During every winter or summer vacation, the American campuses are crowded with students for“study tour” from all over the world. Most of them are keen to take pictures on campus, or choose various souvenirs to commemorate. In the face of these students who"Swim without Learning" , I can proudly say: "From the same study tour, what you've brought back are the posed pictures and photographed memories, while I have experienced is a micro school semester of American high school."

The Initial Experience of Micro Overseas Education

For study abroad, my initial understanding was just based on an abstract concept: my family decided to send me to study abroad, so I chose to study at OCAmerica HS, only to realize a seemingly unreachable study goal. In the future, who knows? Just follow the crowd. But our President, Dr. Zuo Yang, said, "I have benefited a lot from the experience of studying abroad, which has transformed my whole life. By studying abroad, I have broadened my horizon and can think from an internationalized perspective. And with the change of thinking mode, my self-confidence and sense of social responsibilities are also growing. I firmly believe that, wherever I am, I myself have the ability to get things done, and can contribute to the society." I also wish to have such super confidence and strength. Can it only be obtained through studying abroad? After studying in a micro school semester in US, I have gained a different life experience for studying abroad.

"Shadow Learning" with Credits
In the same study tour on American campuses, many students are still limited to visiting the campuses, feeling amazed at the exotic buildings and beautiful campuses. However, I had the privilege of meeting some American students -- my partner, with whom I walked into the same classroom to study together and experience the original American high school curriculum. What's more interesting is that we call this inseparable learning style "shadow learning". We have classes together, discuss problems together, and do homework together, just like a shadow. After school and on Saturdays, we can chat, meet and even do BBQ with the parents of home stay. What's more, after the completion of the Micro School Semester, we can receive a Certificate of Completion to exempt from 5 credits of American high school courses.

Think about it, immersed in a pure foreign language environment all day long, it's difficult to make no progress in English! To tell the truth, at first we really could not get used to the English environment, after all, our mastery of the English was very limited so we really felt worried that our dis-fluent foreign language would be a joke, and we had deeply realized the old saying "It is when you are using what you have learned from books that you wish you had read more books than you have". Fortunately, after a few days of communications, we found that foreigners were very warm-hearted and friendly, so our concerns and worries disappeared. The more fluently we spoke English, the more confident we would feel. Even so, I made up my mind to work harder in English learning after going back to China.

Authentic American Classrooms
Through micro school semester, we personally experienced the original American high school classroom. At ordinary times, we would go to class with our study partners, and when we met the optional courses, we would follow the optional class system. For example, the Algebra class was in this classroom, while the next class Chemistry would be in another classroom and the students would be different. Each student took a different course, so they had their own separate curricula schedules, and the classes they attend would be different. In addition, the recess time was also very short, basically just a period for you to walk into the next classroom, getting ready for the next class. The sense of urgency from this kind of schedules really made us uncomfortable; however, it would not stop us from doing it. You know, we're at OCAmerica HS, so we're doing almost exactly the same thing that the American students do in their high school. Even in the American top Golden Medal high schools like Oxford Academy, they also adopt the most popular PBL teaching, which is not strange to us at all. In fact, we have such courses every week. In the American classrooms, our performance in innovation ability, communication skills, and hands-on ability are no inferior with the students from the United States, and even surprised them!

Broaden Your Horizons, Change Your Thinking Way
The biggest feature of American campus should be its diversification and internationalization. There are not only white people, but also black and Hispanic and Asian students, students of different nationalities and races study in the same classroom, sometimes it was just like a mini United Nations. Of course, it also gave us an opportunity to broaden our horizons and to meet diversified cultures, which had brought us a better chance to learn more about the future of studying abroad. At the same time, it also changed or reduced the personal bias among us towards something.

For example, we usually assume that the foreign students are very active and outgoing, and learning seems to be less of a problem for them, and we have never seen how they do their homework. However, when you have got acquainted with them, you will find that some foreign students are also shy and introverted, and many foreign students are working harder and harder on their studies. In China, a student's excellence is measured in terms of grades and scores. As a result, many students' confidence is based on their scores, and once they fail, their confidence can easily collapse. In the United States, to be an excellent student, you must have personal characteristics or skills or talents, which should not only be shown in their academic performances, but also in extracurricular activities, leadership, specialty in music, arts or sports, everything cab win you recognition from other students. Knowing this, I understand why the school attaches great importance to our extracurricular activities, social practice, career planning, and career exploration; truly these are the most effective way to improve the students' abilities.

The Ability to Survive Abroad Independently
In this micro school semester activity, one thing that impressed me most is the cultivation of our independent survival ability and the cultural adaptation ability. In China, almost everyone is tired of our parents' tirelessly waking us up, cooking for us, and sending us to school. In the United States, we became independent individuals, despite the care of home stay parents, the daily food and drink, the study and life arrangement were mainly on our own. Without the parental care, I could only deal with everything independently. You may laugh at me in one thing. I was afraid to be late for school, so for the first time I set my alarming clock to get up on time, which made me feel very proud! I no longer relied on my parents, I did it! It was just a small thing, but was a turning point for me. In addition, I will also learn how to deal with daily life, time management, and balance between learning and life.

Adaptation to the American Cultures
In the classroom of OCAmerica HS, the teachers told us that the first thing to study abroad is dealing with culture shock. We can slowly adapt to the daily diet and living habits in foreign countries, however culture shock can be ubiquitous and unavoidable. If you want to reduce the influence of cultural conflict on you to a great extent, you need to understand the cultural differences that may exist between China and foreign countries as much as possible before going abroad, and you need also to learn to follow the rule "when in Rome, do as the Romans do". In observing and getting used to that, you'll change slowly. In the experience of "Micro School Semester" at Oxford Academy and Savanna High School in the United States, we've become acutely aware how important it is to understand and adapt to American cultures.
　

Testimonials from the Students
In this micro school semester, I’ve not only gained five credits for high school curricular, but have also won the friendship of American students, and have acquired the short and high school life experience. For me, the micro school semester is more like a "Micro Overseas Education" which enables me to gain a more real life experience and cognition, to be more aware of the gap between myself and the requirements of American universities, to feel more clearly how my future would be, and to be more confident in myself just like the old saying "You don't need a whip to keep your feet up."