5 Ways to Prepare Yourself Mentally Before Leaving for the UK

Last time I talked about the mindset for studying in the UK from a big-picture angle, drawing on my own experience to give you a broad, general overview. Today I want to share the mental preparation you can start before you leave. After all, when you move somewhere new on your own, you have to handle everything in your life, big and small, and take responsibility for yourself. It's a great starting point for building inner strength and creating the life you want.

Today I'll get straight to the five abilities you may need to develop or build if you're about to set foot in the UK for the first time. If there's a particular area you'd like to know more about, leave me a comment!

(Note) Before you board your flight, check out my earlier post [Must-have apps before leaving for the UK]

Here are 5 abilities. Before you arrive in the UK, think about whether you have them, or whether you'll need them.

1. 【Life skills】

When you move somewhere new alone, you lose the company of family and friends but gain a lot more independence. What kind of life you want to live and what kind of routine you want to build is entirely in your hands.

< Food >

For eating out, UK prices are basically three times Taiwan's. It varies a bit by region and town, but taking big cities like London and Manchester as an example, most day-to-day life still revolves around buying groceries and cooking for yourself, which saves a lot compared with eating out. If you want Asian or Chinese food, learning to cook it yourself will taste much better than eating out, because Chinese restaurants here still aren't the same as Taiwanese food. Believe it or not, I only learned to cook after coming to the UK; I'd never cooked in Taiwan. If I can do it, so can you ☺︎

< Weather > (In the UK, the weather has to get its own section😆 if you know, you know)

UK weather is as changeable as a woman😂 Seriously, it's true. In my first year as a student I experienced four seasons in one day: pouring rain in the morning, sunshine at noon, howling wind in the afternoon, and then, of all things, snow to finish. Of course, when the weather is good in the UK it's really lovely, especially in summer, with a gentle breeze and warm sun, as comfortable as autumn in Taiwan. In recent years, because of global warming, there are sometimes heat waves, and then it's like a brutal summer with no air conditioning, but that only lasts a few days each summer. Winter is the hardest season: short daylight hours plus endless gray, rainy days can't help but make you feel down. At first none of us took vitamin D supplements seriously, but we later learned that kind of gloom is no joke. If you're about to come, be mentally prepared and don't let the UK winter scare you off. I'm still learning to live with this quirky weather☁️🌧️ ☀️

< Shopping >

You can buy all your everyday essentials in the UK!

- Petite women: clothing cuts and lengths aren't very petite-friendly, so look for petite-fit trousers.

- Students: lots of UK shops offer a 10% student discount, so everyday life is no problem.

- Different voltage: be careful with electrical appliances. UK voltage is 220-240V and the plugs are different from Taiwan's. For some electronics, it's best to just buy them in the UK. Make sure you bring a converter with you!

2. 【 Language skills 】

I don't need to tell you how charming a British accent is. But as someone born and raised in Taiwan, I grew up learning American English, not British English, so when I first arrived it really took time to get used to British English and its vocabulary. There's even a saying that the accent changes every 20 miles in the UK, so you not only have to understand standard British English but also adapt to all sorts of other British accents. Accents differ as you go north or south, not to mention Scottish words and accents, which even English locals sometimes can't follow right away. British English differs a lot from American English in vocabulary and spelling. Before going abroad to study or work, I recommend switching your computer or phone language to 'English (UK)' so spell-check doesn't keep flagging errors. Besides accents, British words and spellings are everywhere in daily life. Here are some practical examples:

a. 《FOOTBALL》: never say the American word "soccer" to a Brit. They'll correct you at once, very sternly

b. British pound = £quid. For example, Americans say buck instead of $American dollar

c. biscuit = cookies

d. pudding = dessert

e. queue = line

f. organiSation = organiZation (S & Z spelling)

(Note) For assignments, dissertations and job résumés in the UK, I strongly recommend British spelling. Brits care a lot about their own 'English', and supposedly it makes a better impression too!

3.【 Adaptability 】

< Cross-cultural communication & culture shock >

Culture shock may sound like just a term, but once you leave Taiwan for Europe or North America, it's a very real part of everyday life, at school and at work alike. If you've never interacted with foreigners before, what mindset and approach should you bring?

In UK big cities like London and Manchester, you'll see a mix of ethnicities and cultural diversity; in small towns, you may only encounter a single culture, and the challenge it poses to your own cultural identity.

When I was studying, my classmates came from as many as 20 countries, and I was the only Taiwanese in the whole class. The class was a little United Nations: in every seminar discussion I heard perspectives shaped by cultures from all over the world, very diverse in ethnicity, nationality, skin color, language, religion and culture. In this little UN of a classroom, British students weren't the majority; most were from other countries. According to the latest UK Parliament data, as of June 2022 there were about 1.1 million immigrants that year, a full 430,000 more than in 2021. What's more interesting is that white British people make up only about 36.8% of residents in London, which means Londoners come from all over the world. Walking London's streets, you're surrounded by a mix of languages, nationalities, skin colors and ethnicities. In such a multicultural society, we have more chances to explore other cultures and our own cultural identity. I hope everyone can face these cultural collisions with an open mind, and through them get to know better who you are and your own country's culture, so that in this kind of society you can **respect others while gaining deeper insight into your own cultural background.**

4. 【 Independence 】

Rather than independence, it might be more accurate to call it 'the ability to be alone with yourself'. After going abroad, until you build your own social circle, you'll spend a big part of your time on your own. Many things depend on your own initiative to solve, notice, explore and push through: going to class alone, grocery shopping and working out alone, exploring the city by yourself, and so on. These are the moments in life when you have to be alone with yourself. Since everyone takes different classes and lives in different halls, nobody necessarily has to keep you company. The focus is more on your me time, your personal space. This is a value I've always loved: only by taking time to quiet down and be alone with yourself can you get to know yourself more deeply and dig into your inner self. It's also a great process, a concept, for blocking out outside noise. Having company is nice, of course, but I think learning to be alone with yourself at some stages of life is precious, and a valuable way to build your self-awareness. Later, going everywhere in a group stopped being my routine; I actually came to prefer time on my own.

5. 【 Breaking through 】

The ability to break through means breaking out of the frameworks you had in Taiwan, whether in how you live, your mindset, your behavior or even your thinking. People always ask whether the moon is rounder abroad. Today I'd say no, the moon isn't rounder abroad, but my experiences abroad let me see both the moon's roundness and its rough, uneven surface, and better understand that the moon waxes and wanes. Because the world we see has become wider, we can approach things with a broader mindset and perspective, seeing not just the surface but digging into the meaning beneath. Breaking through applies on every level: besides finding the courage to break through and step out of your comfort zone, there are physical boundaries too. If you've already found the courage to leave Taiwan and live in another country, are you really going to bring your old self and old ways of thinking along without trying to break through and change?

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Your mindset, attitude and goals shape the life you live, and even who you want to become. In this post, I mainly wanted to give you a starting point for preparing your mindset before going abroad. Think about what goals you can set for yourself in these soft skills to become better and get where you want to go. I believe every dreamer reading this has a beautiful picture of their future, or of who they'll be after going abroad; otherwise you wouldn't have summoned so much courage to leave home. Taking that step is really wonderful. After all, there's a reason Mencius's mother moved three times: I've always believed your environment has real power to change you. Now that you've taken that step, don't let your courage go to waste, and don't forget why you started.

There's a lot more I could go into, but I'll stop here for today. If you're interested, I'll share more aspects over time ☺︎ Tell me what questions you have🩵

Written by Luo La (羅菈)🖊️ See you next time!