What makes Paderborn special as a small town
Binh Thanh Chu from Vietnam spent her winter semester 2015/16 at Paderborn University. Sponsored by the Erasmus+ programme, the 27-year-old spent six months away from her home country in Germany. She now 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 your language skills, making contacts and gaining valuable experience in other cultures, which contributes to your independence and self-reliance - these are associations that most students associate with a stay abroad. Reasons why Binh Thanh Chu also decided to spend six months in Europe. At home in South-East Asia, she studied Business English and expanded her business skills through the wide range of English-language courses on offer at the Faculty of Business Administration and Economics. The 27-year-old was immediately drawn to UPB as part of the Erasmus+ programme, largely thanks to Prof. Dr. Jungblut, who showed her many of the university's advantages 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 really lived. She had never dreamt that she would one day have the opportunity to study abroad. "Studying in Germany is very different from studying in Vietnam," says Binh Thanh Chu, describing how overwhelmed she was at first. The support she received from professors and "buddies" has therefore remained a particularly positive memory for her. In this way, the Vietnamese student was brought together with other international exchange students and Paderborn students and supported during her arrival and throughout her life in Paderborn. Binh Thanh Chu is still in contact with many of the 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 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 over the last seven years.
Unlike at home in Vietnam, Binh Thanh Chu experienced Paderborn as a "small, manageable town", which enabled her to interact more frequently with locals and students. She therefore also describes her relationship with lecturers as "closer than usual". The 27-year-old still fondly remembers the welcome and farewell parties in the G lecture theatre, where she first got to know everyone and was able to say goodbye again at the end of her semester abroad. In order to take up a piece of home for all international students, food and drinks from all cultures were served: "We drank sangria and ate sushi - it was great." This allowed the students 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 made her very self-confident. Previously, she had perceived herself as an anxious person who was afraid to do things alone. "It was therefore very challenging to live alone at first." Looking back, Binh Thanh Chu describes this development as "learning by doing". During her six-month stay, the 27-year-old learnt to break through her own boundaries and become independent and self-confident: "If you always stay home, then maybe potential is being wasted." The Vietnamese woman also had to ask how a kettle or washing machine worked in the hall of residence at first, but she asked questions and internalised the importance of communication, she says today.
From university to the job
Today, she works in the field of marketing at her "desired company", a Vietnamese offshoot of a Singaporean marketing and sales company. Through her studies - both in Vietnam and in Germany - Binh Thanh Chu learnt the language skills needed 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 suited her best. The young woman describes herself as "energetic, open-minded and positive" - qualities that were not least brought about 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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