The Institute of Cross-cultural Studies and Project GD23YWY01 co-sponsored this invited talk by Dr. Zhu Lin, a post-doctoral fellow in linguistics at Sun Yet-Sen University. Dr Zhu shared his experiences of studying in the USA as an international student (2015-2021), from the perspective of a linguistics major student. He elaborated on his experiences as an English as a second language speaker in an English-speaking country focusing on his gains and pains.