New Zealand, education abroad, anxiety, andvices Pls♥
Hello! May I pick your brain? ( I would prefer any advice: from local people and people who experienced the same. Thank you for all your answers in advance.)
I`d like to kick off with a succinct introduction about me. I`m female 25 y.o. I have been enrolled at the university in Wellington to get a Master`s degree. It was my dream of life. I am an anxious, but well-disciplined, conscientious and diligent person. I really did a very meticulous, tedious and laborious slog to enrich and improve my English. My program will start in July. Therefore, some obsessive thoughts in my head are really irritating and frustrating. I would like to ask some questions which bother me:
1) Communication and Language
As a bulk of international students I hesitate that I can speak English in New Zealand at all. Yes, I practice my English every day and spend around 1-4 hours per day. I have a vast and enriched vocabulary (maybe), but a lot of words I can recall in writing or recognise them in reading, when I start speaking... My thoughts are scattered, words which I know/knew try to "elude" me and my brain just experiences "loading" like I`m trying to download a huge file with a low-speed Internet. I don`t know how to express my feelings, but words just slipped my mind and I feel an instant degradation... As a result, my facial emotions like a deer in the headlights and my poker face can be interpreted as rudeness or an unwillingness to continue a conversation, but I want to speak! I know this behaviour is unacceptable in New Zealand on account of their upbringing and customs... Moreover, I have some troubles with listening haha even in my native language, so sometimes I can ask to repeat smth( sometimes I can ruminate some ideas or thoughts in my head, soooo I can be absent-minded a bit). Also, New Zealanders have different English words or phrasal verbs which can be novel for me or other tourists or even for English speakers from the USA or UK. Do I have any chance to communicate with ppl in NZ and make friends? Or will I be like a black sheep there? Do you really pay attention to mistakes in speech? I am a very kind and reciprocatable person generally, but I will really need someone there who could support me or just advise smth in an emergency situation because I have no idea how some services work in NZ or what to do during earthquakes etc... Thus, it begs the next question.
2) Local traditions and conduct
I don`t want to be under the misapprehension. So I would like to fathom out how to communicate with people in order to not be considered a bizarre person. So do you have some specific traditions which I have to know or any unusual signs in relationships between ppl?
P.S. Sorry for my mistakes in my post and I really appreciate your help and recommendations. I didn`t want to be considered a crybaby, but it is what it is. Conceivably I will redo and add some points because I assume I forgot smth... My thoughts are haphazard now... Sorry for that.
I`d like to kick off with a succinct introduction about me. I`m female 25 y.o. I have been enrolled at the university in Wellington to get a Master`s degree. It was my dream of life. I am an anxious, but well-disciplined, conscientious and diligent person. I really did a very meticulous, tedious and laborious slog to enrich and improve my English. My program will start in July. Therefore, some obsessive thoughts in my head are really irritating and frustrating. I would like to ask some questions which bother me:
1) Communication and Language
As a bulk of international students I hesitate that I can speak English in New Zealand at all. Yes, I practice my English every day and spend around 1-4 hours per day. I have a vast and enriched vocabulary (maybe), but a lot of words I can recall in writing or recognise them in reading, when I start speaking... My thoughts are scattered, words which I know/knew try to "elude" me and my brain just experiences "loading" like I`m trying to download a huge file with a low-speed Internet. I don`t know how to express my feelings, but words just slipped my mind and I feel an instant degradation... As a result, my facial emotions like a deer in the headlights and my poker face can be interpreted as rudeness or an unwillingness to continue a conversation, but I want to speak! I know this behaviour is unacceptable in New Zealand on account of their upbringing and customs... Moreover, I have some troubles with listening haha even in my native language, so sometimes I can ask to repeat smth( sometimes I can ruminate some ideas or thoughts in my head, soooo I can be absent-minded a bit). Also, New Zealanders have different English words or phrasal verbs which can be novel for me or other tourists or even for English speakers from the USA or UK. Do I have any chance to communicate with ppl in NZ and make friends? Or will I be like a black sheep there? Do you really pay attention to mistakes in speech? I am a very kind and reciprocatable person generally, but I will really need someone there who could support me or just advise smth in an emergency situation because I have no idea how some services work in NZ or what to do during earthquakes etc... Thus, it begs the next question.
2) Local traditions and conduct
I don`t want to be under the misapprehension. So I would like to fathom out how to communicate with people in order to not be considered a bizarre person. So do you have some specific traditions which I have to know or any unusual signs in relationships between ppl?
P.S. Sorry for my mistakes in my post and I really appreciate your help and recommendations. I didn`t want to be considered a crybaby, but it is what it is. Conceivably I will redo and add some points because I assume I forgot smth... My thoughts are haphazard now... Sorry for that.