IPO News

I Am UMass Abroad: Fengyue (Lisa) Zhao

Thursday, October 21, 2021

Meet Fengyue (Lisa) Zhao ‘22, a Math and Linguistics double major, who studied at the University of Konstanz in Germany in the spring of 2021. Fengyue comes to UMass as an international student from Guangzhou, China, and wanted a different perspective on her academic interests. “Academically, United States and Europe are two ideal place to study linguistics, especially computational linguistics. It’s very cool to be exposed to both American and German linguistics courses and research. I benefited a lot from reflecting both the similarities and differences. At the same time, I could investigate on my native language, Mandarin Chinese, from various linguistic dimensions.” 

Fengyue did find learning German to be a challenge. “Like other exchange students, the language barrier was also a problem for me. While other American students learned German as their second language, I learned it as my third language, which sometimes is a harder process. The three languages often fought against each other in my head. ”

In addition to her coursework, Fengyue enjoyed the opportunities for self-growth that she had while studying abroad. “It is a process of self-exploration. Traveling around Europe alone was definitely a unique experience to undertake by myself. Sometimes it’s hard to be aware of how the cultures influence me as an individual. Now I couldn’t be more proud of my culture and diverse background than ever."