First DSP Meeting, Lecture and Language

The meeting with my supervisor and DSP chair this afternoon really encourages me. It shows me that my situation is regarded, the difficulties I encountered are noticed and my hard-working is confirmed. As a foreign newcomer here, I feel I am cared about by someones. They suggest me turn them for help and ask them questions freely, which remind me that I am in a team and not alone.

After 4 weeks' study, I gain some tips about how to follow the lectures better. The most important step, in my case, is preparing lessons before class. You need to pick up the key words and get familiar with them, especially the pronunciations, so that you will not miss them in the class. You can practise by repeating many times. What's more, tick the points you cannot understand or feel confused so that you can pay more attention to them in the class or ask the questions to the lecturer or classmates. I the class, you should pay very close attention to the lecturer. Acclimatize yourself to the his/her accent as soon as possible and take the front seat so that you can hear the lecturer more clearly if necessary. I do not think it is a good idea the record the lecture, because it is time consuming and you may relay on the recordings too much. But I appreciate the tradition of asking questions in the class as most western students do, although it needs a lot of encourage for a Chinese student. After class, it is quite necessary to review what you learnt through practising, doing assignment or homework, discussing with other people, referring to other materials, etc..The more, the better. Anyway, practice makes better. Try to make sure all the knowledge points understood and configurate the knowledge structure or knowledge tree of the sections and then the modules. This is actually what I did before, I should do this with the modules in totally English environment now. Furthermore, try to connect the knowledge of different subjects and find the over-leaped and interlinked parts. Most importantly, keep thinking about how to apply what you learn into your research.

Some specific suggestions to improve the language. (1) Simply organize the words before you speak and speaking slowly and clearly. Make sure people can understand you. (2) Try to talk with the native speakers at any  suitable situations. Do not scare to speak with other people. (3) Listen to the speakers, such as the lectures in class very carefully. Never give up. You may catch more even if you cannot hear anything at the beginning. (4) Discuss the expressions which confuse you and cannot be figured out by looking up the dictionaries with the local people.