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Advice Topic: International

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Welcome, we are pleased that you are considering graduate study at the UW! The scope and quality of graduate education at our university is remarkable, as is the caliber of our graduate students.

The UW welcomes and encourages applicants from all areas of the world and actively promotes a diverse student body comprised of different ethnic, socioeconomic, cultural, academic and personal backgrounds.

Understanding the Application Process

Applying for graduate school can seem like a daunting task. Where do you start? What can you expect? How does the process work? Each program is a little bit different, but we’ve put together a page to help you understand the basics of applying for a program at the University of Washington.

Learn more about the application process

International Students

International students often have very specific questions regarding language, financial requirements, and employment opportunities. We’ve put together some information to help answer your questions about being an international student at the University of Washington.

Information for International Students

UW Scavenger Hunt: Letter for Visa Edition

This post has been adapted from the Grad School Guide’s recent exchange with a student.

Dear Grad School Guide,

I am an international student who earned my graduate degree last fall. I attended the UW on a fellowship with a J1 visa, so after graduation I returned to my home country. Now, I would like to come back to the UW for commencement this spring. To be able to attend the commencement, I need to apply for a visitor visa. Because strict visa regulations apply to my home country, I need a letter from the UW stating that I was a student last year and that I’m invited to this year’s commencement.

I have tried contacting International Student Services, but they are not able to provide me with this letter. The Office of Ceremonies usually sends out personalized invites in May, but by then it will be too late for me to apply for a visitor visa.

Any advice? I really want to attend commencement.

Thanks,
Stuck on a UW Scavenger Hunt

 

Dear Stuck,

I’m sorry that this has been so difficult. I know it can be really frustrating to be sent to many different offices — it feels like a scavenger hunt, and not in a good way!

I am glad that you’ve reached out to the Grad School Guide, as we can help you as you navigate the many offices and resources of the UW.

Since what you need is a personalized letter confirming your graduation and eligibility to attend commencement, I recommend reaching out to the advisor or program coordinator for your department. Maybe you already know someone you were in touch with while you were a student here — they would be a good person to contact. Or, you can most often find the contact for your departmental advisor on your department’s website.

Please keep me posted on the outcome.

Best,
Your Grad School Guide

 

Hi Guide,

It worked! I was able to obtain a letter from my departmental advisor.

Thanks!
Un-Stuck

 

Dear Un-Stuck,

So glad to hear it! I’m sure your departmental advisor would be helpful for other questions of this nature, as well.

Please feel free to reach out again with any questions about the UW, or if you find yourself in another scavenger hunt!

Enjoy commencement!

Best,
Your Guide

 

Ask Your Grad School Guide is an advice column for all y’all graduate and professional students. Real questions from real students, answered by real people. If your Guide doesn’t know the answer, you Guide seeks out experts all across campus to address the issue. (Please note: your Guide is not a medical doctor, therapist, lawyer or academic advisor, and all advice offered here is for informational purposes only.) Ask your Guide a question >

Professors on Pedestals – Updated

Is there a place on campus where I can learn how to address/talk to professors? I have been in the US for about six years now, but I am originally from a culture where one is supposed to show respect to people older than you. I therefore still cannot bring myself to address a professor by name (as my other fellow graduate students do), or write an email to them without putting in multiple “Thank you for your time!” and “Sorry to bother you…”.

When I read my own emails that I send out to professors, it’s cringeworthy, since I’m so deferential. It’s worse when the professors I address are just a couple of years older than me. I want to learn to get over this. My friend recently pointed out that calling someone “Prof. X”, and writing so many Thank Yous and Sorrys in email skews the power dynamic a bit too much, and that I should treat professors as colleagues if I want them to treat me as one.

How do I learn this? I hang out with a lot of American friends but somehow this is something I’m unable to learn. —Anonymous

This question was originally published in November 2016. The responses have been slightly updated for accuracy as of January 2019. 

Hi, there. In order to address your question, I reached out to several campus partners. I hope their multiple perspectives and experiences are helpful.

Ziyan Bai is a graduate student assistant with the Graduate School’s Core Programs and Office of Postdoctoral Affairs:

“For the past couple years, I have organized a workshop on “Communicating with Faculty” for international grad students. At the workshop, a panel of three faculty members and four advanced international graduate students from social science, science, engineering, and humanities shared communication tips and strategies including communicating in person or via email. We have a summary of notes from the panel.

I also get this question many times during my one-on-one mentoring with new international grad students. This is not an uncommon situation. The bottom line: find a middle ground that you find comfortable with the degree of reverence you show in the email or talking in-person. Usually international students find it uncomfortable if they try to “get rid of” their home culture in order to fit in. There is no universal standard in communication, so staying connected with home culture and being open to learn new culture at the same time is recommended.”

Note: The “Communicating with Faculty” Workshop is being offered this May. Details will be announced in the Graduate School Digest and on the Graduate School’s events calendar.

Era Schrepfer is the executive director of the Foundation for International Understanding Through Students (FIUTS), which offers a wealth of support and programs for international students at UW:

“We hear this question pretty frequently. I usually suggest visiting the professor during office hours and being totally honest about this with them directly. Just say, ‘I’m from XXX and in my country we are taught from an early age to treat teachers much more formally, so the culture in the classroom here is hard for me to get used to. I want to be successful in your class and for you to feel comfortable. What do you suggest to help me with this?’ Usually, they really don’t mind being treated more formally by international students, but it helps to start off the quarter with a conversation.

Sometimes, it’s easier to feel comfortable with a professor when you know them a little bit on a personal level, and it’s meaningful to the professor as well. So ask them questions about themselves. Have they ever been to your country? How long have they been teaching? Where did they go to school? It’s helpful to find some common ground with them and see them as people just like you. Power distance is one of the most challenging cultural elements! I know a lot of alumni who still struggle with it many years after coming to the US!”

Elloise Kim is the president of the Graduate and Professional Student Senate, and an international student herself:

“As someone who is from a similar culture, I totally understand why you are hesitant to freely communicate with people like faculty members. In my home culture, a respectful manner for people who are older or hold a higher position is obligatory. Yet, if people here can interpret your attitude not necessarily as carefulness but as cultural clumsiness, you may want to question for whom you insist to keep such manners.

I’d like to suggest to learn American cultural manners in the way you have learned English. In other words, think of it as a foreign language. Its syntax and phonetics would be very different from those of your original language. But, you have to learn and practice it in the way the language is spoken by native speakers. You do not become a totally different person while speaking English – rather, you are speaking another language still being yourself. Likewise, ways of communication need to be learned and adjusted. You can be very polite in a different way!”

Katie Malcolm is an instructional consultant for the Center for Teaching and Learning and specializes in working with international, multilingual and first-generation college teachers and students:

“This is a great question, and one that many grad students have. The resource ‘Communication Strategies for International Graduate Students’ has some specific strategies for students about communicating with advisors.”

Ask the Grad School Guide is an advice column for all y’all graduate and professional students. Real questions from real students, answered by real people. If the Guide doesn’t know the answer, the Guide will seek out experts all across campus to address the issue. (Please note: The Guide is not a medical doctor, therapist, lawyer or academic advisor, and all advice offered here is for informational purposes only.) Submit a question for the column →

The Grad School Guru – Equity in the Classroom: Putting names to faces

“How can I learn to recognize my students whose ethnicity is different from my own? I feel bad that it takes me much longer to remember their names and faces, and I have even mixed up some of the students, calling them by the wrong name.  They deserve better! I do study the photographs we get on MyUW of the students in a class, but that doesn’t seem to help much.”*

— Anonymous

Dear Anonymous,

Thanks for writing in! This is a complex and sensitive issue, and I really admire that you’ve recognized this problem and are taking the time to work through it. That’s a great first step!

To help answer your question, I’ve turned to my expert colleagues at the Center for Teaching and Learning (CTL) and FIUTS (The Foundation for International Understanding Through Students). I’ve provided each of their answers below, along with some additional resources related to names and facial recognition. Some of their general advice is: get to know your students better by playing name-related games and asking ice-breaker questions in class, and, if you’re still stuck, ask the students to re-introduce themselves during the first few weeks of classes or to keep a name card at their desk. Finally, do some self-reflection, and investigate whether any implicit biases might be affecting how you learn students’ names.

I hope this advice helps you to recognize all of your students and learn their names faster. You got this!

Sincerely,

The Grad School Guru

THE CENTER FOR TEACHING AND LEARNING
The CTL provided three strategies for learning to recognize your students: Collect more information; use other cues (besides their faces); and reflect on your biases and teaching strategies. Here they provide tips and ideas for pursuing each strategy.
Collect more information:

  • On the first day, use an ice breaker activity such as the “name story,” where students go around and share a brief story related to their name. This will help you attach the name to the person.
  • Ask your students to teach you how to pronounce their name.
  • Record students’ names and pronunciations on the UW photograph sheet when they introduce themselves.
  • Consult websites to learn name pronunciations (some websites included below!)
  • Before or after the class, chat with students to use their names.
  • In the first few weeks of class, have students say their names first when they ask a question.

Use other cues:

  • Have students use name tents. Collect them from students after every class and have them pick them up again to use at the beginning of the next class.
  • There are other ways to remember students than their faces: consider the tone of their voice, their hairstyles, their posture, clothing style, accessories, etc.
  • Use Canvas to have students share stories of their names and/or introduce themselves sharing their interests in the course or other interests (favorite places, foods).

Reflect:

  • Ask yourself why as an instructor or TA you are having a particularly hard time remembering some students’ names. We all hold implicit biases: attitudes and stereotypes that can affect our behaviors without us realizing. You may want to learn more about implicit bias: if so, check out the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity and Harvard implicit Bias tests online. These tools can help you find out where you might have blind spots and what areas you might want to work on.
  • Use active listening strategies. Reflect on how you listen:
    • Are you allowing the student time to express themselves?
    • Are you concentrating on what the student is saying?
    • Are you attentive to verbal and non-verbal cues?

FIUTS
Ellen Frierson and Era Schrepfer, at FIUTS, offered a number of strategies for better remembering students and connecting their names to faces. Also, Ellen wants to assure you that “the longer I work with students, the better I get at learning names quickly (and I’m generally pretty bad with names across all demographic categories!). So, just a word of encouragement that this is a skill you truly are likely to get better at if you work at it.”
Here are their tips!

  1. It’s easier to remember someone’s name when you know something about them. Create an activity at the beginning of the year/class that gives you some context about each student. Maybe a fun icebreaker where they all make a name tag with a food they like that begins with the same letter as their name? If you can collect them at the end of the day, even better, as it gives you something to study with!
  2. Spend more time with people who look different from you! You’ll get better at remembering people’s names and faces with more practice. It sounds like you’re already being really thoughtful about examining your own biases, so being more conscious in general about how much time you’re spending with people from their same racial/ethnic background versus connecting more with others might be useful.
  3. Practice the usual memorization tips more often until you at least know all the names. Carry your list with you. Look over your list at different times of the day, while you’re doing other things. Record yourself saying the names and listen to the recording.
  4. Pair up with another T.A. and “introduce” each of your students to them (and vice versa), telling them something about each student.
  5. Focus on memorizing the stressed syllable of each name, and possibly coming up with an association just for that syllable. (So if the name is Xinlu, focus on remembering the “Xin” part, maybe by thinking of a rhyming word like “pin”). When I (Ellen) was a classroom teacher and trying to learn lots of names at once, I’d try to notice one particular feature of the student’s face and pair that with a mnemonic device for their name to help a) remember their name and b) connect it with that person: “Frank has freckles” or something silly like that. If you are having trouble distinguishing people of a specific race or ethnicity, this approach might also help you to start noticing the ways in which facial features vary among people of the same race or ethnicity.
  6. Use name tents in class if you need to. Have the students make name tents on the first day and collect them to be distributed in each class. You can practice by handing them out at the start of each class and it will reduce the chance that you will call on the wrong person.
  7. Create learning activities that will help you to learn as much as possible about each of your students: having them share helps both of you. Be sure to remind everyone to introduce themselves before sharing with the class, whether you already know their name or not.
  8. Don’t worry if you forget someone’s name, just ask and be honest about the challenge. It’s totally OK to say, “I have so much trouble remembering people’s names! Please help me by reminding me and let me know if I get it wrong!”

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
Here are some additional resources you might find useful, compiled by the CTL, FIUTS, and Graduate School staff:

*This question has been lightly edited to preserve anonymity. 

Ask the Grad School Guru is an advice column for all y’all graduate and professional students. Real questions from real students, answered by real people. If the guru doesn’t know the answer, the guru will seek out experts all across campus to address the issue. (Please note: The guru is not a medical doctor, therapist, lawyer or academic advisor, and all advice offered here is for informational purposes only.) Submit a question for the column →

Fostering Inclusive Classrooms as a TA

How do we, as TAs or RAs, work to include all students we work with, given the difficult times the nation is in? — Anonymous 

This week’s answer is courtesy of Gonzalo Guzman, pre-doctoral instructor in American Ethnic Studies and the College of Education. 

To say we live in “difficult times” would be an understatement. This is why it is our duty as TAs, RAs, or Instructors of Record to make sure that our students feel included in our classrooms. By “inclusion” I mean building and fostering a community in your class that validates and respects students. In difficult times, the community you build in your classroom can be a refuge, where students focus on learning and know that their experiences matter to you and their colleagues in the class.

Simply put, inclusion and validation of your students should be central to your philosophy of education/teaching. Students know when TAs/RAs/Instructors care about them, are accessible, and make efforts to include them. This is not content bound, but is a philosophy of work. For instance, a TA can teach content from a discipline or field that focuses on topics such as social history and identity constructions, and still develop a working relationship or classroom where their students don’t necessarily feel included or welcome. Even if the content reflects most of the students’ realities, if the teaching style and the overall classroom environment do not, then students will not feel a part of the learning environment.

Including all the students we work with is relational, continuous work, and it doesn’t need to be a  drastic transformation. It can simply start with check-ins with your students. Other ways to do this are to make assignments more accessible and responsive, adapt student input into your work, and make a collaborative space where your students know you are working together in a shared classroom. How you do this is up to you; it is dependent on the community you make and the relationship you have with your students. How do we include all of our students in these difficult times? We do the work. We teach and work to the benefit and developing lives of our students.

Working With Our Global UW Community

At UW, we are a global community.  Our graduate students are engaged in global health, global affairs, diplomatic relations, cultural exploration, and more.  And 20% of our graduate student population are international students!  Our international students and collaborators are key to our innovative, impactful university.  In this Core Programs newsletter, we wanted to focus on particular needs that members of our university community may be experiencing.  Whether you are yourself an international graduate student or work alongside an international peer, we hope there is something here for you.

For International Graduate Students:

Funding.  We know it can be challenging to find funding sources for your education and research when coming from outside the country. Our Graduate Funding Information Service has compiled a starting list of fellowships and funding sources that are not limited to U.S. citizens. Also, sign up for the GFIS blog.

Work and Internships. Similarly to funding, it can be difficult to know if you are eligible for certain internship, practicum, or work opportunities.  The International Student Services office is of course a great resource, but so is our Career and Internship Center.  The Career and Internship Center has created an online information guide with tips for students on F-1 status who meet certain eligibility criteria for internships.

Working with Faculty. It can be difficult for any student, but particularly if you come from a different culture than the dominant one here, to know how to approach faculty and engage them in your research and future interests.  Check out the upcoming workshop Core Programs is hosting.  The workshop includes a panel of faculty who will discuss effective skills for communicating with faculty.

Self-Care. Like many graduate students who have moved to Seattle to attend graduate school, you may be out of your element and miss family, friends, and the comfort of a familiar “go-to” place.  Be gentle with yourself.  Graduate school is demanding and it is a marathon (not a sprint, though it feels like it at times).  Do what you need to do to recharge and restore your energy.

Connect with Community. Self-care is critical, and part of that is connecting with your community.  Whether it is through a student organization, connecting with family members on Skype, or spending time with friends, classmates, colleagues–find and build your support network. It also often helps to connect with people who share similar life experiences with you. Hearing from others who are in the same situation helps normalize yours and eases the anxiety you may have.

For Non-International Grad Student Peers, Faculty, and Staff:

Check in. If you are faculty or an instructor who advises, mentors, or teaches international graduate students, including Muslim students, be mindful that recent immigration orders have caused undue stress, anxiety, and a very palpable fear of being sent home or being harassed.  Reach out to your students, or peers if you are a fellow student, by simply checking in and seeing how they’re doing. Not everyone will want to talk about their experience, but students often appreciate just being asked and acknowledged.

Challenge preconceived notions.  In different ways, and to varying degrees over time, we are all socialized to learn and internalize misconceptions about communities we did not grow up with or have rarely interacted with in real life—if at all.  Regardless of the background we have, we can learn to debunk and challenge stereotypes about any group of people.

We are always looking to grow our resources and programming for international graduate students so let us know if you have something good to share, or a need we at Core Programs in the Graduate School can work towards addressing.

Best,

Kelly, Jaye, and Ziyan
Core Programs Team

Additional Campus and Self-Care Resources

Professors on Pedestals

Is there a place on campus where I can learn how to address/talk to professors? I have been in the US for about six years now, but I am originally from a culture where one is supposed to show respect to people older than you. I therefore still cannot bring myself to address a professor by name (as my other fellow graduate students do), or write an email to them without putting in multiple “Thank you for your time!” and “Sorry to bother you…”. 

When I read my own emails that I send out to professors, it’s cringeworthy, since I’m so deferential. It’s worse when the professors I address are just a couple of years older than me. I want to learn to get over this. My friend recently pointed out that calling someone “Prof. X”, and writing so many Thank Yous and Sorrys in email skews the power dynamic a bit too much, and that I should treat professors as colleagues if I want them to treat me as one. 

How do I learn this? I hang out with a lot of American friends but somehow this is something I’m unable to learn.  —Anonymous

Hi, there. In order to address your question, I reached out to several campus partners. I hope their multiple perspectives and experiences are helpful.

Ziyan Bai is a graduate student assistant with the Graduate School’s Core Programs and Office of Postdoctoral Affairs:

“In Winter 2016, I organized a workshop on “Communicating with Faculty” for international grad students. At the workshop, a panel of 3 faculty members and 4 advanced international graduate students from social science, science, engineering, and humanities shared commination tips and strategies including communicating in person or via email. We have a summary of notes from the panel. 

I also got this question many times during my 1-on-1 mentoring with new international grad students. This is not an uncommon situation. The bottom line: find a middle ground that students find comfortable with the degree of reverence they show in the email or talking in person. Usually international students find it uncomfortable if they try to “get rid of” their home culture in order to fit in. There is no universal standard in communication, so staying connected with home culture and being open to learn new culture at the same time is recommended.” 

>>Note: Workshop will be offered again in Winter 2017. Details will be announced in the Graduate School Digest and on the Graduate School’s events calendar.<<

Era Schrepfer is the executive director of the Foundation for International Understanding Through Students (FIUTS), which offers a wealth of support and programs for international students at UW:

“We hear this question pretty frequently. I usually suggest visiting the professor during office hours and being totally honest about this with them directly. Just say, ‘I’m from XXX and in my country we are taught from an early age to treat teachers much more formally, so the culture in the classroom here is hard for me to get used to. I want to be successful in your class and for you to feel comfortable.  What do you suggest to help me with this?’

Usually, they really don’t mind being treated more formally by international students, but it helps to start off the quarter with a conversation. Sometimes, it’s easier to feel comfortable with a professor when you know them a little bit on a personal level, and it’s meaningful to the professor as well. So ask them questions about themselves. Have they ever been to your country? How long have they been teaching? Where did they go to school? It’s helpful to find some common ground with them and see them as people just like you. 

Power distance is one of the most challenging cultural elements! I know a lot of alumni who still struggle with it many years after coming to the US!”

Elloise Kim is the president of the Graduate and Professional Student Senate, and an international student herself:

“As someone who is from a similar culture, I totally understand why you are hesitant to freely communicate with people like faculty members. In my home culture, a respectful manner for people who are older or hold a higher position is obligatory. Yet, if people here can interpret your attitude not necessarily as carefulness but as cultural clumsiness, you may want to question for whom you insist to keep such manners.
 
I’d like to suggest to learn American cultural manners in the way you have learned English. In other words, think of it as a foreign language. Its syntax and phonetics would be very different from those of your original language. But, you have to learn and practice it in the way the language is spoken by native speakers. You do not become a totally different person while speaking English – rather, you are speaking another language still being yourself. Likewise, ways of communication need to be learned and adjusted. You can be very polite in a different way!”
Katie Malcolm is an instructional consultant for the Center for Teaching and Learning and specializes in working with international, multilingual and first-generation college teachers and students:

“This is a great question, and one that many grad students have. The resource ‘Communication Strategies for International Graduate Students‘ has some specific strategies for students about communicating with advisors.”

>>If you’d like the full manual, you can request a free copy. <<

Ask the Grad School Guru is an advice column for all y’all graduate and professional students. Real questions from real students, answered by real people. If the guru doesn’t know the answer, the guru will seek out experts all across campus to address the issue. (Please note: The guru is not a medical doctor, therapist, lawyer or academic advisor, and all advice offered here is for informational purposes only.) Submit a question for the column →

Writing Help for ELL Students

Hello, I’m a grad student in school of engineering. I need to improve my writing (second language) for my assignments. I have seen some programs in OWRC, which one would you recommend me? The drop-in or the TLC? Or maybe other program? —Tori

(This week’s answer is courtesy of Peter Freeman, Interim Director of the Odegaard Writing and Research Center.)

I’d say both are definitely worth exploring. If you join TLC, you and your group will get to meet with a tutor facilitator every week for an entire quarter and work through anything you all have questions about. The drop-in sessions are similar, but allow you to meet with a tutor on a one-on-one basis. Of course, you’re certainly welcome to do both. We can definitely help with grammar. In this case, our tutors will ask questions to help identify specific concerns and offer suggestions and strategies to help address those concerns. We also have plenty of resources on our website to help with grammar and other writing conventions.

I hope this helps!

Ask the Grad School Guru is an advice column for all y’all graduate and professional students. Real questions from real students, answered by real people. If the guru doesn’t know the answer, the guru will seek out experts all across campus to address the issue. (Please note: The guru is not a medical doctor, therapist, lawyer or academic advisor, and all advice offered here is for informational purposes only.) Submit a question for the column →

Gratuitous to Grade Grammar?

I’m a TA for a graduate-level course, and many of the students are not native English speakers. I am grading assignments with significant grammatical errors: incorrect tenses, wrong plurals, missing articles, etc. I’m struggling with the tension between not unfairly penalizing students, since English isn’t their first language, but also holding them to a high standard for academic writing, given that they are getting a graduate degree. How have other TAs or instructors handled this? —Grammar Nerd

(This week’s answer is courtesy of Katie Malcolm, Instructional Consultant, Center for Teaching and Learning.)

Thank you for asking—this is a question we hear often in the Center for Teaching and Learning. Although we recommend that TAs check with their supervisors to see if their departments have specific policies about this, the TAs we have worked with over the years and our own teaching experiences have given us some helpful perspectives. When thinking about how to fairly assess my own international and multilingual students’ writing, I ask myself two questions: 1) What are my goals for the assignment? What do I need to prioritize? and 2) How can I communicate these goals to my students in ways that will help them succeed?

1. First, I think about what is important to prioritize for my students in each assignment, given my realistic learning outcomes for a 10-week course. What is the primary goal I want students to achieve through each writing assignment?

In my own assignments, my first priority is for students to develop and sustain a logical argument in conversation with relevant research. If students’ errors leave me unable to understand their argument, I can’t assess it meaningfully, and—whether English is their first, second, or fifth language—I will ask them to edit and revise the assignment in order to receive credit.

Because my primary goal is not for students to write as though English were their first language, if incorrect verb tenses or missing articles do not detract from my ability to understand a student’s point, I tend to overlook or “read through” them, or point out a couple of occurrences in the margins and then make a note of these patterns in my end comments. (Showing students the patterns of their errors helps them learn how to avoid these kinds of errors in the future). Just as students need time and practice to develop fluency in their pronunciation and speaking, they also need time to develop fluency in academic, discipline-specific English writing.

2. Once I have articulated my expectations for students’ writing, I clearly communicate these expectations to students in several ways:

  • At the same time that I introduce an assignment, I share the assignment grading criteria, usually in the form of a rubric. When writing style is an important aspect of the assignment (as it often is), I make sure that it is part of the grading criteria and weighted appropriately.

  • I assign multiple drafts so that students know that I do not want them to start a paper the night before it’s due (often a major culprit of unedited papers). I’ll ask students to bring an early draft to class for peer review, or to bring a draft to my office hours, and/or to visit the Odegaard Writing and Resource Center (OWRC) to get feedback on their writing early in the process.

  • I share writing resources with my students, including information about OWRC, which has drop-in hours for graduate student writers in the Allen Library. There are also a number of great online resources on proofreading that may be helpful to students, such as the Purdue OWL’s “Finding common errors” page and their pages dedicated to multilingual writers. UNC also has some helpful editing resources.

Again, thanks for asking this great question — if you would like to talk more about this or other aspects of your teaching, please don’t hesitate to contact us at thectl@uw.edu.

Ask the Grad School Guru is an advice column for all y’all graduate and professional students. Real questions from real students, answered by real people. If the guru doesn’t know the answer, the guru will seek out experts all across campus to address the issue. (Please note: The guru is not a medical doctor, therapist, lawyer or academic advisor, and all advice offered here is for informational purposes only.) Submit a question for the column →

Talk All Day

Where can I find a place which requires me to speak English all day long? I’m a foreign student, and I want to practice my English speaking. —Jinchang

Hello! Welcome to Seattle and UW! An organization that immediately comes to mind is the Foundation for International Understanding Through Students (FIUTS). They host a monthly lunch, weekly Conversation Groups, fun outings, volunteer opportunities and more. Please do check them out.

Another UW program is the Language Exchange Program, where you are matched with a native English speaker for conversation practice. The Seattle Public Library also holds Talk Time, an ESL conversation group, at several locations.

There are also several UW-programs meant as an intensive orientation to incoming students, but if you really think you would benefit from a short-term immersion, you should check out the following: Campus Intensive English Program, Downtown Intensive English Program, Advanced Conversation Course, Advanced Academic Preparation Skills.

In addition, there are many informal ways you can practice your English. You could join Toastmasters or join a MeetUp, or you could take up a volunteer opportunity on your own. If you need help locating a position, you can start with VolunteerMatch or United Way or this nice round-up of Seattle opportunities. Here’s some additional information about volunteering as a way to enrich your own language experience.

The Graduate School understands international students face unique challenges and also offer myriad contributions to our campus. If you’re interested, please see our International Students Report 2014, detailing international admissions and enrollment trends and how to best serve the needs of international students and the larger UW graduate community.

*Ask the Grad School Guru is an advice column for all y’all graduate and professional students. Real questions from real students, answered by real people. If the guru doesn’t know the answer, the guru will seek out experts all across campus to address the issue. (Please note: The guru is not a medical doctor, therapist, lawyer or academic advisor, and all advice offered here is for informational purposes only.) Submit a question for the column →