My experience as an international student studying Speech Pathology

This week, we are changing things up a bit, instead of sharing information about speech and language, today is more personal. This would be a good way for you all to know more about me as well. This may be insightful for some other international students like me or Australians interested in the hurdles and adventures we international students have as student speech pathologists.

*Disclaimer: The following is solely my personal opinion, and is not supported by a third party.

I still remember vividly the first day of uni, entering the grand and ancient lecture theatre, crowded, rows of girls filling up the room. I grabbed a seat, looking around, out of 100, there were only 3 or 4 of us are internationals. It was shocking considering Australia's universities are filled with internationals. But yea, that makes sense, speech pathology is a language-dependent degree, I was required to score a specific mark in my IELTS. (an international English test for foreigners who intend to go to an English country) to enter this degree.

Lectures

As soon as our semester started, we were bombarded with neurology classes and linguistic classes. The hardest part for us internationals is undoubtedly linguistics. I recall spending at least 2-3 hours everyday practice transcribing an audio file based on the HCE the phonemic symbols of Australian sounds. Often internationals have different English accents and have been influenced by multiple cultures. Me for instance, I am born in Hong Kong and was taught under the British education system. Thanks to the influence from media platforms like youtube, I speak with an American accent but at times use American or British vocabulary. The way I pronounce words influences how I transcribe certain words e.g. avocado, cucumber.

Read About Me

I enjoyed transcribing and was so devoted to it. Yet I merely passed my exam and I certainly know some of our international students failed the unit because of this exam.

Placements

My accent has impacted my placements as well. I tend to speak /o/ in a rounded and clear way, such as the word /arm/, Australians tend to say it like am but I stress the r sound within- arm

Thus, I have to be aware when teaching children the r sound at word-final/middle positions, then flatten to r sound.

I also shorten vowels such as pronouncing the word 'sit' and 'seat' similarly.

That being said, I would constantly remind myself to slow down and lengthen vowels appropriately.

As simple as these may seem for native Australians, for international students like me, I am constantly alert of how my accent/the way I speak affect my speech delivery not only across my career but also in my daily life.

I hope this blog has given you an insight how it is like to be an international student studying a speech pathology degree. If you are like me, an international student, or are interested in knowing more, message me, and let's chat!

Happy Mother's Day to all the wonderful mothers! Enjoy the sunshine and a great weekend.

Joyce Lau