Cesar Augusto de la Fuente Rizo Blog
Cesar Augusto de la Fuente Rizo was a Masters student in 2021/22 and shares his experience of being an international student in Glasgow
An International Student In Glasgow
When you are an international student, you can face certain obstacles that home students might not face. For example, I was so terrified that I wouldn’t be able to express my ideas in another language in my classes, I sometimes struggled trying to make sense of my brain in my own language! What if I wasn’t smart enough for this country? What if my essays were not of the standard they expected? What if my classmates saw me as just an international student and not as a student?
I can say that I underestimated the language barrier. Sure, I completed the language requirements successfully and because of that, I thought I was ready. But, oh no, I wasn’t. I didn’t only have to think in another language, I also needed to adapt the way I expressed my ideas (special thanks to my supervisor who was very patient with me on this matter), the way I would prioritise topics and the way that I would engage with my friends and classmates.
And this happened not only in the academic realm but in my social interactions too. I was so terrified that I was not going to be funny because the jokes I would share would only be understood in Spanish. In the words of Gloria from Modern Family: “I know what I meant to mean. Do you even know how smart I am in Spanish? Of course, you don’t,” (funny that I’m using a show I criticised in my Sexualities and Society course about how they use the idea of Homonationalism, but to be honest, I like it – just don’t tell my lecturer!). It was so frustrating wanting to express a joke or a reference that, if translated, the magic would end right there before it had a punchline.
One thing that definitely helped me was being in Scotland. Doing my master's degree in Glasgow meant being exposed to accents that were different from the English I was used to. The friends that I made that were born and raised in Glasgow would do the same things as me when we were hanging out - you start to adapt your accent, you wait to know if someone understood you and you’re ready to repeat what you said. You’re also prepared to even hear “what an accent!”, “I like the way you pronounce this” or “what do you even mean with that”.
But more than the feeling of being understood, living in Glasgow also taught me another thing. Living in Glasgow helped me understand that other people were not the ones making me feel like a foreigner but it was my fear of feeling like one that was affecting me. We should also add to this story that ‘People Make Glasgow’ and it is true. People were very welcoming and when I would meet a random person at a pub and they discovered I was from Mexico, they would be excited and interested in me.
I understood that maybe I was going to struggle with the language barrier but if there was a city where I would feel less stressed about it, it would be Glasgow. It made me realise those obstacles as an international student, not all of them, but some of them were a product of my fears. And that the experience of doing a Master's degree in Glasgow was not only an academic achievement but also a personal one. I was able to make some jokes in English and I think I was funny enough to make some friends. So I was glad to learn that I could be funny in another language.