As junior Bruce Zhang sat in history class in early September, he said he was mystified at what the teacher was lecturing about. No matter how hard he concentrated, he couldn’t help but let the words slip out of his mind as he tried to decipher the meaning of each phrase. All he could do was blindly copy down notes from the slideshow and hoped to understand later.

Bruce is one of a growing number of students who have moved here to go to school from another country and are struggling to survive in a place where they’re just learning the language.

Bruce moved from China to the U.S. in 2015 to seek a better education and living environment. He has found multiple differences between schools here and schools in China: His old school gave more homework and classwork, had earlier starting times and ending times and, most noticeably, had “fiercer” teachers.

Although Bruce enjoys Saratoga High’s more relaxed environment, the language barrier is a daily challenge for him.

“It’s really difficult for me to understand what’s going in class, and I often have trouble talking with my classmates,” Bruce said.

To cope with the language challenges in class, he often seeks out other Chinese-speaking students to help him understand class assignments and homework.

On the other hand, senior Jessica Ji had a rockier start in her transition from China to the U.S. about six years ago as a seventh grader.

“When I first moved here, I didn’t like it at all and constantly wanted to go back,” Ji said. “I felt excluded when I moved here because I didn’t know anyone in school and I couldn’t understand anything in class.”

As she began to learn more English, Ji made more friends and began to adapt to being in an American school.

Ji’s longtime friend Aileen Zhang immediately clicked with Ji when she moved here in seventh grade.

“I think that because of her charisma, she made good friends really quickly and it also helped her adapt to living here,” Zhang said.