First of all, I have to confess one thing. I have lived in Toronto for four years, but, to tell the truth, my English hasn't improved enough. I am so sorry for Margaret and Martine who kindly invited me here today, but I have an impression that I am not the one who can tell you how to improve your English, or how to be a successful international student, because I am still struggling myself. But, as you see, I have been surviving. So, as a survivor, at least I can share with you the tips I discovered in these four years about how to PRETEND to be a good international graduate student. So please notice that my talk today is all about how to PRETEND AS IF you were a good international student, AS IF your English was good. You will hear about the real tips to improve your English from some other experts.

1. Speaking

For most international students, the first and most scary thing is speaking. All of us have learned English in our home countries, but all of us know writing and reading we learned at school are different from speaking. Here are my tips:

• You don't have to speak fast. Take time, especially in pronouncing vowels (a, e, i, o, u). Pronounce vowels just 0.1 second longer, and it helps a lot. It has two good things. (1) It sounds more like English (Canadian English or Torontonian English?). (2) While taking time, you can search for next words or phrases in your head. Many native English speakers (especially intellectual people) do the same.
• Use relatively difficult words or phrases sometimes, such as "internalize", "reconcile", "procrastinate", "intoxicate", "you had better not", or something, just to impress others; just to show that you are not nine years old even if your spoken English is not as good as that of native English speakers of your age. Try not to fill your talk with all the colloquial or slang words or phrases. You cannot do that, because you have not been in Canada for most of your life. Rather, you should be proud of your rich vocabulary of colloquial or slang or bad words in your own language.
• But, at the same time, it's a good idea to use casual, colloquial or slang English sometimes, just to impress people, or just to make funny atmosphere.

2. Listening

Listening is as scary as speaking. For me, listening is more scary than speaking, or the most scary thing, because in conversation you cannot speak if you cannot comprehend others. Here are my tips:

• Don't mind even if you cannot catch everything the others say. You will catch at least one or two words, so repeat that word when it's your turn, as if you were impressed with it or especially interested in it, then continue your talk on that topic. If necessary, you could ask, "Did you say that [such and such]?"
  Just yesterday I talked with my Canadian friend. She talked so fast that I could only catch the words "brother", "wedding" and "Vancouver". It sounded as if it were about her brother's wedding in Vancouver, but I couldn't catch if he "had" a wedding or if he "is going to have a wedding". I couldn't catch if she "had attended" it or she "is going to attend" it either. So I said, "Oh, brother," because it was the word I managed to catch. Then I continued, "I didn't know you had a brother. Is he older or younger?" as if I was especially interested in him. When she said, "Older (or younger, whatever. It doesn't matter)," I said, "Really? I have an older brother in Japan..." and went on and on, dragging her into my topic. This technique also works in academic talk.
• Don't mind even if you cannot follow class discussion and you are as quiet as a ghost. Not all Canadian students are talkative. But it's a good idea to try to say something either at the beginning, or around the time when the others are exhausted and quiet, even if it's only once or twice a month.

3. Presenting yourself in academic settings

I think, for international students, class PRESENTATION is a better chance to show their had work and knowledge than class discussion, because while you are presenting, others have nothing else to do than listening to you.

• It's a good idea to present papers at academic conferences to train your presentation skills. I really like making presentations at conferences. There you will find that the audience will not despise you simply because you are a non-native English speaker. People just expect you to be original and informative. You will see a lot of non-native English speakers present original and informative papers at conferences, and that they are paid respects to by everybody.
• This leads me to another topic, teaching assistantship, or being a TA. I found that being informative is more important than being a perfect speaker of English in TA jobs. I did a "tutorial," which means supervising a one-hour discussion of undergraduate students every week. These students were actually a part of a big course of about six hundred. Those six hundred students were divided into small classes of twenty or thirty, and each class discussed the topics they learned in the course the week before. In tutorials, teaching assistants, who are usually graduate students, assist the discussion, answer questions students bring in, and help their better understanding of the course. You can imagine how I was scared of this job. How could I assist others' discussion while I myself was so scared of class discussion?? But I found that students didn't despise me because of my imperfect English. Rather, I found students expected me to be informative and helpful.
• And actually, you have lots of ways to compensate for your imperfect English and present yourself as an informative and helpful TA. You can make handouts. You can read students' term papers more carefully than native Canadian colleagues, and give more comments on them. Some students told me that they were excited to see so many comments from me on their papers, because "not many TAs read papers so carefully".
• I also found that people sometimes described me as an "organized" person when I was doing TA work. At the end of the semester, some students commented that my tutorial was "well-organized". My colleague TAs were surprised to see the evaluation sheets I made for each term paper, saying, "I have never seen such an organized thing". Actually I often talked with my colleague TA, who was an international student from Korea, about our tutorial strategies. East Asian international students may naturally do things in "organized" ways, and it may be their strength. Students from other cultures may have another strength. In any case, international students can take advantage of their cultural backgrounds in their TA jobs.

4. More general tips

Let me give you just two more general tips to make our life as international students easier.

• First, let's be interesting people. When we were in our home countries, we knew that studies were not all that determined what we were. And our internal world now is as rich as when we were at home, so why don't we do other things than just studies, to remember our richness? If you are a good singer at home, you ARE a good singer here too, so why don't you join a choir at Hart House or at church? Or if you were always interested in the tango but had no chance to try it at home, why don't you join a class at Athletic Centre? How about skating in Varsity Arena? How about learning Jewish music at the Jewish Community Centre bringing your own flute or violin? Actually these are all things I did in these four years. You may find that you can do these activities as well as, or sometimes better than, Canadian people. It is important to meet some Canadian people who share the same interest with you, and make both sides want to talk to each other DESPITE the language barrier.
• And finally, let's be ourselves. I believe imperfection in English doesn't change our personalities. If you are funny in your country, you are funny here too, and people will enjoy your humour even if your English is not the same as native speakers'. Or if you are a sympathetic person at home, people here will be touched by your natural kindness, which even perfect English could not deliver. After all, I believe, English is not all that determines what you are. And thanks to the multiculturalism of this country or this city, Canadians or Torontonians are much more tolerant than you expect, and are interested in you, as far as you keep showing your interest in them.

Presented in September 1999 as part of a panel discussion on Developing Your English Skills.