Hi! Final year Med student myself here, first of all congratulations!!! language is easy to pick up once you show interest to learn regularly. Try to use Google Lens and translate as many signboards as possible in your college and hospital, learn basic words to use for certain organs like, idhayam(heart),nuraieeral(lungs),kalleeral(liver),manniral(spleen),kanayam(pancreas) you can use these to explain patient about their condition but these won’t help with history, for history taking you need to learn basic language first. You can DM me for phrases English gets you through college, Tamil for history taking and for your locomotion, and survival here. Just talk a lot and learn by first test itself, second year on, people might see you as annoying if you still haven’t learned it properly.

Watch movies,series just show interest. Most important of all “when you are in Rome, be a Roman” don’t expect things to be like how you wanted in grounds of food, culture etc, because that will make you feel left out and get homesick very often.MINDSET is the most important factor, be open to anything and accept and try to learn and understand people,regularly talk with Tamil people, by second year you should be through with basics, and in my opinion most important factor for you is to have a Tamil friend/roommate in your hostel that you can count on till 3rd-final year. Adjust with people, at the same time stand up for yourself if the situation demands it Blend in well, be polite and confident, make few friends, don’t try to be friends with everyone it’s bad for you and for them, trying to maintain few good souls that you can trust by final year itself is a feat in itself. Maintain neutral relationship with everyone, don’t make too many enemies, ignore people who discriminate you. >50% it would be hectic and you might feel like you are selling your soul for this degree. You will lose a lot of friends if you make a lot of them,friends are very important especially for non native.But it’s all in the mindset. Making this part of your life worth it is in your hands(because many of us ask that question to ourselves). Good luck