This is the reality of what it’s like studying in University of South Australia at Adelaide, a story told based on my objectivity without any marketing essence. I bet some of my friends who are planning to come here to study would like to know about this, especially Poh Li Jhuin who requested it.
The moment this post is uploaded will be when I just get my internet connection at home, and you all can start popping me up with questions.
Firstly, I would like to start off with the education style here which is immensely different from Malaysia’s. Today was my first day of tutorials. Classes really didn’t work out for me and I got so disappointed that for one second, I felt like I want to go back to Taylor’s to study.
The main reason was because in Malaysia, teachers teach us to answer and score the exam questions while here, they just teach us to understand and learn on our own. In other words, the information given by Malaysian tutors are sufficient to get High Distinction, but Australian tutors will only assist us in passing the subject. The extra effort and extraordinariness in getting the High Distinction here very much depend on ourselves.
In simple terms, I need to spend more time reading and studying on my own if I want to get the HDs compared to in Malaysia. This sucks! Now I know why I could still afford to give tuition to my lovely high-school students especially Cassandra Leow, Leou Phooi Kuan and Lim Yee Lyn; have time to check the KLSE and identify investment opportunities; have enough brain juice to think of business ideas in order to improve my website; have free time to play my PS2 games such as Naruto, Persona, Final Fantasy and Dynasty Warriors series; have affordability to watch the night and weekend TVB series in Wah Lai Toi, Astro; have the capability to go online to chat and play Facebook games such as Farmville, Friends For Sale and Happy Aquarium; and yet still score straight HDs for the semester. Things are different NOW!
I can now foresee the possibilities which might happen to me in Adelaide. If I insist in obtaining the HDs, I would have to really spend a lot of time and effort in my studies. This means finding a balance between working part-time, working on my business plan, and studying would seriously put me in a hell-like circumstance.
The good thing about this kind of education style is that we would not be spoon-fed, and this is what the real working world would look like. It is probably better to start early learning how to learn independently, rather than realising and adapting to it after graduation. Well, this just means HDs here are much more valuable than in Malaysia.
People here also have different lifestyle and culture which explains why they are complacent and easily satisfied with passing grades. They are very much into drinking, clubbing and gambling. Hence, it is very common to find them ending up in pubs, clubs, bars, casinos and finally in the police station. The last location is because they tend to start fights when they are drunk and cause trouble. As foreigners, walking on streets at night especially weekends are dangerous and strongly not advisable. Many of us students would get influenced by this culture and adopt the playful attribute of the locals, but I dare say I will not!
Coming over to Adelaide means getting out of our comfort zone because we are living without our family and leaving home. This is a really different life experience as everything must be done almost independently although there might be a few friends accompanying us. Things learnt would be cooking, cleaning, where to get cheap groceries and home equipment, what to cook for every meal, etc. These are enough to keep ourselves busy besides just studying.
Another big thing that we have to prepare for is starting almost a new life. Coming over to Adelaide means leaving most of your friends and things would not be similar to the old life anymore. When you begin a new life, limited friends would mean you need to tolerate a lot despite conflicts and hatred. This would take a while until you get to expand your network and know more people. If this happens quickly, you would then only be able to know which people suits your style and who to become good buddies with.
Free tram ride within the city
Adelaide which is well-known as the 20-minutes city has a very well connected public transport system. Travelling around the city is convenient; one can take free tram and bus rides within the city which stops frequently, or walk from one place to another very safely.
Food is quite of a problem as it is expensive outside. One must be expected to cook at home as an average single person serving outside would cost easily AUD 7 – 10. Not only is the price not right, the taste of Chinese food don’t really taste right either. They are not as delicious as the Malaysian Chinese food and one would probably get better food by cooking at home.
Entertainment here is slightly different from Malaysia. If one is not into the bars and clubs, they would be seeking outdated released movies in the cinemas, or shopping at streets which are known as shopping malls here. There are no tall shopping complexes here like Sunway Pyramid, Mid Valley and 1 Utama; just pathetic un-air-conditioned streets as malls. However, the weather here is mostly nice and pleasing. That’s why they don’t need the air-conditioning and can just use the strong soothing breezes as its substitute.
Adelaide is one city which has many festivals and events. The above pictures are examples of what they have. I can’t remember what is it called but it’s just colourful artwork with light projected on buildings producing beautiful paintings on its walls. People here are so amazed with it but I find it nothing much extraordinary (lame would be too harsh). Another amazing event I went together with my housemates is the Pyrotechnics which had fireworks and fire shows in a supposed-to-be horserace stadium. This only happens once in 5 years, so just count this out if you are intending to come here soon.
Seriously, almost everything here is expensive even without converting to Ringgits. One thing I find it unreasonable is the Internet and printing service. Internet usage is not unlimited like Streamyx in Malaysia. It counts according to how much data one uploads and downloads. If exceeded the data limit of the month, one needs to upgrade to a higher data package and pay more. The worst thing is even the Wi-Fi in the UnSA and its computers have an Internet quota, just like printing services. Printing here also sucks, people say that the university is providing sufficient printing quota, but there’s no easily accessible photocopying service here. Photocopying in university is even more expensive than printing out from the computers. This means we cannot photocopy friends’ notes like what we do in Taylor’s, probably because they are very strict in copyrights issues.
Overall, we can have two viewpoints about Adelaide if you are like me. Pessimistically, coming here is like asking for trouble because we pay money to torture ourselves and put ourselves in a suffering state. Optimistically, in midst of suffering, we are actually learning how to survive independently and exposing ourselves to the international culture and the spoonfeeding-less reality.
I don’t personally encourage anybody to come to Adelaide just because I need company here, neither will I give up and go back to Malaysia because life is much easier there. Since I’m already here, I will make the best out of this place. I shall take this studying difficulty here as a challenge to test my true self capability!
The gang I began with in Adelaide
Receiving the award from the Aussie and Puan Sri Datin Seri Dr Susan Cheah 
