MA Intercultural Communication and Education 

I chose to study at Durham because it is a top university in the UK, and it has a good reputation in China. For me, it is great honour to be a student at Durham University. With expectations and excitement, I started my postgraduate course. This course, MA International Communication and Education, helps me learn more about international studies between international students. 

The most impressive experience for me is Dr.Cora XU’s seminar. As a Chinese student, I have never had this kind of class. Before the first class, I was quite nervous and although I prepared a lot it was difficult for me to express my idea clearly in front of my teacher and classmates. Hence I practiced a lot before each class and finally I improved a lot. 

I think for me the most useful thing is gaining the master’s degree, but also my international learning experience.  When I applied for my job, the interviewer checked my profile to check that I was suitable for the job and then I got the chance to interview and got the job offer. After I started work, I could join my colleagues’ conversations since we share international learning and life experience. So, this really helps a lot with my career. 

If you’re thinking about joining this course at Durham, prepare for the course as much as you can. Although there weren’t many classes, we had to do a lot of reading, make notes and compose yourself before each class.  

I think it’s very helpful for us to use what we learnt in our studies while we live internationally. For example, when we need to interview students from another country and analyze their words with the theory we learnt. What’s more, it is a good chance to learn about normal life in another country which is interesting and different. 

Away from studying, I was part of the running club in South College. As the only Asian person, I have to say I was quite nervous at first since I knew nobody. It seemed they were all familiar with each other. However, they were really friendly to me and helped me a lot. So, I was really happy that I joined this club and ran with them. 

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Ziyi Wang

My name is Ziyi Wang. I graduated from Durham University last year and three months later I got a job offer from Shanghai International Studies University Bilingual School. In the past year, I have worked as a home teacher and an English teacher. For my undergraduate, I studied teaching Chinese as a second language.