Reflections of my exchange life

When looking back at my semester abroad, I suddenly realized that time really flies. During the semester, I experience a lot of new things, try to deal with cultural shocks and handle all difficulties that I face here in Germany. Every experience could be a long story, as it is not just about what happened and what is done, but more about how I feel and what I have learned from it. I do treasure the time here and everything happened on me, and I believe those stories will help me to be a better and stronger person.

One thing impressed me a lot is the way professors teach here, and it is a bit different from professors in Taiwan. The thing that I learn is that professors really ask students to be self-driven and proactive all the time. Though every class offers syllabus, the professors here won’t plan everything in details for students. For example, in Taiwan, most professors tell students what they should do, when they should start and finish their projects, and when they should give professor their drafts or proposals, in order to make sure all students can finish their final reports on time. However, here, students have more freedom to decide when they want to start their project, who they want to work with, and when they want to have a meeting with professors. Though some students may fail because they might not have good time management, it is a good training for students to be responsible for their decisions. Even if it is really good to help students plan everything for having a good result by the end of the semester, once they graduate, they might not have enough self-management skills at workplace. Moreover, teachers just tell students what textbooks are needed in class, but never ask anyone to prepare the materials for the whole class or keep checking whether every student have one. Yet, in Taiwan, we usually have a class leader who helps teachers to take care of this things and to help other classmates get the materials. Though I believe every Taiwanese student can also handle these things without problem, I think how teachers do might still influence students’ way to deal their own business differently. Of course, there are not absolutely right or wrong, as Taiwanese students can learn a lot by helping others, and they can learn how to plan things step by step from their professors, and I believe students can always learn something from these different teaching way, no matter where he/she comes from.

As an international student, I felt it is a little bit challenging, because I even don’t know where I can find these text books and there are more than 5 libraries on campus. In Taiwan, we generally have one main library on campus, so the system is quite simple. In addition, I take one course from other department, and it is the class of over 300 students, which makes it more challenging, as I don’t know any of my classmates there. Yet, I think it is a good chance for me to make new friends by asking them questions and talking to them, and by the end of the semester, I do learn a lot from them. So, though I am busy in this semester and don’t have a lot of time to travel, I treasure everyone I meet in school and also enjoy the time learning and studying with them a lot. Those experience and stories will all be an important part of my life, and I can’t wait to experience more in the coming semester.