Dear Parents, Caregivers & Friends of the College

Each international student has an unique story of studying in New Zealand and I am here to share my reflections. When I first got into the school, everything was different from what I was familiar with: different language, different culture, different education systems, and different appearances of people. As an international student, I have spent all three years trying to understand what was going on around me and striving to survive in the new environment. I had to smile to pretend like I understood what they said; I had to pretend like I was okay with how they made fun of me being Asian because I didn’t know how to explain that I didn’t want to hear such things and It was really hard for me to snap out of a bad mood. Such things made me blame the nationality of    myself and question my understanding of different cultures and education systems.  However, such things did not stop, and it is still continuing these days. The thing I learned from such things is that I have to be strong to myself and show resilience and tolerance to everyone. I do not blame people for not understanding various cultures. but as International student leader for 2020 one of my aims is to break down these barriers and work on acceptance. We need to grow a cultural understanding of each other. 

Next thing I want to talk about is globalisation. The world of your future will require you to deal easily and often with people from other countries. The world is and will be increasingly globalised, in terms of trade and relations between countries, and the collaboration needed for clever and innovative businesses. Therefore it is even more imperative that we grow and accept each other for who we are.  I want to say this to both kiwi and internationational students.  Here you are, still very young, but already having a chance to learn a new culture, mix with new people, share ideas and be strong and independent. How lucky are we??

These things will stand you in good stead to be successful global citizens, whether living in your home countries or living in another country elsewhere. As we all know, TBC is a unique school with many nationalities making up the student body. I am really proud to say I am an international student leader and represent the variety of the many cultures. As an international student leader, my aim is to promote relationships between students from different nationalities and to develop respect and understanding for each other’s cultures. I will make the international student community more powerful and also I will endeavour to ensure that our International students here at TBC assimilate more into our school community. Finally, I want to share with you what the lockdown during Covic-19 meant for me. I have never experienced such difficult conditions in my life. It was really either a positive or a negative for us. Even though it had different meanings for everyone, the one thing we had in common was that we all had responsibilities and we all had to work together to overcome the situation. I believe the covid-19 enhanced the awareness of the responsibility that we as citizens hold, and it made us more confident and work together much more easily if any kind of harsh conditions face us in the future. Coming together is a beginning

Staying together is a progress

And Working together is a success 

I would like to end my speech with a short Korean prayer about working together as a community to prosper in hard times.

술잔을 들자하니 

천하가 내 발 아래 있고

친구들 또한 옆에 있으니 

염라대왕 또한 두렵지 않구나

Thank you boys 감사합니다 형님덜 

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