What makes the small-town Paderborn special

Binh Thanh Chu from Vietnam spent her winter semester 2015/16 at Paderborn University. Funded by the Erasmus+ program, the 27-year-old spent six months far away from her home country in Germany. Today she works in the Vietnamese branch of a Singaporean marketing and sales company. In an interview, she told us about her personal benefits, learnings and experiences.

Improving one's own language skills, establishing contacts and gaining valuable experiences in other cultures that contribute to one's independence and self-reliance - these are associations that most students think of regarding studying abroad. These reasons were also the decisive ones for Binh Thanh Chu, who decided to spend six months in Europe. At home in Southeast Asia, she studied Business English and enhanced her economic skills through the diverse English-taught course offering at the Faculty of Business Administration and Economics. As part of the Erasmus+ program, the 27-year-old was immediately interested in the UPB, which was largely due to Prof. Dr. Jungblut, who had shown her many advantages of the university during his stay at her home university, the Foreign Trade University in Hanoi.

Professors, buddies, and international friendships

Looking back, the 27-year-old describes her experience as a “magical dream” that she actually experienced. She had never thought before that she would be given the opportunity to study abroad one day. “Studying in Germany is very different from studying in Vietnam,” says Binh Thanh Chu, describing how overwhelmed she was at first. The support of professors and “buddies” therefore remained a particularly positive memory for her. In this way, the Vietnamese student was brought together with other international exchange students as well as students from Paderborn and accompanied on her arrival and during her stay in Paderborn. Today, Binh Thanh Chu is still in contact with numerous international students she met in Paderborn seven years ago. “I have friends in Germany, Spain, Brazil, China, and America that I still keep in touch with through social media.” In order to continue to maintain these friendships in the long term, the 27-year-old is still very motivated to travel. During her most recent stay in Paderborn, she also had a friend from Paderborn show her how the city has changed in the last seven years.

Unlike at home in Vietnam, Binh Thanh Chu experienced Paderborn as a “small, manageable town” that enabled her to interact more frequently with locals and students. She consequently also describes her relationship with teachers as “closer than usual”. The 27-year-old still thinks back most fondly to the welcome and farewell parties in the G lecture hall, where she first got to know everyone and was able to say goodbye at the end of her semester abroad. To include a piece of home from all international students, food and drinks from all cultures were served at that time: “We drank sangria and ate sushi - it was great.” In this way, the students were able to get to know each other better on a cultural level, exchange ideas and enjoy “the great international atmosphere” together.

„Learning by Doing“

Unlike at her university in Vietnam, the 27-year-old particularly remembers the interaction between teachers and students from her stay in Paderborn. “In Paderborn, critical thinking, inquiry and discussion were encouraged. In Vietnam, students mostly just listen,” which helped her become very self-confident. Previously, she said, she had perceived herself as an anxious person who was afraid to do things on her own. “It was therefore very challenging to live alone at first.” Looking back, Binh Thanh Chu describes this development with the words “learning by doing”. During her six-month stay, the 27-year-old learned to break through her own limitations, to become independent and self-confident: “If you always stay home, then maybe potential is being wasted.” In the beginning, she also had to ask how a kettle or washing machine worked in the dormitory, but she asked and thus internalized the importance of communication, she describes today.

From study to work

Today she works in the marketing department of her desired company, a Vietnamese offshoot of a Singaporean marketing and sales company. By studying in Vietnam as well as in Germany, Binh Thanh Chu acquired the language skills to work in an international company as well as the knowledge of how the market is structured and how economic relationships work. On the way to her current job, she went through several departments and projects to find out which tasks and skills suit her. The young woman describes herself as “energetic, open-minded, and positive” - qualities that she says were also fostered by her stay in Paderborn.

Either-or questions:

- Mensa or cooking yourself? Cooking

- Coffee or energy drink to wake up? Energy Drink

- Studying: last minute or with structure and a study plan? Study Plan “I am really into planning”

- Early to bed or straight from the club to the lecture hall? -> early to bed “I am really into sleeping”

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