International Student Experience

Gong Chawaroj (Thailand) —

The story of what it is like to be an new international student at Logan Park.

I came to New Zealand because my mum wanted me to do better at school. In Bangkok I didn’t care about study and just talked to my friends in class. Some teachers don’t care. They just let you talk. I came first with a group of Thai students in term 2. That’s our holidays. There were 12 of us. I only came to learn some English and learn about New Zealand. But when I was here I saw everything was good. I told my mum I wanted to stay and now I’m going to stay until I finish high school.
New Zealand people are friendly. Sometimes in Thailand if you see boys from other school and you look at them, they will punch you. But here people just smile and say ‘hi’.
When I was in Thailand I always played computer games – my favourite is Hon. It’s a kind of war game. I played it for about 5 hours a day. Now I am starting to study more because my parents pay a lot of money for my education and I want to make them proud.
We have a lot of homework in Thailand for every subject every day. It’s bad because there’s too much pressure. In New Zealand we have homework that is practising the subject and that’s more useful. In Thailand you have to stay in the same classroom all day and the teachers change rooms. It’s nice at Logan Park because we can walk around between classes and meet other students in different classes.
I’m still playing Hon, but not so much. And I’m starting to enjoy school.