Having grown up in an international environment myself, I will be writing this article from my personal perspective. Therefore I think its important for the readers to know where my personal experience comes from. I lived in Cameroon until the age of five, then I spent 7 years in my hometown in Germany and moved to Tanzania in January 2001. Currently I am living on my own in Germany, but in July I will be starting my University studies at Monash University in Sunway, Malaysia. Therefore, most of my experience comes from the eight years I spent in Tanzania.

When my parents first told me that we were leaving Germany and moving to Tanzania I was shocked and scared of the new life. When we left Cameroon I was still so small and I remember only very little from our life there and so the only life I really knew was my life in Germany. I was happy here, I got good grades and had friends. I didn't speak English and didn't know what to expect. I was so against moving to Tanzania that I refused to participate fully in the English lessons that my parents provided for me and my sister.

Leaving Germany then was really hard and it took months until I stopped missing home. Most of all I missed my friends and my sisters. But after a while I got used to Tanzania, made new friends there and within a year I was more or less fluent in English. I remember my first official school day. Being a private, international school, my new school was completely different to the public school I knew from Germany. The first thing I noticed was that all around the school there was a wall and to get in you had to go through a gate. This was entirely new to me since I was used to an open school ground where I could more or less leave the school ground anytime. Then I had to wear a uniform, which I was definitely not used to and at first I was ok with it... But with time I got tired of the uniform and took every chance I got to wear free dress (such as fund raisers).

I think that the first day at a new school is hard under any circumstances. However I also think that it might be a little more shocking if it is so completely different to everything you know and remember, even more so if you don't know the language that is spoken at the school properly. I remember my first day at school, walking through the school gates, the first impression I got was “oh my god... this school is so huge!”. Then I remember my first lesson, my teacher was very nice and I was lucky enough to have three class mates who spoke german. One of them was in my class and she helped me and translated things for me when I didn't understand them. She was also the first person that invited me over to her house.

Since at an international school the students are used to a constant flow of new students joining and “old” students leaving, most students are welcoming and friendly towards new students. Even though the language was a problem for me at first, the school provided an ESL (English as a Second Language) class, which I participated in while my classmates (who were already fluent in English) participated in their Second Language Classes (such as French, Spanish and Swahili). This program definitely helped me to become fluent in English, even though my ESL teacher told me that she was surprised as to how fast I learned to speak English. As mentioned above, within about one year, I was fluent in English and left the ESL program to join my classmates in Second Language studies.

Looking back, there are a few things that I would have done differently; for instance I would have studied the national language, Swahili, which I am ashamed to admit I did not do and regret now. But in overall I am happy with the life I led there and I am grateful to my parents that they decided to move to Tanzania. I see Tanzania as a home. I love the country and the people, every one is very nice and it is just a beautiful country in general.

I also think that my life in Tanzania has taught me a lot. The International Environment has taught me that one of the worst things you can do to a person is to pre-judge them based on a prejudice. I was never a racist, but living in Tanzania has showed me that a lot of people are and it hurts the once that they are racist towards.

Another, very important, thing life in Tanzania has taught me is to be polite. It seems like a natural thing to do, but a lot of people often forget that this is good behavior. In Tanzania, when you buy something at the supermarket, it is normal that you say hello to the cashier and ask them how they are. It's the respectful thing to do and when you show people respect, you yourself get shown respect. When I came back to Germany one summer I realized that it was not that common over here – this shocked me! I walked into the post office with my cousin to drop off a package. When it was my turn, I greeted the post official and asked him how he was. As we were leaving the post office, my cousin turned to me and asked me “Why were you so nice?”... It turned out that what I knew to be simple good behaviour was what my cousin perceived as being nice.

I think that being an international student and living in an international environment definitely has a lot of advantages. You get to learn about different cultures and religions and you get to experience different environments. However it also has its disadvantages. One of the biggest disappointments for me, for instance, was that in Tanzania there were no shopping malls... Which I found disappointing since I am somewhat of a Shopaholic. But what's more important and even more of a disadvantage is that you constantly have to say good-bye to your friends. In 9th Grade, two of my best friends moved back to Germany, and then in my 11th year again, two of my best friends moved away. This was nothing unusual... I actually know someone who has been moving around all his life, moving country and school about every two years.

I could not imagine leaving my friends behind every two years and I am very glad that I did not have to leave my friends behind. Overall I think that growing up in an international environment is very beneficial to a teenager and I think, even though it brings with it difficult and sad times, it prepares the children and teenagers for today's world.