何慧玲 (生物-藥劑學士學位課程)
Ho Wai Leng (Bachelor of Science in Biomedical Technology: Pharmacy Technology)

 

I am honored to have the opportunity to participate in this overseas study program in Australia. This was my first time travelling out of Asia. I was so excited and anxious before I left. I felt excited because it was my first time to visit Australia, and I was anxious to go to an English-speaking country. I lived with a host family from Sri Lanka. They were very nice to me. My host family is in the suburbs but my school is in the city. So I had to wake up early every morning. The most memorable thing was the first week: I kept getting lost and I came late for half an hour for school in the first day. I thought the way of the city was large and complex. I didn’t know how could I go to school and back home. I even had to ask six people to find my way back home in the same day. They were very nice and friendly to help me. Although my English skills are not good, I used the body language to communicate. Every morning I need to take the bus and the train to school and this would take one hour. It was quite different than Macao.

In the Global Professionals Program, I learnt about communication skills, presentation skills, how to work with another people, different cultures, I also learnt about and how to have small talks in Australia. In the second week, Japanese students joined that class. Fortunately, there was a Japanese boy who lived in my host family. I learnt Japanese from him and I taught him Chinese. We got along very well. We went to school together and I didn’t get lost again. Luckily we were assigned to the same class and the same group. In my class, there was a mixed group of student from different ages, language abilities, and experiences. So we can all learn from one another, especially if the learning environment is supportive. We had many chance to show our presentation skills, share our experience, and discuss with our groupmates. We had the opportunity to speak English during class and in our breaks. The trainer introduced a lot about Melbourne workplace culture, which made Business English lively and interesting. It was fantastic that we learnt so many different cultures in Melbourne.

On the weekends, I joined several one-day tours. I have been to Phillip Island to see little penguins, koalas, and kangaroos which is unique to Australia. I visited Mt. Buller, which is a mountain with real snow. It was my first time to feel snow. I felt so excited and the scenery was beautiful despite the long drive.

Finally, all the students from Macao became good friends with all Japanese students. We always ate and shared our lunch together and we learnt about Japanese culture. They even held a farewell party for us in the last night before we left. We were very impressed and touched!

This was a meaningful journey because I had to adjust to a different culture. I think living abroad is an amazing experience: it can broaden one’s global perspective, increase one’s cultural curiosity, and provide many opportunities to explore unfamiliar situations. In this journey, I learnt to be independent because sometimes I had to solve problems by myself.  Therefore, it was a good experience for me. Thank you MPI so much for giving me this precious chance because it was an unforgettable summer. When I see the photos that I took in Australia, it has many remarkable memories. I miss all of the Macao and Japanese students who met in this program! I hope we see each other again!