By Dinda Aisyah
GOMBAK, 8 December 2022: Being miles away from home, in a foreign country, in the pursuit of knowledge, language is one of the challenges encountered by international students studying at IIUM and Renda Mansour Mohammed Nour was one of them, who graduated from the Kulliyyah of Science (KOS).
Renda majored in Biotechnology and received her degree at the seventh session of the 38th IIUM Convocation Ceremony at IUM Cultural Centre (ICC) on Tuesday (6 December).
In an interview with IIUMToday, Renda shared that her biggest challenge was learning and speaking English at IIUM after growing up and studying in Saudi Arabia for 12 years, in which Arabic language is the main language.
Besides English, Malay language is also one of the language barriers she faced as a new student stating, “When I started my study in Kuantan, it was hard because everyone was speaking in Bahasa Melayu (BM).”
Since then, she learned to speak the Malay language and can now say few words in the language.
As an international student, Renda admitted that her first year at IIUM was not easy unlike many of her local friends, but those obstacles did not stop her from completing her degree.
Throughout years at IIUM, family was one of the reasons that motivated her to give her best effort in her study. “Being far away from family, but they want you to be something and are wishing for you is the biggest motivation for me,” she said.
She advised, especially the international students of IIUM, to keep going and never give up, just like how she did not give up and was able to graduate this year.
Language barrier may be a great challenge to overcome, but it did not stop Renda and three of her friends from receiving their scrolls and graduating.
She confessed that even though there were many challenges studying abroad, she was proud to be a part of the IIUM alumni.***