Until 10th of January 1998, the first day I landed on Britain, I had never imagined what kind of challenge I determined myself to confront. In the new land, from the first day I realized just saying yes and no to foreigners was a lot harder than getting correct grammars, I only thought of breaking the language barrier taking every effort I could, which included reading news articles, attending different language schools each week, taking part-time job and preparing for GCSE subjects via those small revision cards sold from WH Smith.

After 3 months I suddenly started to catch up with English dialogues just like one click. Speaking English to me was like the image of igniting a match-stick which burns all the way through from the instance of lighting. Even if I experienced difficulties to socialize with the people in the language school who were 10-20years older than me, I loved the whole change, to notice the fact I was unique and to be the only lovable child in the class. Absurdly, I also enjoyed studying GCSE subjects, because most of the subjects were already covered in my previous Korean school. I was indeed enthused enough to purchase several science encyclopedias to fully take pleasure in the fact that it is easier to understand science in English.

From my prospect of view, I believe it was of great help to skillfully train communication skills in English before entering 6^th Form as this gave me the ultimate thrust to achieve full A* and As in My GCSE grades.

This confidence and joy set my passion to further study science atImperial College, where I went through extraordinary and unforgettable life. As you should have known already, the life in 6^thform as well as university is nothing like the one in Korea. In high school, you get to choose your subject based on what you are willing to study in university or to do in your future, via of course thorough discussion with your parents and teachers. However, once you enter University, there is no merciful person to give you any detention or to direct your way, and final mark is all that matters. First year is really all about learning how to expertly balance your own time between doing work and socialising with mates. A lot of freshers fail to do this and don’t make to their second year. It was such a valuable lesson for me to watch all kinds of people in the university making their way to survival.

One thing I learned is that you have to be consistent with your effort and time-managing. I can’t emphasize more strongly how important it is to keep uniformity whilst at university and even after that.

As I was continuing my study to PhD, the most important thing I have appreciated is the motivation and passion on what I am doing. InUK, as I said, most people start to choose their direction at the beginning of their high-school and choose only 4 subjects focused on the area. People may not go along the same path throughout their life, but it always seems to be important to have passion on their job, pro-active approach and fanatic effort followed by it.

Crossing oceans to come to U.K may give people more freedom of their choices than being in Korea, but it is so vital to acknowledge the necessity of extra responsibility and determination to decide their life path.