34 minute read
China
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My parents had a business from the time I was a child, so I developed an interest in business from an early age. I felt that it was the right direction for me after graduating high school, and proceeded to major in Business and Management at Guangdong University of Foreign Studies. While studying, I decided that after finishing my undergrad I would do a master’s degree. It was at that time that UWE formed a partnership with my university, and when I went to speak with my tutor about my plans, she suggested that
I got to UWE to study for the last year of my
Business and Management, thereby setting me up well for studying for a future master’s in the UK. I thought this sounded like a great idea, so I began to look into the process for getting to UWE.
When I told my family about my idea of going to Bristol to study, my parents said, “Why not!” They were very supportive, and my mother in particular encouraged me to make my own choices, including whether to go abroad or not. I had travelled to a number of countries in Asia, but never to the UK, and embarking on a journey there would mark the furthest I’d ever gone from home.
Getting accepted wasn’t easy for me, to be honest, because at that time my English ability wasn’t what it is now. I got in, though, and myself and some friends even received UWE scholarships, enabling us to go to Bristol early for an immensely helpful presessional English language course. I ended up meeting people from many different countries on the course, including Malaysia, Vietnam and others. It was a lovely time. I was living in a dormitory during its duration, and then moved into a shared house with others in my programme — including the man who would become my husband, Daniel Li.
The Business and Management programme was difficult for me at first. One reason was because I wasn’t accustomed to critical thinking in my studies, as it was something that my tutors had never encouraged us to do. Despite it being a challenge to get used to, I think it was useful skill to acquire. Being able to actively question my tutor and my classmates is something that would have been unimaginable to me in China, despite how helpful that ability has been not only for my time at UWE, but in my life afterward as well. The other challenge I faced was the language barrier, as I was still an English learner. As with critical thinking and questioning others, my English got better and better over time, and my improvements have continued to serve me well in the years since graduating.
Both the tutorials and workshops were challenging for me as well. In China we essentially listen to what the teacher says, write it down and memorize it, then take the exam. Conversely, the tutors at UWE would have us work together and create presentations, necessitating lots of communication. I think for a lot of Asian students that can be difficult. I enjoyed this work, despite the cultural hurdles to overcome, and it raised my confidence so that I’ve been able to conduct much better at presentations in my professional work life than I would have been capable of otherwise.
The city of Bristol itself contributed to the pleasures of being a student at UWE. First of all, the people are helpful and kind. I made great friends with many of the locals, who I met through the Bristol Chinese Community Church. We conducted activities together like soup runs, where we went out to provide food to the less fortunate in the streets, and celebrated traditional festivals like the Chinese Spring and Autumn festivals, as well as Christmas. I was so close with my friends there that I even travelled back to Bristol from China to attend the wedding ceremony for two of them, making that trip with Daniel, who was my boyfriend by that time. Incidentally, I didn’t catch the flowers when the bride threw them, which might be why it took a few more years for us to be married!
In my free time I enjoyed travelling, both in the UK and abroad to elsewhere in Europe such as Spain, France, and others. My favourite destination was probably Santorini, Italy, which I visited with Daniel and another friend. Back in Bristol, my favourite place to spend time was the aforementioned church, where I have so many good memories.
My parents came to Bristol to join my graduation ceremony, making sure to fit in lots of time to travel around the UK as well, with that being their first time to visit the country. I flew back to China together with them, where I was subsequently hired by a financial investment company. While I didn’t have to use much English in that job, my newly acquired critical thinking and presentation skills benefitted me a lot, as well as the knowledge and experience with data analysis I’d gained during the course.
After two years with the financial investment company, I was experiencing burnout, finding it too stressful. I’ve always liked jewelry, so I took a gap year to study all about it, then started my own jewelry business. I’ve now been operating my business for six years and I love it. When you run your own business you can construct your work schedule as you please, and you never need to do presentations for your boss because you are the boss. I even receive more pay than I would otherwise, because sales I make become direct profit. Just as important as the business itself is the partner with whom I operate everything: my husband Daniel. Years after meeting him on my first day in UWE accommodation, he and I were married, with friends from my UWE course attending the wedding ceremony. These days we live and work together in his hometown of Dongguan.
If one has the time and money available to them, I strongly recommend for them to go abroad to study. You can meet different people and discover that the world is different from the one you read about in books. You’ll learn about how diverse people from different countries are, and you can make friends that will help you to understand how wide and colourful the human experience really is. The new perspectives I’ve gained have really benefitted me, just as I’m sure they will benefit anyone who takes such a journey for their education.
Iwas first inspired to go abroad to study by one of my father’s friends, who had gotten a master’s degree at Lancaster University in the UK, and who is now one of the partners of a major accounting firm. I felt that by following in his footsteps to study in the UK I could broaden my horizons and achieve a great degree. I also aspired to talk with people from other countries and come to understand how they think and how they act when confronted with different issues, so that I could learn how to cooperate with them. I thought this would be a valuable ability for my future working life.
There was a program at my university (Guangdong Pharmaceutical University) that enabled us to study first in China and then complete our degree at UWE. Once I started classes there, I saw many students who had attended UWE and reported a very nice experience, so I decided that I’d like to try doing so as well. The application process was easy for me, as I received lots of assistance with it, and before I knew it I was on the way to the UK for two years of study. The biggest challenge for me was with my English listening ability. If my memory serves me correctly, in my very first lesson at UWE the module leader was speaking so fast that I was left in shock! In fact, it was a bit nervewracking to be in the UK and hear English being spoken so quickly in general. This actually helped me a lot, though, as gradually I got used to people speaking at this natural speed and continually progressed in my ability to understand them. What’s more, many of the local students and assistants were so willing to help us international students, leaving me with a warm feeling toward UWE life. Through the university we were even offered English lessons and assistance with tasks like registration. Overall, my ability certainly improved throughout my time there.
I got along with my classmates, though my conversational ability was still coming along so I didn’t become as familiar with them as I might have otherwise. I always did my best to speak English with the British students and those from European countries, though I tended to chat in our own language with my Chinese classmates, some of whom I lived in student accommodation with. Outside of class, one thing that helped me make more friends was joining the fencing club at UWE. The people there were very easy to get along with. I found they would always slow their speaking speed with me so that we could converse, but would speed up again when speaking to each other, so I had the most conversational success when talking with them one on one. The club marked my first time to try fencing and it was amazing. Unfortunately, I couldn’t continue the sport once I returned to Guangdong as I took on a packed schedule after graduation, but I have fond memories of how interesting it is and the excitement of competing.
My teachers were really nice and patient, always willing to answer our questions. They made me feel more and more comfortable to be studying in the UK. For my dissertation I wasn’t allowed to use secondary data, rather having to collect new data myself, which presented an ample challenge. I interviewed my friend’s father, who runs a company, and asked him about cash flow information as
part of my data collection. My lecturer was helpful and kind throughout the process, guiding me a lot, and gave me a good mark for my dissertation in the end.
The environment is good in Bristol, with clean air and a nice climate, though being from Guangdong the winter was much colder than I was used to. I enjoyed going about on foot there, as well as traveling to different places of interest on the weekend. I always wanted to see the Bristol International Balloon Fiesta, but unfortunately it was cancelled due to Covid during my two years there. I hope to travel back to Bristol one day to finally see it. Though I didn’t gravitate much to partying, I remember there was a barbershop behind the university where I’d go to get a trim and have some beers afterward; the floor above the barber’s was a bar, so after my haircut I’d just head up to enjoy some drinks!
My plan had always been to return to China after my studies and begin working. Upon returning to Guangdong, I submitted my CV and completed an online application for a position at one of the Big Four accounting firms. I passed the initial application and was granted an interview, following which I was pleased to be given a conditional offer as an auditor, pending my completion of the postgrad that I’m currently studying online. During the interview I was asked to use English, so if I had not studied at UWE and improved my speaking ability it would have been impossible for me to present myself in such a manner. The accounting firm operates internationally, so English is a critical skill to possess for many positions. I hope to stay with the firm in the future and see it continue to expand become more renowned.
One of the most important things an international student in Bristol can do is step out of their comfort zone. It’s important to not just stay closed up in one’s accommodation all the time, but rather to go out and talk to locals, travel around, and learn how to listen to others, all of which will improve a student’s understanding of spoken English and help them make friends. Besides my improved English ability, thanks to some of the modules on my course requiring me to work with new classmates, I learned how to cooperate with others and work together well, so that we can all get along and accomplish things as a team. I’m very happy I made the decision to study at UWE.
My family runs a business that has partners from
When I was in high school I already knew that I wanted to study abroad one day, so I decided that as a first step I would major in English at university. Even before that, I needed to pass the National College Entrance Examination (NCEE), or Gaokao, which is China’s equivalent of the British A-levels tests. My perseverance paid off and my results were okay, which led to me being accepted into Guangzhou City University of Technology. As I embarked on my course, however, I came to feel that my particular major was not the right choice, as I ended up studying English literature rather than English conversation.
In my first year at the university, I maintained my resolve to go abroad for study. When I told my family about my plans, they highly encouraged me to go for it. My family runs a business that has partners from European countries, and they felt that by studying in the UK I’d be able to improve my outlook and understanding of foreign peoples, as well as gain valuable experience. Since my university had a partnership with UWE Bristol, I decided that was where I would strive to go. I spent two years preparing for my application to UWE, so when it came time to do so I met the requirements and completed the process without difficulty.
My flight to the UK in 2013 was a lot of fun. It was the furthest I’d ever flown, and the UK was to be the first English-speaking country I’d ever gone to. Everything was new to me when I got off the plane, with fresh sights, a different culture and the English language all around me. I took the bus UWE arranged for us from Heathrow and arrived in Bristol that same day to begin my two years of study. UWE was a help in arranging the accommodation so that it was ready for me to move in when I arrived. I settled into my new housing with a group of other Chinese students, one of whom was Celine Chen — though I didn’t know her yet at that time. Celine and I got to know each other gradually from that point on, and little did I know that she would one day be my wife!
Everything about life in Bristol was happy and enjoyable. It’s a beautiful city, and I made a lot of friends there who I enjoyed spending time and visiting different locations with. I also had a part-time job at Bristol’s famous Mayflower Chinese Restaurant, which I chose because there were lots of local and foreign customers there, giving me a chance to interact with a wide array of people. Getting the job was a breeze, as I really just showed up to apply and they liked me enough to hire me.
On the social side of things, I wasn’t much into the nightlife, though I did go out on the town a few times. The nightlife was really different from China, as back home going out at night is usually centered around eating something with others, but in Bristol it typically involves going out to the club or pubs. That’s not to say I didn’t have great times going out with friends elsewhere in Bristol, visiting beautiful places like Clifton Suspension Bridge and others. As I’m a Christian, I also joined the Bristol Chinese Christian Church, through which I did all kinds of lovely activities with the other members, like soup runs and festivals throughout the year.
My classes started early in the day, so I had to adjust to being an early riser. I did feel that some of my younger local classmates didn’t want to chat or hold discussions with me, which was difficult for me at first, but the students who were senior to me were really friendly and I enjoyed forming nice relationships with them. I also made good friends with a number of other international students, hailing from Malaysia, Saudi Arabia, Greece and Vietnam. The course content itself wasn’t too difficult for me, and when I needed help I found I could always rely on my friends or the tutors. By the end of my second year, even some of those
classmates that had originally ignored me helped me out when I needed it.
Academically, the biggest challenge was the final exam. It was very different in style from what I was familiar with. In China our exams are typically multiple choice or require short answers, but at UWE we were often expected to write short essays in order to answer. I was successful, though, and completed the Business and Management degree in 2015. I returned to China immediately and thus didn’t get a chance to attend my graduation ceremony. It was a pity, but I did speak to my tutors online about it and my friends sent me photos of the event. I was glad, however, to return to Bristol a year later with Celine to attend the wedding ceremony of some of our friends from the church.
Once back home, I took a short design course which would further allow me to help out with my family’s business, but in the end I decided that I’d prefer to join Celine in starting our own business rather than work for my family’s. Celine and I had stayed in steady contact after returning to Guangdong and during that time I had visited her in her hometown of Shantou twice a month. We got married in 2019 and she moved to my hometown of Dongguan, where we operate a jewelry business out of our own office — a true Business and Management power couple! I certainly enjoy being my own boss, but it’s very different in nature than working for others in a company and can’t really be accurately compared. Doing this has allowed me to be independent and not require the support of my parents for my professional life.
Looking back, the course gave me much of the knowledge I needed to be able to start and operate my own business. It’s a testament to how knowledge can change your life. One of the best examples would be data analysis skills, as we need to be able to source information online or acquire it from our competitors and newer emerging companies, then interpret it correctly to remain competitive in the market. The critical thinking skills I gained have also been invaluable. Though it was difficult for me to exercise this faculty in my first year at UWE as a Chinese student, I learned how to improve myself at it and reaped the benefits of it in both work and personal life. I’m glad that no apprehensions held me back from going to Bristol and gaining the education and experiences that I have.
My major for my bachelor’s degree wasn’t actually in Human Resource Management, but rather English. What I took part in during those years, though, influenced the path I would take for my master’s. I was involved in a lot of student activities with the student union, discovering that I was really interested in communication with students and others at the university. I enjoyed organizing events and liked getting to know people, seeing what they needed and trying to figure out their wants. Embracing my interest in this area, I decided that Human
Resource Management would be an ideal direction for me. I felt it was a natural fit, too, given that I was completing a degree in
English, that my post-graduate study would take me to England.
Thanks to a partnership between my university (Guangdong University of Foreign Studies) and UWE Bristol, I was aware of the possibility to study at the latter. At one point representatives came to our campus to promote the university, and I became aware that the Chief Executive of Hong Kong at the time, Dr Leung Chun-ying, was a UWE alumnus, which impressed me and made me feel it would be a good choice for my next step.
That decision initially opened some challenges for me. For starters, it made me the first person in my family to ever choose to go abroad for study, so I didn’t have anyone who could directly share their experience with me. They were also a bit shocked, since they’d expected me to become a teacher or try to work for the government after finishing my undergrad. They fully supported my decision, though, with my parents noting that if I wanted to study abroad then I should do it then while I was still young. At the same time, I needed to take the IELTS exam, so I studied hard in order to achieve the scores I needed. I also composed my personal statement to introduce myself, and did a video interview with a UWE professor. The process in full took about three months, but I think it was good for me because it was a helpful form of preparation for my coming studies, including how I raised my English level in that time. In addition, I took part in and won a competition for a scholarship, which allowed me to go to the UK early for free English language training.
I had never been outside of China at that point, so I naturally felt nervous. Fortunately, I didn’t have to fly to the UK alone. My agency connected me with a student from a different university who was about to travel to Bristol to start her course at UWE as well, so we got in touch and took the same flight. I took the reins and got my first practice with independence abroad by booking both our tickets to Bristol once we arrived in London. I thought it was fantastic that I was abroad for the first time and managing to take care of this step for the two of us.
We had a prearranged flat prepared for us already, which we were able to find on our first day with the help of the UWE Information Point. We were also in touch with some other Chinese students who helped us along with advice on what we needed to prepare, including what clothes we needed to have due to the different climate there. I had seen lots of photos of Bristol and read up on it a lot in the preceding months, but now I was finally able to explore it for myself. I discovered that the people there were very friendly, and now, as I look back all these years later, I really consider how nice a place Bristol is to live. Since I grew up in Shenzen, a harbour city, I was attracted to Bristol’s Harbourside very much. The city is really cozy in general, and if I can visit the UK again I look forward to returning there.
When I think back to my classes, the most impressive aspect was my professor, Mike. When I first went to UWE my intended major was Human Resource Management, but Mike asked me if I wanted to work in the UK in the future, to which I responded that I planned to return to China after graduation. He recommended me to choose International Human Resource Management instead, explaining that the class content and training would be suited for my career development. I didn’t know how to make the decision, as this would be a major change, but I talked to Mike several more times and he told me that any decision that I made
I became aware that the Chief
Executive of Hong Kong at the time,
would be the right one, because it would be based on my own deep consideration of the options. My eventual decision to follow the recommendation of choosing International Human Resource Management did indeed support me in my career development; I’m now the HR Director at a startup company, and often repeat Mike’s message to my own colleagues: the decision you make will be the right one. Because of such guidance, I feel very lucky to have met Mike in the UK.
I liked the way the programme was carried out at UWE. Rather than learning everything directly from books, we had lots of practical face-to-face training, which also helped me and my classmates to become closer. The class was diverse, with students from Cambodia, Vietnam, and other countries. I liked the atmosphere that existed from sharing the class with people from so many backgrounds. Everyone seemed willing to share and take part in the teamwork activities, which made it easier to understand important features of the course like communication and how to change people’s minds. We could also learn about more international communication skills by having classmates from a range of nationalities and cultures. Another feature I appreciated was job shadowing, in which we were sent to a UK company for one day at a time on three different occasions. With job shadowing we were able to join the employees and observe how their work and responsibilities were carried out throughout the day. Overall, I think there was a good blend of lectures, book study and practical training.
Most of my close friends there were Chinese, as it was nice to have a common language through which we could help clarify things for each other when we were having difficulties. We still stay in touch to this day, and some of them live up in Beijing. Having friends helped to absolve me of much home sickness, as did knowing that I’d only be in the UK for one and a half years in total. The time went by quickly. I completed my studies in 2015 and returned to China almost immediately, already set to start my first job, so I celebrated my graduation virtually in July of that year. I guess my overseas study experience might be a good point for a global company, as I was hired at Lenovo, with my major being an exact match with what they were looking for. It was a great company to be with and I stayed with them for five years, after which I joined the technology startup company Kankan as HR Director, which provides end-to-end full-stack optical imaging solutions and products. The systematical knowledge that I gained from the International Human Resource Management programme has been so important for what I do now. One part of my team’s job is the recruitment of new employees, and I’ve always remembered the phrase from one of my textbooks in this regard: The right people in the right position. It’s hard to summarize all the knowledge I gained at UWE, but there are stories and key statements and sentences that stuck with me strongly that really have a positive impact on my work.
As I look to the future, I hope that I can help make the company continually more successful. I hope my professional skills will continue to develop in tandem with its growth. I also want to visit some universities, to share some of my working experience with students there. Theory and practice are very different, and a challenge that people in roles such as mine will face is that work life in a real job doesn’t go “by the book.”
To anyone embarking on such a journey as I did, my recommendation would be to keep an open mind, and to strive to make friends with your foreign classmates; with the time and money you are using to study in another country, having a unique and different experience from what you would in your home country is of great importance for the value you’ll get from making that choice. In my opinion it’s better to take on challenges in life such as this and gain the benefits that come from it.
It had been a dream of mine since childhood to spend time abroad one day, ever since I’d begun studying English and learning about foreign countries and cultures at a young age. I began studying
Business English in China at Guangdong
University of Technology, and as the school has a partnership with UWE, I learned it was possible for me to do a top up year at
UWE Bristol in Business and Management.
I thought it would be a perfect choice, with the chance to go to the UK opening a window for me that would lead to my exploration of a different culture, providing a more colourful life experience. Even though there were nearly 200 other students at my school that were eligible for the programme, I was the only one in 2019 that decided to grasp this amazing opportunity presented to me.
I had some hesitation about the undertaking. For one thing, it seemed that UWE was not so broadly known in China, so I didn’t have a picture of what life would look like there for me when I went there alone. I wondered if the students and teachers would be nice to a Chinese student, including whether they’d be patient or accommodating with my level of English language ability at the time. As a Chinese saying goes, a frog in a well can only see a small part of the sky. I was motivated to gain a bigger picture of the world.
As I embarked on the application process, UWE provided a lot of support. I was even given a £3000 scholarship after submitting my application, in which I’d written about my goals and expectations for what I’d get from attending the university. My parents were quite surprised when I announced my plans, as they’d expected I’d go abroad for my master’s degree rather than doing it as part of my undergrad. I thought, though, that starting a master’s degree in a whole new country and academic system might be quite challenging, so it was preferable to learn and get accustomed to everything through the top up programme first.
I didn’t end up flying alone. Before leaving, I reached out on social media to students at other universities in China would be going to UWE at the same time, and we worked it out so that we’d be on the same flight to the UK. Even though we were still strangers at that time, I thought it was better than being alone to travel all the way to Bristol and find accommodation. Nevertheless, my parents have always said I’m the adventurous type, and beyond that coordination of travel plans I was still bravely heading out on a huge journey with the intent of seeing what would happen next and persevering through what challenges awaited. This would be only the second foreign country I’d visited in my life, and the first Western country.
I was so excited when I first arrived. I’d come a bit earlier than the beginning of the new school year in order to study a pre-sessional course that would help familiarize me with UWE, meet new classmates and make some friends. I had some lingering anxiousness about my English ability, as despite having studied for a long time I’d had very few opportunities to use it with native speakers in real-life situation in Guangdong. What if I couldn’t understand what people were saying? I wondered. What if I couldn’t figure out certain accents or respond correctly? I was worried I’d find myself in such awkward English-related situations.
I came up with tricks and techniques to help get me through this early stage in Bristol. For one thing, I quickly learned from meeting other international students that just because someone had a foreign face, it didn’t necessarily mean that their mother tongue was English either — keeping this in mind helped me build up my confidence to people when speaking: many of them were fellow learners. The second thing that helped me was going to ASDA (supermarket) and asking the employees for help, such as where to find certain things — since I was a customer, I knew that they would always be polite and help me, so it gave me a chance to practice my English more. I also discovered an international student centre in Bristol through an advertisement I saw during my pre-sessional course. I went to their website and joined, finding that the students in it were from all over the world and attending other universities in Bristol as well. On top of meeting other students through it, the website also provided a local host link, which allocated a local family to me once I signed up. To this day I still have a wonderful relationship with my previous host family, and last month I stayed with them for over a week when I went back to Bristol for my graduation ceremony.
The first time I met my host family was to have dinner with them at their home. As we got closer, we continually had more meals together, and I also invited them to my accommodation to cook Chinese cuisine for them. During the Covid lockdown, as we couldn’t spend time together indoors, we went to the green space close to UWE to check it out and spend time together. I spent Christmas with them as well, which was unforgettable; I got to try Christmas pudding for the first time, among other traditional foods, had a full Christmas dinner they prepared, and we exchanged gifts together. It’s been an amazing experience with them.
The education system was totally different from in China. The course was divided up into lectures and tutorials, and I really appreciated the way that the tutorials placed us in small groups wherein we could discuss about the cases we were given with our classmates, as well as directly communicate with the teacher. For the lectures, we were required to prepare ourselves with theories and then used them to explain the cases. I enjoyed both kinds of class.
The expectations for our written essays were certainly posed a learning curve for me, but they were an important experience. The first essay I had to write was only 1000 words (whereas now the ones I write are 3000 words and up). I got really upset, because I didn’t know how to reference properly or to link my ideas to those of the source I was referencing. I remember crying in the library out of frustration, and called my friend in China and said I just didn’t know what to do. It was like I suddenly knew nothing. I made a quick recovery from that low point though; on my second assignment I started to understand better how to compose the essay correctly and got a decent grade, which I followed up by asking questions to my teacher to understand better where my improvements lay. During the writing of my dissertation, even though we faced stringent lockdowns and could only meet online, my supervisor provided me with tremendous support and encouragement. With her great assistance, I received a satisfying mark for my work, which earned me a First-Class honours degree. Those wonderful teachers I encountered at UWE inspired me a lot and contributed significantly to my academic journey.
In my free time I enjoyed going on hikes with the Hiking Club, exploring different green spaces and mountains around Bristol, as well as taking a trip to Wales once. I was happy to make lots of new friends there, mixing with people from many different countries. Typically, we’d head out for our hikes early in the morning and come back around 6pm, so it was a full day of exercising and socializing. I traveled a bit further as well, visiting Oxford to take in its beauty and history, along with Birmingham, Bath, and Cardiff, among other locations.
After finishing at UWE, I went back to Guangdong for one year, where I got a job working as an executive assistant at a listed company in my home city. Having UWE on my resume was a big help in getting an interview and the job. My boss was a Canadian-born Chinese who could speak the language but not read it well, so I helped him arrange tasks and served as his translator when necessary. I experienced reverse culture shock in that year, but I enjoyed being back home for a while and spending time with my family before heading back to the UK to start my master’s in public policy. Now that I have an understanding of business and management as it relates to the private sector, I’d like to explore more of how the public sector operates and engages with the former in this society. In the next few months, following my completion of the master’s, I intend to search for jobs in different UK cities, including Bristol.
Some advice I’d give to any Chinese student coming to the UK to study would be to mix with the English world and not just people from our own culture. It is always worthwhile to invest time and efforts to improve our English. The more we practice it, the better we’ll be able to communicate and, finally, become more confident as a result. You’ll discover that local people are also curious about Chinese culture, so we are the bridge to connect the countries, build understandings, and remove misconceptions. Be courageous and strive to get out of your comfort zone to learn about people from different places and backgrounds. This is how you can gain a colourful life experience.
