Lee is a first-semester international student at Vanderbilt. Because Lee has advanced English skills and had spent some time in the U.S. before, they felt very confident about coming to Vanderbilt. However, much to their surprise, after a short time, Lee began to feel overwhelmed with their new learning environment.
In class, the student hasn’t felt like they are learning very much because the other students talk as much as and sometimes even more than the professor. When Lee has a question, the class has often moved on by the time the student is prepared to ask it. One time, Lee asked a question in class, but instead of answering the question, the professor asked Lee, “What do you think?” Lee just wanted the answer. Also, the American students often use slang or make cultural references that Lee doesn’t understand, and students have different accents that Lee isn’t used to. Students often call their professors by their first name, which confuses Lee. Last week, one student in the class even disagreed with the professor in front of the class, which Lee felt was inappropriate.
Recently, Lee got their first writing assignment back. The professor asked Lee to redo a section of the assignment because an article that Lee referred to wasn’t properly paraphrased and cited. The professor also commented that part of the paper had “grammar issues” with no explanation. Lee was confused by the professor’s feedback but decided not to go to the professor’s office hours because they have always been an excellent student. Lee is also overwhelmed by the amount of reading for her classes, but above all, Lee is incredibly homesick. For these reasons, Lee decided to rest for a couple of days instead of going to class. One professor emailed Lee to inquire about their absence, but Lee didn’t see the email for over a week. In the email, the professor said that Lee should check Brightspace for any missing assignments, which Lee rarely logged into. When Lee finally returned to class, they could tell that the professor was frustrated, which only made Lee feel worse.
