So I mentioned in my previous life update that I just attended a summer school this year. The summer school I attended was none other than the UNNC (University of Nottingham Ningbo China) Summer School. We had the option to attend one of two programmes, one being the Mandarin for the Workplace (the course I chose) and the other being Understanding Business in China. There's a lot to say about the programme but for this post, I'll provide you with my attempt at a short summary of the programme. If you are interested in my own experience, I will continue in another post!
If I'm honest with you, attending China wasn't originally one of my options for summer school. My original intention for the past two years was to attend the Korea University programme to study media modules that they had available. However, I didn't manage to receive a place, and instead, I ended up being offered an opportunity to study in China. I thought, what can I really do with China? I wasn't particularly interested in studying business, and currently, I just finished studying Mandarin for the past 2 years of my uni course. After much consideration, I decided I would grasp my chance at studying Mandarin as I thought it would help me in the long-run in terms of career. And I don't regret it all! Even though it wasn't my choice, I gained a lot of amazing, new experiences in this programme as well as made some great friends in the process.
To give you a summary of the courses available (based on this year's experience):
Mandarin for the Workplace - You attend 2-3 hours of Mandarin Chinese class each day of the 3-week programme. The main focus of the class is to teach you how to approach situations in a business perspective (though our teacher also provided us with a mixture of daily-life conversation tips to help assist us with our time in China). You will also be provided with some workshops, involving sharing experiences with people in the industry, and lecturers. By the second week, you attend a company which you are assigned to. These are assigned before the programme begins as we were given a list of companies and had to list our preference in order (I was assigned to Zhejiang Newway Cultural Exchange). In terms of assessment etc. for the Mandarin classes (as I was level 2) we were assessed with an exam on the computer each week. The quiz tested us on the knowledge we had been taught and learnt, based on grammar, reading, writing and listening. We were also assigned a video oral presentation for the teacher to test our Chinese knowledge overall in terms of speaking. Furthermore, we were requested to complete a presentation about our companies in a sharing session experience where members of each company attended the session to hear about our experiences. In terms of field trips, we are provided with optional trips to Shanghai and Hangzhou.
**Please note, I didn't complete the UBIC programme so this is based on my friends' experiences**
Understanding Business in China - You attend lectures for about 2-3 hours a day relating to China's culture and story, business concepts and more. You will also attend survival Mandarin classes to help assist you in surviving daily-life in China. In terms of assessment, you are requested to complete a group poster about China (more details are provided by your lecturer). The posters are then showcased at the closing ceremony as well. In terms of trips, you have Hangzhou and Beijing included in your course, whilst Shanghai is optional.
For us, the programme was paid for by our university as we received sponsorship which covered the cost of our programme, accommodation as well as our optional trips. However, those who opted for the Understanding Business in China course were made to pay for their optional trip to Shanghai if they decided to go. We were also provided with a competitive scholarship of £500 which I received assisting me with the cost of my expenditure, flights and visa.
In my personal experience, I spent £584 on a return flight with Lufthansa (with one-stop in Germany), £21.58 on insurance from Asda, £151 for my X2 Student Visa and approximately £380 on expenditure in China. Total cost was about £1136.58 (£636.58 if you minus the £500 from the bursary we received). If we were to consider the cost, the final cost (inclusive of the bursary) is around the same price for a standard return flight to Asia so we saved a lot of money because we were fortunate to receive a lot of benefits from my university. Thank you to the University of Nottingham for providing me with this all!
Along with our course, we were also provided with opportunities to experience Chinese culture through several cultural activities. For example, we had the opportunity to experience Tai-Chi every other evening throughout the programme. I remember thinking Tai-Chi was for mainly old people but the more you do it the more relaxing it becomes. Furthermore, we also had the chance to try out some Chinese painting, personally, it was quite frustrating for me because I couldn't get the technique right but my peers did an amazing job at painting. We even had the chance to paint our very own fans using the Chinese painting technique we learnt over the past 3 weeks.
The 3 weeks went by so quickly, we had an opportunity to experience Chinese cuisine, whether it was out and about or in our school canteens. We also had the option to experience the night-life, going out to drink, clubbing and more. The experience was definitely one which enlightened me a lot about China. As someone who is half-Chinese, I thought I knew a lot about China but as a first experience, I learnt a lot more regarding the culture and their outlook towards life. It may not have been quite a culture shock compared to others but it was an enlightening experience for sure!
