Excerpts from Kevin’s Narrative
Kevin did one year of undergraduate study in China before coming to Canada to continue his education. He went into the undergraduate program directly with an overall IELTS score of 6.5 and a spoken section score of 5.5. He had been studying in Canada for about a year and a half when I spoke with him.
Figure 3. Artistic representation of Kevin’s story, chosen by Kevin.
Kevin’s description of his artistic representation.
I chose this picture as the representation of my story because, to me, people are the most important element of life no matter where I am. I was a very social person in China, making friends wherever I went, but in Canada, I was forced to suppress my desire to talk by my limited spoken English. I could not develop relationships with Canadians, so I always felt alone. I have taken thousands of pictures of the fabulous landscape of Canada, but I chose this picture as the artistic representation of my story, because no matter how fascinating the landscapes were, I always felt something important was missing from the pictures, the people.
Kevin’s narrative excerpts.
During orientation week, I had no idea what other Canadian students were laughing about around me. I just followed them around, feeling awkward and frustrated. When we had a group dinner together, the Canadian students were all chatting and laughing with each other. But I just sat there, among a big table of people, not understanding what they were saying. Occasionally, I could grasp a sentence or two but by the time I had finished thinking about how to respond, they had already moved on to something new. Then I opened my mouth just to find myself not able to say anything, voiceless. So, I just sat there, silently. I just felt like I was a transparent person sitting among them. Although they seemed to be right beside me within reach, they were a world apart from me, still thousands of miles afar. I thought to myself, sitting there, “What am I going to do with a life like this? How am I going to live a life like this?”
This went on until one day, I felt like I could not stand this whole messed up situation anymore. I decided that I would improve my oral English no matter what so that I could live like a normal Canadian student. I started to change myself. That process of change was so painful, but I knew if I wanted to become stronger, pain was a process that I had to go through. I think I have some language talent and, with dedicated efforts, I believe I will be able to communicate in English confidently one day. It is a process full of frustrations, but I will keep trying. I know it is not easy to learn a foreign language, and the most important thing is not giving up.
