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Feature

AIUBians rocked China

Arif Ashraf Nayan

On 8th September a group of thirty students and three officials of American International University Bangladesh flew for Kunmuing enroute to Hangzou, the biggest education city in China. American International University Bangladesh and Jhejiang Gongshong University China arranged a student exchange program for the first time in Bangladesh. The participating students were interviewed over telephone by the teachers of Jhegiang Gongshong University. The topnotch students were then selected for the SEPP program, which stands for Spoken English Promotion Project. The main objective of the exchange program was to create a bridge between the Bangladeshi and the Chinese students emphasizing on the exchange of culture. Moreover, the participating students also had to teach Spoken English to the Chinese students as part of the program. Besides teaching the AIUBians also had to undertake a course on the Jhegiang Gongshong University on Chinese Culture and Business.

When we reached Hangzou it was almost dark. The representative of the University Mr. Xu came to pick us from the airport. The whole team was very excited and enthusiastic about the university. We had a picture in our mind that the University will be in the center of the City with full of life but after leaving the airport the spirit of every student in the bus was fading away as the bus speeded through the countryside and as time progressed we were entering deep in to barren land with no sight of eye flashing lights or any other sight or sound of the city. Finally after an hour's drive we reached the Jhejiang Gongshong University. It was almost dark by then and we were taken to the international students' dorm. The rooms were allocated and faces of the AIUBians became longer as time passed. There was complete silence and after unpacking our bags we were taken to the dining room for dinner. The dinner was a big surprise. Before coming to China we thought that we are going to enjoy Chinese food for 21 days but believe me authentic Chinese food is nothing but a torture to our Bangladeshi palate. Our university already informed the Chinese counter part before our arrival that Pork is strictly prohibited in our religion so the Chinese chef was totally confused with what to serve because pork is the most widely used ingredient in almost all Chinese food. The University bought a new set of utensils and kitchen equipment for us including a new refrigerator. However, with the heart felt effort of the chef we had a pretty difficult time to ingest the food for the first few days. All the students were very tired because of the long flight and the initial cultural shock and were knocked off on the bed.

The morning was full of confusion and madness. We were informed that the day starts at 7:30 am and because of the two-hour time difference it was 5:30 am for our body clock. The motivated students of AIUB woke up early and went for breakfast. This time we were mentally prepared for shock but to our surprise we got the usual bread and butter. After the breakfast the team went to attend the first class on Chinese culture and business. The AIUBians were heartily welcomed by the director of International Affairs Office Prof. Wang Guo An Andrew. Before the class started the President of the University delivered a welcome speech.

However, as we were going to the class every one in the group was uttering various astonishing words like Wooaaaa because the size of the University was enormous with huge buildings, lakes and beautiful landscapes. The Jhegiang Gongshong is a public university in Hangzou only two hours away from Shanghai with an area of 140 hectares and with a student population of over 20,000. The library contained 1.9 million books and 11,000 different kinds of journal and magazines. Later we discovered that the whole area contained 22 similar kinds of Universities and is popularly known as Xiasha University town. It was quite unbelievable to us because the perception of University is a lot different as we came from Universities from the midst of concrete jungles.

The first class was very interesting and we were introduced to the other teachers and were given the schedule for teaching the Chinese students. The most interesting part was that everyone was astonished when they came to learn that English is our second language. The AIUBians were introduced to their students and we were completely unready for the respect and honour that we were about to recieve. We Bangladeshis respect our elders and teachers but compared to the Chinese students it is nothing. The Students showed maximum respect to us. The student community of the Jhegiang Gongshong university comprised of 70% female and 30% male students. We were feeling a bit uneasy in the beginning because most of the students were female and we were not sure how they would accept us. Soon we discovered that the students are very friendly and obedient. They were very enthusiastic to learn about our culture and we were also interested to know their culture . A new kind of excitement was developing among the students. The Chinese students were below average in their English communication skills and spoke in a complete alien type of accent. It was pretty difficult for us to understand their language and they also struggled to grasp our English. A new kind of bond was developing between the foreign teachers and the students. We had to show all sorts of sign and gestures to make them understand our ideas and in turn we also received tons of gestures and sign languages from them. A part of the program comprised of a course called survival Chinese, which was also a different kind of adventure us. The survival Chinese class was very interesting as we made all sorts of weird sounds but were not even close to the actual Chinese pronunciation. The game was on. Chinese, English, Banglish was all in the air. The Chinese students used to stare at us when we walked around the campus as if we were aliens. The most common question that we faced was Where is Bangladesh? After describing them our geographic location most of the Chinese students nodded and said “ Manjala”. We said “no” it is Bangladesh. They again repeated Manjala………then we understood that the Chinese name for Bangladesh is Manjala. Chinese people have a version of Chinese name for everything, even for Tom Cruise and Ronaldinho.

Our stay was becoming more and more enjoyable with our students. They talked to us about their life style and were becoming more and more surprised, as they knew our culture. The students were very hard working and on average every student studied for 4-6 hours regularly after class. When we said that we only study hard during exams they stared at us in disbelief and eventually laughed perceiving it as a joke. Sometimes the students also told us that they hate English and only study it for passing in the exam. By the end of the first week we were familiar with the environment and were completely enjoying ourselves. All the facilities were available within the campus starting from Supermarkets, KFC, Restaurants, Bookshops, Disco and everything in between. To the students the University was the end of the world and they never wanted to go anywhere else. They perceive education as a religious practice and most students do not believe in any form of religion. The only religion they know is education. The Chinese classes were also becoming very interesting with classes like Chinese painting, paper cutting and martial arts. The schedule was really hectic with 4 hours of classes in the morning and 4 hours of teaching in the evening. Work was never so exciting before. On weekends we used to go for shopping and sight seeing tours. Hangzou had a good reputation in China because of its scenic beauty and visiting its natural location, especially the West Lake, also mesmerized us. In short we started to like everything, even the food, though we were still struggling with using the chopstick and most of the time used fork, hand and chopsticks simultaneously.

Time in China was flying by and we were moving towards the finishing line of the program. At the end of the program the AIUBians were awarded with certificates of participation and certificate of the completion of the course on Chinese Culture and Business. Among the 30 students 7 students achieved a special award for excellent performance and were also given full scholarship for pursuing higher studies in the Jhejiang Gongshong University. The Jhejiang Gongshong University heartily appreciated the students and their perception about Bangladesh changed in a very positive way. The AIUBians proved once again on the international level that leaders are created in AIUB.