I am attending two classes in the summer school of UC Berkeley, one of which is for English writing. My English writing class is a rather small class with only thirteen students, and I think we have really taken the advantage of a small class in the past two weeks. For example, we all got the chance to express ourselves. Our teacher is a very kind lady, she smiles to everyone, tells jokes in class and tells us wonderful places to go for sightseeing. To make us more active, she occasionally breaks us in to tiny groups and requires us to do field works. She has let us to went to the libraries and to do some research, and has let us to had conversations with multilingual students about their languages, and we are now working on our presentations in next week’s class. My interaction with a Spanish student was interesting, as heis the first people I interviewed during my field work. He was sitting alone in front of the Moffit Library, and I was rather nervous for I was not sure if I was really going to bother a stranger, and also, for I didn’t know what to say. At last, I finally picked up the courage to went up and spoke to him. The interview was quite pleasant, and I think itwasvery encouraging. So, I think our teacher’s way to teaching was a great success, as learning is not only from class but also from out of class.

Studying aboard feels totally different in some cases. It seems that students are much more activein classes and the instructor will ask plenty of questions in order to make sure we have already understood the knowledge. What’s more, Berkeley provides a lot of opportunities like discussion classes and peer tutor programs so that students can get further help from various people. In the meantime, the instructor and the GSI will also be patient to provide more practice in their office hours. I’ve met students from all over the world and see the varieties of cultures. There are nearly half of the students in one the courses which I take are native speakers. Therefore, I can feel the differences of the ways people thinking between them and us.

On the other hand, there are really many quizzes and assignments after class, and I have to admit that they are really useful. The final grades will be divided into several parts including assignments,quizzes, the midterm test and the final test. Some course will even include some workshops and the participation on classes. This means that we have to treat all the classes seriously and be hardworking during every day instead of only attaching great importance to the final test.