26 January 2012
|
BU leads the way with a series of online cultural exchanges. |
BU students led by The Media School ran the first of a series of online cultural exchanges with Yilan Senior High School in Taiwan. In under eight seconds, the ground-breaking 2 hour video conference, on the 18th January 2012, explored both countries’ cultural perspectives on various topics.
Subjects included: education systems, teenage and everyday culture, food and drink, scenic spots followed by a question and answer session. The exchange finalised with a ‘friendly competition’ to decide Best Presenter, Best Content and Most Creative Prize.
This student-led initiative, supported by Oriental Culture Educational Society, BU Language Centre, and BU Global Perspectives highlighted the importance of gaining and maintaining global networks, the challenges of international communications and the perceptions on both sides of a stereo-typed culture. Interesting questions from the Taiwanese side included ‘Is Hogwarts real?’ as well as enquiries into the weather and hours of study. BU students explored food and educational themes to gain further insight into Taiwanese lifestyles.
The BU-Taiwanese connection is the first of a series that will be ongoing throughout 2012. Colleagues and Partner Institutions in Argentina, Mexico, India, China and across Europe will be taking part in this initiative, linking with participants where there are already student exchanges, staff exchanges and research collaborations underway. The programme will run from March through to Christmas 2012.
MA student, Fabrice Mpolo, reflected “this was a worthwhile experience. Coming to Bournemouth from the Cameroon was really a good choice and I have had excellent opportunities for great learning experiences and activities such as this. I thoroughly enjoyed myself and learned from this, it will be a good addition to my CV”.
Yilan’s Lecturer Zhi-Han Jian commented that his students “felt such positive sentiment after the event and that the Dean, Mr Zhou, could feel the BU friendliness and look forward to further the institutional relationship online”.
Steph Allen, International Partnership Co-ordinator from The Media School who is organising the events between the students and institutions confirmed that this has been a great success. “Once again, The Media School students along with the Business School have been leading the way. They have shown great foresight and acknowledged the benefits of networking with colleagues across the world both in terms of friendship but also professional association”.
Students across BU will be making further global connections over the coming months.
For further details contact:
Steph Allen,
The Media School,
stephaniea@bournemouth.ac.uk
(01202) 966774
Return to News Menu page