Please give details of a time when you have had to adapt to a significant change. The example you use can be personal, or can relate to academic or work situations.

Please detail the situation.

My current living and work situation in China required a big change from my previous circumstances as an engineering student and then IT support staff in London. In pursuit of a life together with my Chinese internet girlfriend of 4 years, I felt that some experience of living in China was needed. In order to achieve that aim, I saved up some money, and trained to become a “Teaching English as a Foreign Language” (TEFL) teacher before I left.

Going into a new environment such as doing a TEFL course, travelling to China, or taking a personal relationship to a new level leads one to unfamiliar and sometimes uncomfortable situations. I consider myself a technology guy, so for me particular areas of challenge were adapting to teaching as a job and dealing with the cultural differences of living in China.

How you worked to adapt to the change?

Examples of my own adaption include taking and acting on very direct feedback in observed lessons on the TEFL teacher training. Overcoming nervousness and successfully persevering to perform better day-to-day and week-to-week in a work environment where my qualifications, inclinations and natural skills fall short.

Living in China provides a constant opportunity for seeing cultural differences and adaption for me has become a necessity of daily living. I have been learning some Mandarin and trying to observe what the social norms are so that I can avoid situations where I put myself at risk or offend others.

Of particular benefit for me to overcome my misconceptions was performing regular post-mortems on my life and what I’ve seen, trying to understand why something is the way it is. I would then blog about it so that my family and friends could have some feeling about my life in China.

What the outcome of the situation was?

The outcome was that I have gained confidence and some skill in weaker aspects of my character, such as public speaking and language learning. I have also learned much about Chinese culture, the attitudes of people living in China, and some problems that foreign companies and workers face coming to China.

Without going to China, and facing the issues of daily living and working, I doubt I would have had such an opportunity for character growth. Learning to accept such large changes, where I was seriously out of my comfort zone, is something that I will value for a long time.