Don’t be Ashamed to be Stupid

The title above was stated by one of my lecturers in the first class. The lecturer said that as the lecturer saw that all of the students are international student. The lecturer wanted to encourage us as the international students to express freely our opinions or ask questions in class without be ashamed. It because a person that asking questions tend to be seen by other people as a stupid person. Therefore, sometimes students especially the international ones, rarely ask question or state their opinion in class.

As an international student, I understand the situation above because sometimes I had that experience, too. International students may have several obstacles that may hinder them to be active in class. Language barriers may become the big obstacles for international students to be active in class, especially for those who speak other languages beside English as their mother-tongue. Occasionally, it is hard for us to state our thoughts in the correct English to make our lecturer and our classmates understand what we are talking about. Thus, when we have that kind of problems several times, we feel that it is better to be quiet and ask our classmates who may be more understand.

The experience of previous education environments may also impede international students to express their thoughts. I could said I was raised in the culture in where the education environment was different to Australian education environment. In my case, the environment was built to make students only listen and write and teachers are the one who speak in class. It was since in the kindergarten up to the university. I could say that that kind of education environment likely happens in most Asian countries. Therefore, as we tend to be get used with that situation, when we enter a new environment, such as Australian education environment, we may need much time to adapt given the fact that we already have a different education environment for a quite long time.

However, at a point in time, as we involve and engage in class, those obstacles can be solved. One thing that needs to be kept in mind for international students is that we are learning in the new environment. We are not the only one who has those kind of situations. So, don't be afraid to state our opinions!