you get involved, people definitely speak English most of the time. In the long term the benefit definitely ranged from being academically successful to being personally well-developed, in terms of communication skills, leadership skills, in terms of getting more knowledge about the campus or about the society through community service and volunteer opportunities. Really, don't feel bad or be afraid of making mistakes, I think that's what I sometimes really kept telling myself, "just do it", and I realized I really love it and I took it to a different level. You don't have to be in certain positions to be a leader, you can be a great leader, just be yourself. Really, all that matters is what you do and why you're doing it. For example, if there's not a certain group or certain student organization you'd like yourself to fit into, for sure be a great a leader of yourself and start it on your own. This is a community which provides you a lot of means and tools to share your ideas. If there's anything that catches your interest or catches your inspiration, follow it, and MSU is a great place to find your passion.

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International students at MSU: Yulong (China)

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