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Time abroad transforms students at Faculty of Humanities, EdUHK

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Time abroad transforms students at Faculty of Humanities, EdUHK

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Most students at the Faculty of Humanities of The Education University of Hong Kong are expected to spend time overseas as a key part of their undergraduate degrees. 

These exchanges and immersion programmes, arranged at any one of more than 120 partner institutions, complement the more theoretical courses by providing hands-on learning, new cultural insights, and a wide range of different experiences. And though the day-to-day challenges of an unfamiliar environment can be a little daunting at first, dealing with them contributes in untold ways to each individual’s personal and intellectual development. 

Jamie Law, who is now in the fourth year of a five-year double degree leading to a BA (Hons) in Language Studies and a BEd (Hons) (English Language), is a case in point. From January 2019, she spent a semester attached to Concordia University of Edmonton in Canada, where she took courses and had the chance to visit classes at elementary, junior high and senior high schools. 

As a trainee teacher, it was instructive for her to observe the local education system in action and make comparisons with Hong Kong, especially in terms of relative class size, teaching styles, classroom settings and even seating arrangements. 


“Students were ready to share their views on the system and the curriculum,” Law says. “I also realised that in Canada they really focus on their First Nations indigenous groups. That plays an important role there.”   

Arriving in mid-winter, with outdoor temperatures at minus 30 degrees Celsius, Law’s first big challenge was simply staying warm. Assigned to a student hostel, she was one of only two “Asian faces” on campus, but was prepared to join in everything and, acting as an informal ambassador for Hong Kong, soon felt a genuine sense of international friendship. 

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