A
good friend and the most reliable colleague I have ever worked with just moved
to the UK. To me, he is more techy than a writer but he sees things in funny
yet wise ways and I feel they are worth sharing.
I
asked him to share his experience so far that I wanted to put on the blog, so
here is what he has ‘seen’……….
It is very
interesting to note that travelling abroad has NEVER been my ultimate dream as
regards to educational pursuit, but as the days passed with its experiences, I
found out that in one stage in our lives, we need a foreign touch in our
education to create a wide range or global opportunity in this present day
'hustling'.
Let's get it
straight; any one that tells you, you don't need to travel abroad to school to
be great, the person is absolutely right and unfortunately wrong because if you
have the money+opportunity, you need to make the move for larger scope of
learning.
If you're planning on
coming to England, please note... You need to learn how to speak very fast and
with your noise. You may not have the chance to hear a particular word twice in
a day or throughout your stay in the UK. Also, you'd better start arranging
yourself to be eating 'leaves' like I did (I'm still doing), because it may
take you up to £10 to start eating the Nigerian delicacies that you're used to.
Before I came I was
gaping my mouth about how I will withstand the cold here, recounting my long
stay in Abuja Harmattan but the weather et al is not your friend so you must
prepare to get docked in your bed if you cannot withstand the weather
condition. Funny enough, we are in the summer, still waiting for the winter and
I'm already feeling like, “mehn I miss Nigeria weather really bad”. My house
here is surrounded by waterways, that alone is a threat, but what will I do?
'Man must survive, yea?'
Making friends in a
strange land is another form of 'schooling' if I must confess. I've learnt not
to approach people for relationship/friendship with no reasonable intent; else
I'll crash land like many Nigerian folks I've seen here. They want to belong
without first, brushing themselves up and defining their motives. I must not
forget to state here that, I thought 'kissing' was the only and acceptable
officially displayed greeting pattern here in England, because my journey from
Heathrow International Airport to Chatham Maritime, Kent, I recorded over 20
public kissing scenes and I thought “wow I've come to a kissing country.”
Amongst other things
which I believe has brought me closer to my books is that in a foreign learning
environment like that, I've not seen any level of academic competition like
what we have in Nigeria. And everyone goes to the club, drink, takes unending
'shots', smokes tobacco, drives on the highest speed as possible, dance and
sing as and when due. I wonder, guess it’s the culture.
After all said and
pointed out, don't be worried, as I've noticed, all international students tend
to know the reason why they're in a foreign land to learn and they take their
studies very seriously and that is shown in their conduct, apart from those who
wants to 'belong' by all means possible. But if you're like me, don't worry,
come over and have some fun in learning. Cheers!!!
@Operko
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