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Exchange Experience at Georgia State University--Liang Jiafeng, Zhao Yunxiao, Chen Shengqi

Author: Time:2019-07-29

How time flies! It has been more than 20 days since we came to the Georgia State University. Now we have no problem with the life in the United States, and we think the life in America is completely different from that in China. And we will elaborate on the following three parts of study, peregrination and life to show our exchange experience at Georgia State University.

Ⅰ.Learning

Firstof all,wewant to talk about studyin the summer program of Georgia State University.Basically,we will have two classes, one is in the morning and the other is in the afternoon. Each class is about 2 hours with 5 minutes rest.The three of us chose these courses separately:Academic English, Culture Institutions and Museum Studiesand ChemicalResearch.

All teachers are very serious and responsible, but also have their own unique teaching methods.The contents professors taught arenot difficult but there will be lots of homework and class work to do.So,ourspare time will be very short but basically good, just need to take care of the time to hand on our homework and everything will be OK.

In the English class from 9:00-11:20, professor Gammill brought us a feast of academic English and American culture with his profound knowledge and vivid language. In class, the teacher taught us relevant knowledge of academic English by broadcasting video, citing personal experience and other ways; After class, we independently read an original English book called the absolutely true diary of a part-time Indian every day according to the teacher's requirements, and wrote four reviews in stages to communicate and discuss with the teacher about the problems or reflections in the book. Professor would talk about his life, his family and American culture while discussing the book with us.

When explaining grammar, the teacher makes us get deeper understanding of grammar points through the lively physical performance. When training writing, the teacher would ask us to write a topic article in class after explaining the specific requirements, so as to exercise our academic English writing ability. In order to better understand the different ways of writing, the teacher also took us to visit the Georgia Capitol and the Martin Luther King Jr. National historical site, where we saw statues, minerals, portraits, some of the objects that Martin Luther King and his wife used before they died etc. to deepened our concrete impression of the abstract concept of writing through field study and listening to the explanation. We think outdoor classroom is very interesting and different from traditional Chinese teaching methods and we can learn a lot of knowledge by our own observation which is not found in textbooks. This is very helpful to broaden our horizon.

In the afternoon of every week, there is the museum class. Through reading relevant materials before class, and taking an active part in interaction, demonstration, hands-on practice, scene reproduction and other methods in class, professor Kevin allows us to explore knowledge and search for answers independently, so as to become the master of the class. And the teacher, by asking questions and indirection, let us finally acquire professional and scientific knowledge and skills of museum science. What’s more, the teacher will play some light music for us to create a relaxed and free atmosphere every class, he also encourages us to express our own ideas and get happiness and new knowledge through continuous attempts.

The study here is fulfilling, enjoyable and beneficial. Through learning these two courses, our ability of English reading, writing, listening and speaking have been improved to varying degrees. We have not only seen a different teaching style and learned more professional knowledge, but also broadened our horizon and further improved our critical thinking and communication skills.

. Peregrination

In addition to learning, this program provides us with many opportunities to experience the local customs of the United States and communicate with international friends. As soon as we arrived at Georgia state university, we were equipped with a buddy to help us better adapt to study and life here and we also got a transport card and citypass, which are help us to take the local transportation “Marta”and visit the famousplace for free. The transportation here is convenient but will costlongertime to waitcompared with that in China.

In these short days, we have watched the fireworks display of Independence Day in a warm atmosphere, walked in the vibrant Atlanta zoo, gone to the higher art museum, where contains a wide range of works of art from classical to modern and post-modern and one of the most famous works of Claude Monet, been to Ahu home to enjoy delicious dinner, felt the excitement and shock in the cinema, and seen the beautiful scenery and the wonderful laser show in stone mountain park...The sky is blue as in Lanzhou, and the weatheris humid.We have to say, although Atlanta is not as prosperous as New York, not as famous as San Francisco, the beautiful scenery and sincere people here are also very fascinating.

. Life

Last but not least,let us talk about what is the life look like in Atlanta. GSU is a university totally different from LZU, different parts of this school are distributed in the downtown Atlanta. What’s more,the hardware facilities here are quite complete, so life is not a problem and the dormitory is much better than in LZU. It has kitchen, two bathrooms and drawing rooms. Every has a single bedroomthat we can have our own independent space.

Probably the only thing that was unbearable was the food. As Chinese, we were not used to the food here at first. The raw vegetables, strange sauces and tough roast meat were almost too much for us to swallow so we have to cook the meals by ourselves. All things are difficult at first. During the first week, the rice was either burnt orunder-cooked. However, practice makes perfect. Now cooking can be done with good control of heat and taste. From this cooking experience, we not only cultivate our independent living ability, but also make allowances for our parents' hard work in cooking for us and cherish the fruits of others' labor more.

In a word, we not only gain knowledge here, but also broaden our horizon and exercise our independent thinking and self-care ability. It is of great significance to participate in the summer program of Georgia State University.

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