Two universities, three students, and one love ‑ for knowledge. We are starting to share stories of students who have returned after studying at foreign universities. In this article, we have spoken to several girls from SUSU who took their internships at a Chinese university.
Each of the heroines of our article studied at Zhejiang Ocean University (ZJOU) in the city of Zhoushan, Zhejiang Province, for three months. All of them have returned to Russia with their impressions and memories, which they have shared with us.
Alena Osadchaya, Architecture programme, Institute of Architecture and Construction
“The main goal was studying. Moreover, the university often organised various events, in which we always participated. Sometimes we travelled beyond the campus territory to represent the university as international students.”
Adaptation is probably the most difficult thing when going to a new place, especially to an unfamiliar country with completely different traditions and customs. But Alena did not get scared by that. According to her, she got used to the Chinese mentality quite quickly. During the first days of their stay, students were told about and shown the university itself, and were introduced to teaching staff and other students.
“What I remember most was the cherry blossom festival, which was held on the campus territory. It symbolizes the arrival of warmth and the birth of a new life. The task of international students was to show and tell about their culture to Chinese students and residents of the city, who could also attend the festival. Many cooked national dishes, and also sang, read poetry and danced.”
Anna Barenbaum, AC-211, Architecture programme, Institute of Architecture and Construction
Anna immediately set herself a goal: to complete training in her major, but in a foreign language (English). The goal was achieved, in addition, the living conditions allowed her to study comfortably.
“The conditions on campus were good. You do not even have to visit the city because shops with stationery and other essentials, cafes, and canteens are everywhere on campus. The canteens have a large selection of dishes, mostly rice and noodles. The food is mostly sweet and spicy. The training itself was also comfortable. The teachers always explained everything and made presentations in English.”
Anna remembers the excursion to the tea plantation with particular warmth.
“We went by bus to the island with other international students from the university. There we were showed and told how to properly collect tea and then dry it. Then we made dumplings, which we later cooked and ate. Then we went to the mountain. There was a Buddhist temple. We walked around the territory, admired the architecture and nature.”
Viktoriia Popova, Architecture programme, Institute of Architecture and Construction
For the girl, the main goal of the trip was the see other approaches to her profession. And she learned about them despite some difficulties caused by the language barrier.
“Yes, it is unusual to find yourself in a completely different country with its own cultural diversity, but in any other society you need to adapt and seek mutual understanding. In fact, it is not that difficult. There were quite many people who treated our misunderstanding with humour. We learned to communicate half through gestures and translators because not every Chinese person even knows how to say “hello” in English, but they treat foreigners with great understanding.”
Visiting China has been a dream for this student. For this, she learned about certain criteria by which students are selected. Among the main ones is a good knowledge of English for training.
“Initially, we were just interested in such an opportunity for the future, and we were told that Architecture students had not been sent there for a long time, so we did not even expect that everything would turn out like this. Literally on the last day of winter holidays, we knew that we had to pack up and go. We were all surprised because we were not ready for this, but we were really looking forward to this trip. Many of our group members abruptly changed their minds because they were anxious to go, and there were not enough people for the trip, so people from another group with a similar programme also went with us.”
Want to have the same experience? Choose SUSU!
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