Student Profiles - Business School Exchange Students Share Experiences Here and Overseas
Some of the best insights concerning international relations and the Maine Business School come from exchange students visiting here or enrolled here and visiting overseas. Tomohiro Shimoyama is an exchange student from Hirosaki University in Japan. He is impressed at how classes are conducted and the amount of homework at MBS.
"In my country, I seldom asked questions in the class, but here the students ask questions," Shimoyama says. "I worry whether a professor understands my question, but he or she asks me again and listens carefully. So it is fun to say my opinions in the class."
Shimoyama notes he is busy with homework at MBS. "Some professors here give me heavy homework," he says. "In Principles of Management and Organization, the professor gives me a paper every week. In my university in Japan, I had only two long papers in a semester per class on the average, even though I had 30 hours of class per week. Here I have 15 hours of class per week which gives me spare time to read books in English."
Paujo Bornstein is spending a year studying in Barcelona , Spain and getting used to the attendance habits of his fellow students. "There is an interesting phenomenon with the classes here," Bornstein notes, "they all start at least 15 minutes later than the schedule indicates. Of course I, being the dutiful little student was there at least 15 minutes early for the first week. After waiting at least half an hour for all my classes to begin, I decided in the second week to be like all the other students and show up fashionably 15 minutes late. Of course that was the one time one of my classes started on time!"
Bornstein also notes the area has already celebrated two holidays since classes began. "One of the holidays celebrates a war that Catalonia lost against Spain fighting for independence," he says. "It has been wild. The streets have been absolutely packed with people, and there have been bands of all types playing on stages throughout the city."
Bornstein says housing is hard to find in Barcelona, but finds the city very multicultural and the mountains beautiful, prompting an adventurous climb in the dark, guided by a mobile phone doubling as a flashlight!
Janet Shifflet shared some of her experiences in Australia , New Zealand and Fiji : My stay at the University of Sydney was for a 13 week semester. I took 3 classes and was able to study under a different academic system, which was challenging and intriguing. During my stay in Sydney , I used it as a base for travel around Australia . Making my way up the east coast and as far west as Melbourne and the Outback, I was able to experience more than the cosmopolitan life of Sydney . Fun adventures including surfing, parasailing, sea kayaking, and scuba diving, not to mention bushwalking and camping with kangaroos and koalas, as well as meeting people from all over the world was part of my study abroad experience. Australia is home to one of the oldest cultures in the world, and through these adventures, I was able to gain an understanding into life away from the American routine.
After Sydney , I backpacked through New Zealand and vacationed in Fiji . These stops were not part of my study abroad package, but the South Pacific is too beautiful a place to ignore. My adventures here include bungee jumping, swimming with the dolphins, and scuba diving with manta rays.
For six months, I was able to experience life away from the University of Maine , which consequently has made my educational experience a successful one. I am grateful for the opportunity I was allowed and also to those members of UMaine staff who helped me through the entire process. It was definitely a six months I will never forget.
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