Lucy Baohua Yu

The University of Hong Kong, Hong Kong
Exchange to University of Sydney, Australia

The Endeavour Programme: My Pathway to Excellence

Looking back at my 6 months as an exchange student in Australia in 2007, life at the University of Sydney was extremely exciting and rewarding. It was exciting because I found my pathway to better understanding of western culture, made friends from different countries, explored my research project, discussed with world-famous professors on academic issues and gained new insights into cross-cultural adaptation and English learning of Asian international students at Sydney University. It was rewarding because I also found my pathway to confidence in being a real researcher in future, in presenting at TESOL colloquium, giving SPSS workshops and consultations, helping PhD students with their research problems, and fulfilling my proposed project “Towards a Model of Crosscultural Adaptation and Second Language Acquisition: An Investigation of Asian International Students in the Australian Universities”.

Professor Marie Bashir, the Governor of New South Wales, told us that her overseas experience changed her whole life. In the same way, my overseas experience has broadened my horizons of different cultures and customs and enriched my insight into culture differences from a multicultural perspective. I am sure that my experience in Australia will have a very profound impact on my academic career and life. I do hope that every student should find an opportunity to study abroad.

With her multicultural society, beautiful natural scenery, friendly people and democratic atmosphere, Australia is very special in my eyes. Interestingly, although I have been in Australia 3 times before, it was this time that I felt comfortable or proud of being called a visiting scholar at the University of Sydney. I attributed it to the fact that I could contribute to my host university, which in fact I have never done before except to enjoy being a guest in 2 previous experiences in such a lovely country. I was so lucky to have chosen Sydney University as my host university, where I got to know many excellent academic staff, such as Professor Barbara Fawcett, Dr. Shen Hui Zhong, Dr. Kevin Laws, Professor Brian Paltridge and Dr. Lindy Woodrow. Also, I was so happy with being a PhD student from the University of Hong Kong, where I got support from my supervisors, Professor David Watkins, Professor Amy Tsui, Dr. Bob Adamson and Professor Colin Evers. Without all those nice people in the voyage of my life, I would not have gained such a previous exchange experience and reached so far in my academic career, and my life in Australia couldn’t have been so cheerful, wonderful and meaningful.

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