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New to Warwick

I embarked on my journey to the United Kingdom for tertiary studies with just as much uncertainty as many other students. 

As a Malaysian who has never left his comfort zone full of local cuisines and native languages, I was afraid that my experience at the University of Warwick in Coventry, UK, would be a complete homesick nightmare. Much to my relief, Warwick has its established network of ASEAN community, and its prolific Malaysian Students’ Association connects Malaysian students and ensures that our welfare is well cared for. 

But...my concerns extended beyond my need for familiarity; I wished to also mingle with people of foreign backgrounds, as it completes the experience of studying abroad in an international institute like Warwick. 

Our university had so much more to offer than I expected. 


Over my second weekend staying in Whitefields accommodation, my flatmates and I organised our very own Sunday roast. That was the first time every member of the house worked together to shop, cook and clean up. That event itself brought the house closer, as we had a deeper understanding about each other's cultural backgrounds. We all looked different, spoke different mother tongues and majored in different academic fields. However, the word ‘different’ was never a barrier for us to bond. It was as if our interest in appreciating similarities between one another was more than picking out variances.

It sometimes gets really loud in the house, and there were surely many unfamiliar perspectives which I undeniably took longer than I thought to accept. But living in such a diverse environment has led me to grow more patience and understanding. I love spending my time with my housemates, and we even had our own Secret Santa finger-food party at the end of the term!

I never expected such an experience here. I had my Malaysian community to go to whenever I missed home, but I was also given the opportunity to live with people from Turkey, Hungary, Spain, Italy, Russia and even the UK itself. What’s more to ask for? By, Euan Thum.

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