ESSEC Diaries: Navigating International Student Life in Singapore with Nikita and Matteo

Nikita and Mateo, both international students at ESSEC Asia Pacific, discuss their experiences studying in Singapore. Nikita chose Singapore because it was closer to her home in India and she saw it as a hub connecting various Asian countries. She appreciated the efficiency and punctuality of Singaporeans. Mateo was drawn to Singapore for its multicultural environment and vibrant business hub reputation. He also mentioned the challenge of adapting to a new city and culture, as well as the language barrier. Despite these challenges, both Nikita and Mateo have grown and learned valuable skills from their experiences as international students. Hello and welcome to ESSEC Diaries, Student Journeys in Singapore. I'm your host, Joe Escobedo. Joining me is our two very special guests, Nikita and Mateo. And on today's episode, we'll be talking about their learnings, challenges, as well as their overall journey as international students at ESSEC Asia Pacific. Hi everyone. So I'm Nikita and I'm from India, Hyderabad specifically, which is towards the south of India. And before my master's, I finished my bachelor's in finance and accounting, but I got bored very easily. So I decided to pursue my master's in something much more interesting and creative. So I opted for a very generic master's in management at ESSEC. And I'm currently doing my first year in Singapore and plan to move to Paris for my second year. Very nice. Mateo, how about you? Hey Joe. Hi everybody. Thanks for having me. I'm Mateo, I'm 24 years old and I'm a fourth year GBBS student at ESSEC. I was born and raised in Switzerland. I did my high school there. And during that time, I also went to New Zealand for a one-year exchange to really learn English and see different parts of the world. I started in Singapore for my first two years. I then did my fifth semester in Paris at the main campus of ESSEC. And then I did my international exchange, the international one-year exchange at the University of California in Berkeley in San Francisco. And yeah, as for a professional background, I did some internships. I worked at Porsche in Singapore. I then went to Otso Swiss Lug Healthcare, which is a Singaporean robotics startup. I then did an internship at Tata Consultancy Services as an M&A sales consultant here in Switzerland. And now as for my six month internship within the program, I'm doing it at Microsoft here in Switzerland. And yeah, so this is my professional background, but more personally, I love to do sports. I golf, I gym, I play music. I play the bass guitar and the trumpet. Wow. I guess the question is, what is it that you do not do, Mateo? So we have someone from India and then Switzerland. I'm curious, what motivated you to come to Singapore and do your studies? Nikita, what brought you to Singapore? Since I opted to study at ESSEC, ESSEC has three campuses, one in Morocco, Singapore, and France, the main campus. Singapore was definitely closer to home for me. That's how I looked at it. And secondly, I really felt that Singapore is more like the hub in Asia, which connects the entire continent in different ways. I was sure that I would have the opportunity to travel to other places among Asia. I found myself studying in Singapore and I would have the opportunity to experience what work culture and the world in general is like living in Singapore. In India, again, it's very different. And I was fortunate enough to grow up there and learn a lot. And I'm sure in Asia as well, it would be very different, which is why I came here. And it hasn't disappointed so far. So I'm really glad I got to experience the culture, not just in terms of life, but also the work culture and how people are over here. I'm curious, what were some of the key learnings you talked about, the personal culture as well as the work culture? What is one thing that maybe surprised you about the culture and how it maybe differed from India? The punctuality and the efficiency. People in Singapore are so efficient. They're efficient in the way they speak. So, you know, a very common Singaporean term, can, cannot, can, cannot. They're not going to say, I can do this or I cannot do this because they're so quick and they're so efficient. They will just say one word and then that's it, next. And in the hawker center, they serve you and the next. So they're really making the most of the 24 hours here. Absolutely, can. Now, Matteo, your flight is a little bit different for Nikita. Yours is a little bit further away from home. I'm curious, what made you move to Singapore to do your studies? Yeah, I can just quickly add on to what she said with the can and cannot. Even though I'm not in Singapore for the past, I don't know, two years, I still say to this day and people look at me like, hmm, what does that mean? What are you saying? What do you say just can or cannot? So it's, yeah, it really stayed with me and people just look at me weird, but then I'm like, yeah, of course I can and stuff like that. So, yeah, so what motivated me, I've always been a bit interested in learning about different cultures and I didn't know a lot about the Asian cultures. And I'd like to talk about Singapore as this Asia for beginners hub. So you can experience all of the great foods, all of the cultures or nearly all of the Asian cultures in Singapore, but for a beginner. And Singapore has a great reputation across the world as this very vibrant business hub, economics hub, which also drew me to Singapore. And as Nikita mentioned earlier, there's the multicultural environment, the melting pot of cultures is another aspect of it where you have this unique blend of Eastern and Western influences. I think also ESSEC has a strong network and a lot of great career opportunities in this Asia Pacific region, which was another point on why I chose Singapore as a starting point. So it sounds like you left Singapore, you're studying overseas now, but the Singapore spirit is still strong with you overseas. You talked about can and cannot and some of the cultural differences. I'm curious, what are some of the biggest challenges you faced when coming to Singapore and how did you address them? So I think navigating a new city and with that, a new culture or new cultures, because Singapore has so many, and also the fact that you don't know anyone when you get to that city, especially from where I'm from. We have in Switzerland, the population is around 8 million people and Singapore alone has what I think, six and a half million people. So in one city, there's nearly more people than living in my country. That's just, there's a big overwhelming factor as well that comes into play. Then also language barrier, the language back home is not English, obviously, it's Swiss German. So that contributes to like this language barrier at first, but then this is quickly overcome when you're studying and you meet a lot of new friends, your classmates and you grow your own network, right? Because you have to start basically from scratch. But yeah, I think you just have to study and you shouldn't say no to a lot of things, just be open-minded and all of these things will fall into place. Oh, it was very similar. I was thinking as if you were describing my experience when I first came, it was surely overwhelming. I cannot imagine going to a new country and it being easy for anybody. And I think I have to do it all over again now when I go to France and still it's going to be the same. I won't say that just because I've done it before. It gets easier, it really doesn't, but you find it worth it as you grow. You understand that, okay, now I can survive anywhere. I can find my way around. I can manage different kinds of people. I can get along with different kinds of people. Although there's a bit of a struggle at first, when you realize what the struggles were, that's when you feel like you've really grown as a person. I think that's something that I can add on. Of course, my experience has been completely the same as he described, but I think what I've learned from it is very valuable to me and I will take it forward my whole life. Yeah, you look at where you were before you came here versus now, I'm sure you're a lot more adaptable, global mindset, that whole, all those benefits that came along with it. For sure. Now, funny you mentioned the language barrier. So Mateo, I'd love to hear your experience because I did my master's in China many years ago and I did speak a word of Chinese and even going to buy towels at the store, I had to mimic, what's a towel and things like that. And of course the locals would laugh at me, but I'm curious, did you face any funny situations when it came to maybe language differences or barriers, at least early on? I think early on, especially in a classroom setting, when I, some professors, they were from, I think India, others were from China, others were from Korea. So that was the first time I really had to pay attention to Asian speakers, let's put it that way, and really trying to understand exactly what they're saying because that was foreign to me because I was learning English in a school environment back home and you don't get these types of accents or when they talk fast, when they swallow at the end of a sentence. So that was definitely a challenge at first, trying to understand this kind of different English, if you want to say it like that. But yeah, as you have no other choice, right? Because it's school, you have to listen, you have to take your notes and stuff like that. So at the end of these two years or even after a couple of weeks or months, it was no problem anymore. I was able to really understand it and not gonna miss it. Now, sometimes when I hear somebody from Singapore, I'm like, oh, nice, it's good to hear Singaporean accents again, whether it be in like an Indian Singaporean accent or Chinese Singaporean accent, I can always hear it out. And yeah, it hits close to home if I can say it like that too. Awesome, I could completely relate. I get the same thing when I go overseas. And interesting you mentioned that you had to adapt. This concept of sink or swim, I think is really important to international students. And to Nikita's point, I think it helps you adapt so much faster because you're new in an environment, it forces you to learn things faster than maybe you would in your home markets where it's a little bit more comfortable and usual. Nikita, same question for you. I think it was hard for me. We study at ESSEC and ESSEC being primarily a French school. There were a lot of professors who are French and not just the professors, I made a lot of French friends as well, great people and I hang out with them very often. But initially I had trouble understanding what they were speaking because the accent is so different. We started taking French classes, it was part of our curriculum. And I also started taking private classes later because I was very determined to learn the language. But no matter how much you learn a language, it's still, there are these slangs in the language that you're not going to learn from a textbook or from a class and it's what the locals use. So getting a hang of that was very interesting because now I could use a slang and I think that's something that you cannot learn in a classroom. Absolutely, couldn't agree more. I think once again, there's so much you can learn from Rosetta Stone or things like that. But getting how people actually talk because sometimes those apps is very formal and people will necessarily talk like that all the time. Yeah, it's very different. Yeah. So the fact that you picked up the local slang and verbiage, you seem more authentic a French speaker as a result I imagine. No, I'm far from that. It's the experience again of a new language and a new culture, but with a new language there's the accent and there's the small ways that people speak. You notice that it's very different from everywhere. A French person could be speaking English, but it's still very different than when someone else is speaking it. So these differences are when you notice it and then you learn it and you understand that, oh, it's the same thing that's done in such different ways. I'd love to hear any specific examples for the folks listening in terms of maybe something you picked up on the way the French communicate. So the French say, ah, okay. And then, ah, no, they say that a lot. And one line that I hear from a lot of my friends, as you want. So they do that a lot. I think that's what strikes my head now, but they're very similar, the way they behave. Yes, I'm- They all pick up the same English slang. Exactly, I'm chuckling because I think my students use those phrases all the time. So I hear it nonstop. Now, obviously language is a big part of moving overseas. What are some of the other cultural differences or things you had to adapt to, whether it is in classroom culture or work culture, or even at the hawker centers? What are some of the cultural differences you found? Can you share any specific examples of those? I think for me, the biggest difference was food, Indian food, and the food here is very different. Of course, you get Indian food at the hawker centers, but it's far from what we've been used to eating for so long. Physically, it took me a while to adjust to the kind of food over here. Most of the times I try to cook, but with the schedule, it's not possible to cook all your meals at home. So I tend to eat at the hawker center. That is one big cultural difference. Did you pick up any favorite foods once you actually found your sweet spot? I like the burritos over here from Guzmani Gomez. I love it. Yeah. They are good. So that's an interesting cultural difference because we talked about the Singaporean culture and people think maybe chicken rice or chili crab and things like that. But to your point, it's so diverse. For those who are not familiar, Guzmani Gomez is actually a Mexican restaurant. I think it's Australian. So that's very popular among the locals as well as expats. One of the things I think I love about Singapore is just the diversity in terms of food. If you don't particularly one cuisine, there's Mexican or Italian or French or there's Chinese, Indian, et cetera. So yeah, I think finding that sweet spot is really important because food is important I think to all of us. One thing to add to what you're saying is that because of this, among our group of friends, we all have now different favorites. So every night whenever we have to have dinner, there's a, I want to eat Chinese, I want to eat Thai because there's so many options. So everybody has very different. So we all just go to the hawker and there's something different that everyone's eating. Yes. As you say, for those who are not familiar with the hawker center, it's like a food court, local food court. Here it can be indoors or outdoors and they have all kinds of food. So yeah, if you're going with a group then it's easy for you to pick out maybe a Western, someone else to pick out Chinese or Indian, et cetera. So yeah, it makes things a lot easier when you're going out in groups. Mateo, I'd love to hear from you too. What are some of the cultural differences? Could be food, it could be something else that maybe you had to adapt to and any specific examples of those? I also want to say about something about food. Yeah, that is definitely a big part, cultural differences. You can hardly find any Swiss food in Singapore. There are one or two restaurants that have our national dishes, if you want to call it, and fondue. But other than that, I love the food in Singapore because you can get literally any food you want. And for me, it's just coming from Europe, we don't have very, well, you have some authentic Asian cuisine restaurants, Indian, Malaysian, Chinese, whatever, Thai, but they're just not as good as the restaurants in Singapore. And I've missed that ever since I left Singapore, especially the hawker centers, like you just mentioned, where everybody can just grab whatever they want back at the table and you eat together. Everybody has different cuisine, different type of food, but that is definitely something I miss. What are some other culture differences that I've noticed? The work ethic of different people with different backgrounds. Obviously here in Switzerland, we all have a similar background culture-wise, but then when you have to work in group projects with people from India, with people from China, with people from Korea, they all have some, or even people from France, you just feel that everybody has a different type of work ethic. You have to learn that work ethic and figure a way how to talk with these different cultures and what do they need to hear and how to interact with them, what kind of jokes you can make. Yeah, so these culture differences, I think I really, I got to see firsthand and had to adapt and conquer in order to work well. And yeah, so I think to scale that up into a global perspective, when you work in a global environment and international companies, then it's something you have to do on a day-to-day basis because it's just a global company, right? There's people from all backgrounds and a lot of cultures. That's something that ESSEC has prepared me for. Yeah, that leads to my next question, which was your learnings. And I think to your point, ESSEC is a microcosm in terms of the world because you have people, students from all over the world attending every class. Singapore is obviously the same thing at a larger scale. And then to your point, you're able to take that ability to work with people from different cultures or different backgrounds, and then take that hopefully to, once again, the work you're doing in MNCs. So it sounds like that is one key learning that you're able to apply to maybe your current roles. I'm curious, what are some of the other lessons or learnings as an international student that you're able to apply in maybe your current role or what do you foresee in your future roles? I wanna say, yeah, that's the village thing. I really had to experience it, live it. Being open to new things, especially when you're in a new culture, when you're a new country, you just, you can't be closed off and a bit closed-minded. You just have to be open and be like, oh yeah, I'll join you there. Increased independence and resilience just from living in a different country, away from home, away from family. But also, I think I got to know myself a little bit better in terms of academic-wise. What do I like to study? What do I like to know more about? And also career interests. So I think these are the main learning points that I drew from being in Singapore, but also being at ESSEC. In the beginning, if you would ask me in the beginning of my journey at ESSEC, I would have said, I don't know. There's just too many things when you study business that you can choose from. But I think it's a bit more streamlined and I know more on what I want to do. But still, it's still not 100% clear, but we'll get there eventually. Yeah, don't worry. I'm much older than you guys. I still have no idea what I wanna do. So don't worry, you guys have plenty of time. But just to recap, you said there was some key things. You talked about adaptability, resilience, getting more clarity in terms of your future career when you're studying business and so many topics. Sounds like a lot of key learnings in there. Yeah, same question for you. What are some of the key lessons that you picked up as an international student that maybe you're planning on applying currently or maybe in the future? I think it has been very similar for me as well. There were so many things that Matthew said and I'm like, yes, me too. But the most important one I agree with him is about understanding what you really want to do. When I came to ESSEC, I myself was very unsure about what I wanted. I just knew that, okay, I don't want to do finance. I don't want to do numbers. I don't want to do investment banking. I'd already worked there for two years. So I wanted to explore something. And the great thing about the curriculum is that it's structured in such a way that you get to do very practical projects in the MIM program. And you get an idea that, okay, this is where I would fit or this is where I wouldn't fit. So that's how I've really discovered domains that I would fit in and domains that I wouldn't fit in. And the professors have been so kind as to actually take out time to sit and speak to everybody individually, if you reach out to them and give their opinion about, okay, this industry would be really good for you or this is probably not for you. They're very frank, they're very polite and they really take the time out. And if they know somebody, they help connect you with that person as well. So I think that has really helped me, the fact that the professors are willing to go out of the way to help every student and also the adaptability in terms of people. I would say before I came here, I only knew how to work with a common set of people. Back home, everybody is the same. Everybody works in the same way. You know that everybody takes it seriously, but you come here and then you're like, one person is on vacation and one person says, oh, I'm on the beach. And one person said, but I've done my part and you tell me what to do, I don't know. It can get difficult and it was a bit annoying at first, but now I know that is life, that is how the way it is in the world. And it doesn't annoy me anymore. I'm already prepared and I know how to go about it. And that makes me feel way more confident going forward that I can handle projects and even at professional levels. And I know how to work through this now. It's nothing new and it's not going to stress me out or somebody is not behaving the way I expect them to behave and that's okay. I think that's something I had to learn time and time again, moving to different countries. So I think those are very good learnings. I'm curious because this series is obviously for the upcoming international students. What's one piece of advice that you would give them in order to set them up for success when they're studying in Singapore? I would say try to connect with people who are already here, either as students or even as interns somewhere. That is one piece of very practical advice I think that they can do and it would really make a difference is what I feel. Of course, come with an open mind and don't worry, make friends, but something very practical is try to connect with people who are already here and ask them any questions you might have. You might have questions on housing, accommodation, what life is like, the expenses over here. So what happens is knowing beforehand really helps you decide whether you want to go down this path or that path or what you want to do. And I think that's a great headstart, knowing beforehand what you want to do. It could be a career, it could be housing, it could be the food you want to eat, anything that concerns you, speak about it. Other people over here have been very nice. Great to hear that. Are there any specific channels that you use? Is it LinkedIn? Is it Instagram, Facebook, maybe something else? I primarily connected with ESSEC students mostly and I use the ESSEC website to do that. I connected with the student ambassadors on the website and then they helped give me contacts of their classmates. And I also use LinkedIn to find out ESSEC students living in Singapore and I reached out to them. And everybody from ESSEC that I've contacted has been very helpful. Now I'm doing the same thing for Paris. When I have to move, I'm reaching out to people, I'm asking them about life over there and they're all very helpful and it prepares me mentally that, okay, this is what I know I have to expect. That's very good advice. I think that being proactive and learning about the new environment before you get there helps with that anxiety so you're not just... Yeah, Mateo, same question. What advice would you give the upcoming students? Yeah, I think as you guys both have said, being proactive is something that is very important. And if you want something, you can get it in Singapore. Like Nikita said, you can talk to your professors if he wants to have a connection into this industry. You just have to be in the driver's seat and you have to approach these type of people or if you approach them on LinkedIn or wherever. I think another aspect is in terms of integrating yourself well into the culture or into Singapore or finding new friends outside of maybe ESSEC or outside the school is finding a community or a group that has a similar interest to you. Being that sport, for example, is always a great opportunity for you to make like-minded friends or even music. So that's what I did. I joined a small jazz combo band or other people in Singapore, right? And so that's just, I feel that's a tip that would have helped if I knew that a bit earlier, but then I knew I had to do that from past experiences, so it was fine. But that's just an easy and effortless way to connect with like-minded people and friends. Yep, these will be my few tips. Yeah, I think to your point, finding that community as early as possible is really important, especially when you don't know anyone, like many international students, reaching out to them on different social media channels, building that rapport, or even once you get here, finding out the different groups, whether it's music or sports or whatever it is that you're interested in, building that community is really important. Now, my final question for you guys is, when you get my age and you have gray hair, what's any one memorable experience or story that you think will stick with you even long after you leave the ESSEC doors? Has there been any memorable experiences, one thing that's really stood with you? If not Mateo, anything? One memorable, I don't know if it's gonna stick with me for the rest of my life, but definitely in that moment or until now, it's still very memorable, is that I took part in the ESSEC Startup Weekend program challenge, and I think it was the first one that was organized by the Startup and Entrepreneurship Student Club or association. And the cool thing about that one was you had to create your own startup in a group of four people, I think four students over a weekend. And another good aspect of that was it brought together different universities in Singapore. So it was not just ESSEC students, because you already know the ESSEC students and we are only business students. But the cool thing was it really opened up to all the universities in Singapore. So we had students from SMU, SIM and NTU, et cetera. And so that was quite cool to get to know people from different universities, but also different majors. So they were computer science majors within that group. And so we had to work from early morning until late afternoon, from Saturday through to Sunday, and then pitch the idea in the end. And that was cool because that really put me on a path of entrepreneurship, which then later on I chose the UC Berkeley track, which is exactly the innovation management and entrepreneurship track. So it started with that Startup Weekend and then my passion for entrepreneurship really started. And then I chose the UC Berkeley to really deepen that interest. And so I think that is something I will always remember, even though we didn't win, it was still a cool weekend. Yeah, it sounds like an amazing experience either way. And I think that's just a big part of it is experiencing new things and taking those with you. Once again, you never know how long they stick around with you, but you'd be surprised. Yeah, that reminded me actually, we in MIM also had our Imagination Week, which most people might not be familiar with. Imagination Week was very different from our regular classes. And I think they placed it so perfectly because we had a semester of classes, trim point night, and then we have Imagination Week. Everybody's wondering, what is this? And we realized that it was an entire week of design thinking workshops, which was very different from A, our regular classes, and B, something that you would expect to have in business schools. The deliverables, and we were graded on that. So the deliverables were very different from usual. It was not just a PowerPoint presentation. People enacted skits and plays. And our team for this particular year was what the world would look like in 2050, problems that you think the world might have in 2050, and how you would solve it. So my group personally chose to do the overload of data and information everywhere. And that kind of hindering how we think, and the fact that this would be accessible to teenagers. And that is the stage probably where you are developing your cognitive abilities. So we did our entire project based on that, how we could prevent this from happening because we predicted that this would be the problem. Now we have to predict what the solution is. It was very exciting. Wow, that sounds like a very cool experience and once again, something different from the usual. So glad to hear that. Nikita, Mateo, thank you so much for taking the time to share experiences. I found it extremely insightful. Thank you for that. Thank you for having us, yeah. Absolutely, and for everyone watching and listening to today's episode of ESSEC Diaries, hopefully you found it helpful as well. If so, feel free to share it with your friends, your colleagues, peers, and hopefully we'll see you on the next episode of ESSEC Diaries.