Start of 'Study China'

The opening ceremony provided the opportunity to meet the rest of the students on the programme, listen to some speeches from some key people involved in the programme and get some information on our classes, trips and the area we were staying in.

In the afternoon, we got the chance to socialise with the Student Volunteers, Chinese students studying at ECNU, which was a lot of fun. They organised some games which included trying to pick up marbles with chopsticks in water (very difficult-- that wasn't the last time a Chinese friend would laugh at my chopstick skills.)

That night some of us went to the Bund and out for dinner.

The next morning, we had our first Chinese class. These ran from 9:00-11:50 every morning. I was in a beginners class but have come away with a pretty good amount of Chinese considering the three-week timeframe, it was very intense! The teachers were very friendly, committed and patient. I would try to go over what I learned each day in the evening and I found this made a huge difference.

In the afternoon, twice a week, we had our 'English taught course.' Mine was Marketing in a Chinese Culture, which was extremely interesting, especially when learning about the ways in which multi-national companies tailor their business strategy to suit the Chinese market.