Sixth Former Shaokai "Jerry" Lin '16, of Zhuhai, China, addressed the School Community at Church Assembly on Thursday, October 1. He discussed the challenges faced by international students in coming to America to receive their education.
The full transcript of Jerry's talk follows.

When the big quiz on The Old Man and the Sea was handed back to me, my heart nearly skipped a beat: a giant F, sitting in the top right corner. I walked back to St. Hugh's alone. I made sure Rory was not in the room, and then I cried. Yes, indeed, I cried about my grades for the first time.

Third Form year was my hardest year at the Abbey. As an international student who had only been to the United States on vacation, going to a Catholic boarding school, speaking another language, and having pasta for meals were some real challenges. Like other international students, I dealt with unprecedented cultural pressure. I feared that I might have no friends. I worried that I couldn't understand what my teachers said during class. I was uncertain about my future. Some people say: "It is such an Asian thing, to care so much about grades." For the past three years I have heard a lot about the Asian stereotype: B+ means "bad"; A- means "can work harder"; college means Ivy League. Some say our parents whip us if we don't earn a 4.0 GPA.

You may take the presence of international students at the Abbey for granted. However, applying to the Abbey from another country is quite a life-changing experience. First of all, in China most students are trapped in the Chinese educational system, which is absolutely standardized. I graduated from a public middle school in China, and for all three years my classmates never changed: we stayed in the exact same classroom and took the same classes. Because of this rigid class system, students form a strong bond with their classmates. Even the reunions, many years later, are organized by classroom assignments. Therefore, I was quite surprised when I first heard Reunion Weekend at the Abbey. "How can a student possibly know the rest of his Form?" I thought. In China, the middle school finale is "Zhongkao," the High School Entrance Exam. This is the first major exam students encounter, and it determines their future lives. Everyone has only one chance at the exam, and if you mess up, you cannot go to an elite high school, and thereby lose your chance to get into a good college.

When my parents told me that they wanted me to study here, I was reluctant. For international students, preparing for an American education is tough. Most boarding schools demand both the TOEFL and SSAT. I spent an entire summer studying English, and then I dropped the first half of the next semester to continue preparing for those standardized tests. I had to stay in another city where they had better English teachers. The pressure was constant. I took the TOEFL four times and the SSAT three times to earn decent scores. This isn't unusual: my experience is quite typical for Chinese and other international students. But the acceptance letter from the Abbey, which arrives in March, only marks the start of a whole new series of challenges.

The first challenge is still the language. Even after months of study, when I was put into a completely English environment, I felt lost. Before I said anything aloud I had to think for a long time about the grammar and diction (basically going through the sentence word-for-word in my brain before I said it). Just think about communicating in Latin 24/7--that was how I felt, and how many of the international students feel.

Another challenge was religion. In China, the majority of people are atheists or agnostics. For most people in China, Christianity just means "Jesus' and the word "Amen." Growing up with a Buddhist grandmother, I had only very limited experience with religion. When I came here, the first mass confused me. I did not know any of the prayers and I panicked when I saw that most of you knew the prayers by heart. I accidentally received communion and had no idea that I would be damned for it. However, when I met Father Pascal in my ancient history class, I was immediately captured by his amiable and cool personality. Monks are not all super rigid and stern, despite what my instincts told me. And after suffering through Humanities, I developed a much deeper understanding of Christianity, thanks to St. Thomas Aquinas.

Academics were challenging as well. In my Third Form year I was terrified by Beowulf and Shakespeare's Sonnets. The history of Rome seemed like a story about aliens. We learned Latin as yet another foreign language, in English, a language we barely spoke. The never-ending quizzes, papers, tests, and recitations, and the fact that they all determine the end-of-the-year grade which our parents will see. . .well, just be thankful you're not from Asia.

I once naively thought that American high school was just like "High School Musical." Then I realized that Disney had lied to me. American society is extremely diverse. We Chinese students benefit from that diversity: for instance, there's Siam Square and New China down the road. But we also are often befuddled by the cultural challenges and the pressures we face here and back home. Still, we learn from the clash of various ideas and cultural expectations; we grow independent through this boarding school experience; and we form bonds with you, our classmates, our friends, from around the globe and for decades into the future.

By the way, today is China's National Day - October 1st. There in China, we would have a one-week holiday to celebrate. Mr. McDonough, want do you think?

Thank you.