By Azra Farzana Shuib
When Nurul Syazwani Hasram, 22, was forced to work with people outside of her usual circle for a group project, she freaked out. How can I be randomly assigned with strangers to complete a 160-page report, right?
“It’s impossible to work with strangers.” That’s what she thought at first.
When she was in her second year, she had to complete the Hazard and Operability project, which involved analysing a Monoethylene Glycol (MEG) rig located at a building. Being miles away from home, she couldn’t help but to lose her cool when assigned with people from other parts of the world.
Fortunately for her, it didn’t go wrong. In fact, it was one of her best experiences.
“I was wrong. You’ll be surprised at how a stranger can teach you a lot of things and how nice people can be,” she admitted.
“The submission is the best part, because we finished what we started.”
Challenges studying abroad
Syazwani is a Malaysian currently studying Chemical Engineering with Environmental Technology at University of Manchester. Despite having the perk of traveling to several different countries, she couldn’t deny the challenges of facing cultural differences. She confessed being a little defensive when people hurled ignorant accusations about her culture, religion and nation.
“But in the process, I learnt that people who said those things are not necessarily bad people. It’s just what they know, even though it’s not always the truth,” she said.
Syazwani also described how it’s hard for her, though being brought up in a culture that values high morality and modesty, to be at par with the British people when it comes to politeness. She was considered rude for not saying “please” at the end of her sentence. It only came to her consciousness when a friend explained to her that it is a culture of the people over there to say “please”, while understanding that Syazwani wasn’t being rude. Following that, she has to constantly remind herself to always say “please”, and to use the right title to address when writing emails.
“I didn’t feel hurt at all by the reminder, because in Malaysia, we do say ‘please’ when asking someone for a favour, just not as frequent as how people do it here. I wish someone should have told me earlier. I never knew if many of them had thought that I was rude before,” she joked.
“Come to think about it again, I don’t really consider this as my worst experience. It’s just my struggle while I am here,” she mused.
United Kingdom is famous for its attractive accent. That’s one of the things that came to mind when talking about the country, apart from football, of course. But Syazwani isn’t a native English speaker, making it difficult for her to grasp many accents in the first weeks.
“Before this, I always thought everyone speaks Queen’s accent, but I was wrong – there are Northern, Welsh, Scottish and many more. I once took more than two weeks just to familiarise myself with one of my lecturer’s accent,” she laughed.
Persistence in the pursuit of learning
Engineering is not an easy course to begin with, but Syazwani is taking all in her stride. She is now enjoying all moments, by learning how strong she is when she stands alone, and appreciating the people standing together with her.
“On a serious note, learning the course is fun and I am enjoying every tear and sweat of it. I never understand what engineers really do until I got here,” she said.
Being far and months apart from her family means so much more than going through the challenges. She noted that it’s where she has discovered herself the most. Maybe travelling, volunteering, and studying in a place so foreign are experiences best felt under the sky full of challenges. When she volunteers, she experiences diversity. And when she travels, she learns to be independent.
Maybe, just maybe, the reason why we’re not experiencing the thrill of life yet is because we have not taken ourselves there. Maybe the first step to take is just to get rid of the fear and just go.
To Syazwani, the part that she’ll miss the most after graduation can be simplified in her own words that “the university life has taught me that amazing things happen outside of our comfort zone”. ***