Hoi Wing Lok

Hong Kong Baptist University, Hong Kong
Exchange to Swinburne University, Australia

The 4-month exchange programme was really an unforgettable event in my life. It brought me a life lesson that I couldn’t learn from ordinary classes at university. After this summer holiday, I will resume my third year of study at Hong Kong Baptist University. But in the coming year, I look forward to more and more students being able to take this chance to broaden their horizons by experiencing different cultures.

It was my first time to step into a foreign and unfamiliar country. The feeling inside my mind could be described as a little bit nervous and excited when I got off the flight. I was picked up by the staff of Swinburne University and they sent me to my new family in Australia, that is my homestay family. I was greeted with great enthusiasm upon arrival. My homestay father was called Steven Ngau, a Malaysian Chinese, who was very nice and able to speak 5 languages, including Cantonese. Therefore, communication with him was not a big problem for me, even though I am not very good at English. Being a new member of the family, I was gradually taught some general knowledge about life in Australia. My homestay family helped me a lot in adjusting myself to great change. In addition to that, Steven often took his students to different places to experience Australian life, such as the Sunday market, the Vietnamese seafood market, Chinatown during lunar new year.... All in all, I felt very warm while staying with Steven’s family. This helped me to construct a positive approach while facing difficulties in the future.

In the first week I arrived Melbourne, I went to the Orientation Day and met many new friends. And then I stepped into the new academic year at Swinburne University of Technology. Being enrolled in the faculty of life and social science, I was quite happy to study my field, sociology, in this period of time. The first challenge I met was the difficulty in communication. Even though I could almost fully understand what the teachers were saying in lectures, it was a little bit hard for me to have daily conversations with local students. Soon, I noticed that the university was eager to help international students and had set up English conversation groups, which aimed to help students build up confidence during conversations.

In addition to that, Swinburne University also provided several study programmes focusing on academic writing, conversational English and grammatical errors. These helped students from non-English speaking countries a lot. With the help of these additional services, I was able to catch up with my assignments at Swinburne University. I was surprised that Swinburne University was so considerate to international students, which makes it become a better international university in Australia.

The next characteristic about this exchange programme is that it enables one to become more independent. Every student who studies abroad has to make all arrangements on their own, from apartment renting to the use of their spare time. In the first few weeks, I could not get used to this sudden change, especially since it was the first time I had prepared myself a proper meal. Everyday, the first thing I needed to think about was what food was ready and suitable for my breakfast. Was it cheap enough for daily consumption and how about its nutritional value.... going on with my lunch and dinner. I soon found out that to prepare a meal wasn’t as easy as it appeared to be. There was chaos in the kitchen every time after I finished food preparation. Lately, I have found that western dishes are much easier to cook. It requires fewer cooking skills to make the food delicious.

Unlike Hong Kong, the pace of life in Melbourne is slow. I enjoy walking in the parks and on the streets of Melbourne. In these few months, I have also gone to many places in Melbourne, such as the Great Ocean Road, where I can see special rock, a broad sea and a blue sky; at Victoria Market, I have bought many souvenirs for my family and friends in Hong Kong. I even thought of traveling around the whole of Australia after I have finished my examinations at Swinburne University. However, I could not do that because I had to get back to Hong Kong immediately the day after I had my examination. I had to join my classmates in Hong Kong on a trip to Beijing. On one hand, it was a pity. But on the other hand, I got another chance to live in a different place, experience different lives. I believe, both the trips to Australia and Beijing, would be fruitful journeys in my life!

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