Feature

Morsheda Moury

A twenty member teacher and student team of the Southeast University (SEU) paid a three week visit to the Zhejiang Gongshang University under Hangzhou province in China from May 1 at the invitation of the university to participate in the Special English Promotional Programme (SEPP). This is a specially designed programme intended to improve the spoken English proficiency of the local students. The SEU authorities selected 18 students from different departments of the university, including the writer on the basis of their extraordinary academic performance as well as extra curricular activities.

Under the SEPP programme, the Zhejiang Gongshang University has been hosting a series of such visits from different countries like USA, Canada, Chili, The Philippines, and Germany. The foreign students work there as teaching assistants. Under the programme, every foreign student attended three consecutive chatting sessions with Chinese students. Each session lasted for fifty-five minutes and a group of 3-5 Chinese students attended each session.

The chatting session also became a platform of cross-cultural communication. Apart from this chatting session, the university offered some basic classes to the visiting delegation members on Chinese culture, tradition, history, societal structure, language and business, good enough to form the understanding how to deal with Chinese people.

Zhejiang Gongshang University authority awarded the SEU students with certificate for their outstanding performance in spoken English through a special programme, which was attended by senior teachers of the university and Chinese academicians. The certificate-awarding programme was followed by a beautiful cultural function when the SEU students presented Bengali songs and other programmes related to Bangali culture. The Chinese were highly impressed by the rich Bengali culture, especially the music, songs, and the traditional costume.

The visit by the students of SEU to a leading Chinese university will definitely promote understanding about Chinese education and their curricula and it was a wonderful opportunity for the students because it gave us an exposure to the life, culture, education, economy, environment and institutions of China and helped us understand them better. It enlarged our perception about the people and society of China. The experience and knowledge, which the SEU students gathered through exchange of views with the Chinese students and people in general definitely enriched our outlook. The SEU delegation was surprised to see the development spree in China.

The SEU delegation apart from taking part in the academic activities went to visit different cities and provinces, including Shanghai, West Lake, Yi WU- world's largest commodity market and other places. The experience of seeing the true China first-hand was what the participants from this tour loved most.