Since I decided to study in Dutch, I am the only foreigner in my group.
At first, it was quite challenging because of the language barrier. Although I had communicated with Belgians before, this was my first experience interacting with Belgian teenagers.The students in my group are quite reserved and shy, and they often use various dialects in their speech, which made communication even more challenging. Despite this, I managed to connect with a few girls from my group, who turned out to be very friendly and supportive whenever I had difficulties with my studies.
My university has several campuses across the city. Mine is one of the farthest, located on the outskirts of Antwerp. The commute from my dormitory usually takes 30-40 minutes.
You can find more information about my college here:
The college itself is very different from the educational institutions I was used to in Ukraine. It's modern and beautiful, but more importantly, the style and level of education are completely unique.
The grading system here is quite complicated, and I'm still trying to fully understand it. Instead of grades, students need to earn 60 credits to complete the academic year successfully. At first, I thought it would be easy and overestimated my abilities. After just two months of intense studying, I made the conscious decision to divide my subjects over two years. Interestingly, spreading out credits is a common practice here, unlike in my home country, where it's often frowned upon.
Another cultural difference is that sharing exam results or project scores with classmates is uncommon here. In fact, it's sometimes considered impolite or inappropriate.
The staff at my college is very friendly and always offers psychological or other types of support to students. Everyone here strives to create a tolerant environment and actively combats bullying.
Student Dormitory(Kot)
Living in a student dormitory in Antwerp was also a new experience for me. My dorm is located in the city center and houses just over 100 international students.
Parties, alcohol, and noise? That's what I expected, but my dormitory is surprisingly quiet and clean.
Here is a photo of my room in the student dormitory.
