International Student Assignment Help

Learning Journal Assignment #1

• How comfortable / confident are you to speak out during class discussions? Rate yourself on a scale of 1 – 10 where, 1 = not comfortable / confident at all, and 10 = very comfortable / confident.  What factors did you consider when you gave yourself this rating?

I would rate myself at 3 out of 10 on comfort / confidence in speaking out during class discussions. The factors that I considered are the vocabulary knowledge, fluency of English and the confidence of speaking in front of competent and English speaking audience because I am an international student. When my professors and classmates ask me some questions, I usually need some time to think of the answers in my own language and translate them into English in my head. I am also a very introverted student. Thus, I am not that confident in speaking in speaking out during class discussions.

• Amy Cuddy says that some students struggle with the belief that “I belong in this classroom.” Do you struggle with this belief?  What has caused you to arrive at this view of yourself?

Yes, I also had this kind of a feeling. Being an international student, it was a bit difficult for me to completely translate my thoughts into English words and thus was feeling a bit out of place in the class. Besides, there are not many international students at xxx university. All my previous classes at xxx university had American students only, which means I was the only international student in my previous classes. It made me feel that I am an outsider of the classes.

• Try out some of the poses that Amy Cuddy suggests. Which ones did you pick?  What were the reactions in your body/mood?

I picked the victory pose and one of the power poses,which involved spreading the arms while sitting comfortably on a chair. I tried these for 2-3 minutes before coming to the class and was surprised to see that there was a difference in my confidence level in the class. This difference may not be completely because of the poses but also because of the change in my mindset after watching the video and understanding that if required, we can change the way we feel about ourselves by tweaking our body language slightly.

• What is your overall reaction to this video?

I learned a lot from the video. Being an international student, it was a bit difficult for me to adjust and make myself comfortable in this new environment. But after watching this video, I realized that it is natural to feel this way and there is a way to overcome this situation by slightly changing my body language and my mindset towards my work here. It is very rightly said in the lecture that our body changes our thinking process or mind, which in turn change our behavior towards things we do and ultimately impact the outcome. Thus, little tweaks lead to BIG CHANGES.