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A Journey to Know Myself and Discover a New World
Author:Ruikai Hou  Date:2015-10-30  Clicks:

—Life at Duke Kunshan University

I still remembered that my first impression about DKU was “that must be a place full of interesting people”. That was in November, 2014. I was struggling for my Advanced Interpretation Certificate then, and felt a little bit confused about my future career: other than being a translator, what can I do with my bilingual competence? Holding that question, I applied for the Global Learning Semester of DKU. To be honest, not until the admission interview did I really take interest in this program. At the end of the Skype interview, the gentleman asked me, kindly, “Do you have any questions or concerns about DKU?” Without hesitation, I asked, “Sir, do you think the food at DKU is satisfying and tasty enough?” To my surprise, he laughed so pleasantly, “Of course we don’t have so many dining halls as WHU has, but we have a pretty good cafeteria right now. I like Chinese food, but to be honest the western sets are better…” At last, he added, “After all, you still get the chance to discover local cuisines during the field trips. We encourage students to explore the neighborhood and even the whole world.” I was moved by his straightforward attitude, and also admired the interviewer’s charm and urbanity during the process.

The interview also reminded me of a saying that describes the advantages of a translator, “good people to meet, good places to go, and good food to eat”. That was also my original expectations about DKU. When I come back to my home university now, I shall say that DKU offers more than that.

The 16-weeks program starts a wonderful journey of realizing my potential and discovering a larger world. My classmates and I would always remember how we encountered cultural shocks in such a small but multicultural community, how we tried our best to keep pace with the heavy study load and rich school activities, and how we fell in love with this small but sweet campus.  

A.    Campus and surroundings

Unlike the huge campus of Wuhan University (which even contains four hills inside it), Duke Kunshan University is comparatively like a small but exquisite garden. At present, DKU only has two main buildings, one is what we called the Conference Center, and another one is the Academic Building. The Conference Center is used as the contemporary dormitory for students’ accommodation, and also serves as the administration office center. The building also contains a fitness center and offers public room for students’ activities. In other words, we are so lucky to live in a five-star standard hotel on the campus, and able to have small classes, meet with professors and work out in the same building. Certainly, the Academic Building mainly serves for study: seminar rooms, study rooms, round-table hall, libraries and Mac-labs with a modern academic environment and high technology. All of the facilities on the campus are like the exact copy of what in Duke University. Moreover, one of my American classmate said, “Because everyone speaks English at DKU, and because of all the similar facilities, I really feel safe inside the campus.” From another perspective, this means that though it is located in China, DKU has successfully created an American-style environment.

Speaking of the neighborhood, I personally think the advantages of DKU’s location takes time to be realized. DKU lies in the suburb between Suzhou and Shanghai, which creates a peaceful isolated environment for academic life just as American universities. Although it takes an hour to go downtown, the school shuttle really helps to provide transportation convenience. During the first several weeks, most of us felt that we were so isolated that we wereeven amazed by the crowd when we took our first class excursion to Shanghai. However, with time went by, we got used to the peaceful environment and learnt to arrange our trip according to the shuttle schedule. In addition, because the shuttle stops at the Kunshan South Railway station, when we travelled to other places and came back to Kunshan, the shuttle really gave us a sense of security. One of my friends posted in her Wechat cirlcle,“At the sight of the shuttle, no matter how exhausted the trip is, it just feels like…we are home.”

B.     Study and life experiences

From winter to summer, we have experienced so many wonderful “first times”. Although the study load was quite beyond our expectation at first (each course lasted for 14 weeks in Duke University, but the study load was doubled in DKU as we only have 7 weeks in one session), we adapted to the pattern of “study hard in work days and enjoy the weekends” quickly. I really appreciate DKU’s educational policy of “leaving Friday free for field trips”, which provides us wonderful class excursions to explore the surrounding cities and understand Chinese culture from various perspectives. For instance, we have visited the US Consulate in Shanghai, and took a close look at the diplomats’ life. As a student majoring in translation and interpreting, I cannot describe my excitement when one of the officers answered my questions and said, “Of course we have Chinese officers, even though this is the US Consulate. Welcome to be our colleague in the future!”

Besides the field trips, we also embraced numerous activities which brought students and faculties together at DKU. Running Man Game at an ancient town, International Fairs, Movie Nights on every Monday and Friday, Students’ Film Festival, visits to Kun Opera House, 5k Fun Run, Sports Games with Shanghai NYU, curriculums delivered by guest professors and several international workshops… All these activities helped us cross the boundary of cultures and nationalities, and opened the gate of a larger world in front of us. To make a long story short, the study and life experiences at DKU can be concluded as “I can do it! I did it!”.I still remember that how petrified we were when we received over two hundred pages of reading assignment for one course, how excited I was when I successfully interpreted a Professor’s report consecutively in an international workshop, and how amazing it was to write an intriguing script and produce an English short film on our own.

In the orientation week, during a round-table talk with our advisors, I expressed my worries: “I have learnt English for over 10 years, but only when I arrived at DKU did I realize that I can’t fully express myself in English compared with Chinese.” And Prof. Kwon, my advisor and my professor of Inter-ethnic Intimacies comforted me gently, “I speak three languages for over ten years (actually she can speak five languages fluently), but I’m still struggling. You have already possessed a good bilingual competence, Ruikai. Just enjoy the life here and you would make huge progress along the road.” After one semester’s learning, I really feel more comfortable when speaking and writing in English. I have learnt English for so many years as my major, but only in terms of the language itself. Thus, it is the life at DKU that encourages me to use English as a tool to try new things and explore a larger world.

C.     Ten sentences that make DKU unforgettable

In the last part of this article, I want to list ten sentences that make DKU linger in our memory forever. These sentences are always used by us or by faculties and staff at DKU, which integrate the whole picture of my life as an exchange student to some extent.

1、“How much have you gone through the readings?”

2、“When is your deadline? Oh mine is at 8:00 pm, cheers!”

3、“Town hall meeting at 21:00, don’t forget to bring your laptops.”

4、“We are shooting the film for the course of ADAM now, would you like to be our guest actor?”

5、“I’m going to the Neighborhood Center, wanna join me?”

6、“What’s the training course in the gym today?”

7、“Everyone would have an individual meeting with me to discuss your midterm paper/final project, please sign your schedule on this form.”

8、“Housekeeping!”

9、“Today’s sunset is so beautiful.”

10、“Welcome to the States and drop by to say hi. Welcome to DKU again.”

(Edited by Editing Group & Sijia Hu)

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