Middle-aged people go to school abroad

Despite English language barriers, many older Vietnamese people still overcome difficulties and boldly go to universities abroad - Photo: PLD

I tried to finish my studies all summer long just in time for the new school year at university in September. At nearly 50 years old, I entered university for the second time in a foreign country to challenge myself.

1. Before returning to school, I always thought that I was only capable of working and learning through practice, and that studying with books was unthinkable because I no longer had that ability. I was 45 years old and had not studied for a long time.

Until one day I felt I didn't want to continue like that anymore, I needed to change, change for the better. So I changed my mind and started to study to see how far I could go.

Starting with learning English, all the English capital I have is from high school and 4 meager Streamlines classes at the foreign language center of the Pedagogical University in the past, but it has helped me to work and use it for decades from Vietnam to Canada.

I have never been satisfied with my English ability, even though I can communicate fluently about all sorts of things with my colleagues.

I still felt that it was not enough, my English vocabulary and grammar were still lacking. So I started by going to English classes to improve, also to test my ability to absorb after 22 years of not touching the words.

I enrolled in a one-year academic English program at Fanshawe College (London, Ontario, Canada) and applied to change my work from full-time to part-time.

I studied English for two months and I liked it so much, I felt my memory still hadn't "said goodbye" to me, so I decided to continue studying English after finishing.

After spending time figuring out what I needed and what I liked, I decided to study a major that suited me to do the job I wanted, which was social work at Western University. I thought it would be boring to study something I didn't like anymore at my age.

At first, I planned to study in college for only two years to quickly graduate and go to work, but when I registered, there were no vacancies. I had to wait a year for a vacancy, so I went to register for that major at the university.

After writing letters and asking two friends to write reference letters of various types as requested along with my degrees and transcripts from studying in Vietnam, I didn't have much hope but still tried.

I think if I don't get accepted, I'll consider it as spending money to buy experience in applying to university in Canada so that I can guide my children when they go to university.

2. Then one fine day, I was accepted by the university, needless to say I was as happy as if I had won the lottery. Although I didn't know if I could study, I was optimistic, I would take things as they come, if I couldn't study, I would quit and go back to work.

So I entered university for the second time at the age of 44, feeling just as excited as when I first stepped through the university gates at the age of 18.

The first days of school, to be honest, I was shocked and scared. I thought that if international students were shocked when they first came to study in Canada, I would be just like them. Even though I had finished the highest level of the academic English program at school, it was still not enough to understand everything the teachers taught in class.

Sometimes when the teacher spoke, I couldn't keep up, I couldn't understand everything as well as I could in Vietnamese. Not only that, in the first semester of school, looking around, I saw that I was the oldest in the class, although there were many students older than me at school, but they weren't in my class.

My classmates are all young Canadians in their 20s. Sometimes I can't keep up with what they say and I don't understand because they use a different language than me, similar to the slang used by Vietnamese teenagers today.

Even the simple thing on the first day of school, when the lecturer asked everyone to introduce themselves, when I just spoke, the whole class looked at me, was enough to make me tremble, because I was so different.

In the early days, my textbooks were filled with Vietnamese pencil words under social vocabulary that I didn’t know. A chapter that the kids could finish in 15 minutes took me several hours to read and understand.

Besides studying, children, cooking, housework, and earning money are also important parts of my life. I have to cut back on studying, my children are grown up, but an active woman like me who cannot sit still does not allow myself to be idle.

I also don't want to neglect my two children who are growing up and have temperamental personalities, so I try to arrange to take care of everything and do everything within my ability within 24 hours a day.

But maybe thanks to that, I became "better", only focusing on studying and taking care of my small family, no longer having time for trivial things that are not related to me.

Some people see me like that and exclaim, "Why is it so hard, so miserable, why do you have to go to school to suffer?" But I don't feel miserable at all, but I feel very happy, I like going to school, and I feel happy because I get to do all these things.

The author (right cover) shares joy with friends who have completed their master's degrees in Canada - Photo: NVCC

3. A week, a month, then several months passed, I tried every day, looked around and started talking to ask how kids nowadays study, see if there was any way of studying that could be applied to me to try to find a suitable way of studying. The fear in me slowly disappeared without me knowing.

Going to school today is not like in the past, young people all have laptops, iPads, and smartphones. In class, students do not use pens and notebooks to take notes like in the past, but almost all of them type on computers or write on iPads.

Thanks to my IT background, I was not overwhelmed by the technology applied in school. Plus, my typing skills were not bad, so after the first two weeks, I was able to "catch up" with my friends.

I put my pen and notebook aside and use note-taking software to write down everything related to the lecture and organize each lecture, each week into folders. Because the amount of lectures in each subject is quite large and the lecturer teaches quite quickly, taking notes on the laptop makes it easier to organize the lessons, and it is also faster to search for lessons when reviewing.

At the end of the school year, I reviewed my lessons for the exam, using an eraser to erase all the notes from the first days in my textbook, and looking at the notes filled up in my laptop, I realized how much I had learned in the past year. So I am not old, at least when it comes to studying.

Last month, I had exams. I sat in the library from morning to afternoon, and after coming home to have dinner, I ran back to the library to study until 1am. I didn't dare to sit at home to study because I was easily distracted, easily sleepy, and ineffective. And because I'm old, I can't remember as well as young people, so I need a lot of time to study to remember.

After the exam, I looked back and... admired myself because I didn't understand how I could sit and study diligently for more than ten hours a day for such a long period of time. Something that I couldn't even dream of two years ago.

I finished my first year without failing any subject, with all my scores meeting the school's requirements to enter the major and also achieving my goals. I was so happy that I cried tears of joy. It was clear that I was better today than I was yesterday and I had achieved what I wanted to do.

Hopefully in the next 3 years, I will have enough strength, perseverance and luck to reach the end of the path I have chosen and in the future I can do what I love. That is enough for me.

In addition to the happiness of being able to go back to school at middle age in a foreign country, I am also very happy that my husband and many of his friends have also successfully gone to school. My husband has finished his electrical engineering degree and has a good job.

I also just congratulated my friend Huong on completing her master's degree in education and becoming a qualified teacher in Ontario (Canada). My friend Doan is also studying for her master's degree in education...

Looking back at the efforts of my wife, my friends and many other compatriots, I still have pride: I am Vietnamese.

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PHAM LE DUNG

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/trung-nien-di-hoc-o-xu-nguoi-20250509235820928.htm