Keeping up my French

The problem with the BA Modern Languages degree is trying to keep all three languages at a good standard. The University of Southampton only allows students to spend their year abroad in one country to better understand the culture, improve the language and to complete the YARP (Year Abroad Research Project).

I chose to spend my year abroad in China rather than a French or Spanish-speaking country as I saw it as a great opportunity. My level of French and Spanish was already quite high but as I'd started Chinese ab initio (from scratch) in first year, I wanted to improve it as much as possible. 

In order to graduate from the BA Modern Languages degree you need to have completed Stage 6 in at least two of the three languages. For those unfamiliar with Southampton's language stage system, there are 7 stages. and each stage normally takes one year to complete. Stage 1 is where I started with Chinese. This is when you have little to no previous knowledge of the language but, on completion, is similar to GCSE standard. Stage 2 is roughly equivalent to AS and Stage 3 is roughly equivalent to A2. I therefore began French and Spanish at Stage 4 having completed A-Levels in each. I was fortunate enough to take part in a 6-week summer programme at Nanjing University in the summer after my first year which counted as my Stage 2 as it was an intensive course combined with the immersion of being in China. This meant that in second year at the University of Southampton, I completed Stage 3 - the required standard set by the university for spending your year abroad in China. It was agreed that it was possible for the year abroad in China to count as two stages - Stages 4 and 5 - on the condition that those wishing to do this write 2000 Chinese characters rather than 1000 for their YARP. I did this so am now hoping to complete Stage 6 in all three of my languages in my final year at university. 

However, choosing to spend my year abroad in China meant somewhat neglecting my other two languages. It was not possible to continue studying French and Spanish at Xiamen University as Spanish was not taught and French was taught on the main campus - a 45 minute to hour and a half bus journey away. This would mean that I had to use my time either side of the year abroad wisely to ensure that I maintained a good standard in both my French and Spanish. 

I spent two months in Madrid last summer working as an au pair and found that my Spanish did improve a lot and I am still quite confident with it. I occasionally spoke Spanish with some of the Spanish-speaking students in Xiamen as well. Although I learnt a lot from the experience, I was not keen to repeat it as things did not go very well with the au pair family. I decided that I would need to find a more formal job in France the following summer.

I started job searching after the month-long holiday for Chinese New Year, week in Nepal for my cousin's wedding and week of my family visiting me in Xiamen. After all of that, this ended up being February which I thought was still quite early for finding a summer position. I was interested in finding jobs that allowed me to speak French but applied for English-speaking jobs as well just to have the opportunity to be in France. I applied to various jobs such as receptionist, hotel assistant, childcare, camp site work, TEFL teacher etc. but struggled to find anything. The issue with a lot of the jobs in the hotel and tourism industry, were that they either wanted people to work the entire summer season - from beginning of May until the end of September - or they wanted to interview in the UK. I obviously could not conform to either of these requirements as I was in China until 24th June. 

Eventually I received two job offers. The first was working as a hotel assistant for a UK-based company in the Alps. They had not yet filled all of their summer vacancies so wanted me to start straight away (after a week and a half in the UK) and stay until mid-September. I found out that all the staff and customers were British so I would therefore not be speaking French whilst working, that I would be working 6 days a week for a low wage doing menial jobs such as cleaning, and that I would not be allowed an extra day off to go to my cousin's wedding in August. After much consideration, I decided not to take the job as it seemed unlikely I would speak French and I would miss out on spending time with my family and friends, visiting Alex in Denmark and attending my cousin's wedding.

Instead, I decided to take the other job I had been offered. This is a three-week TEFL placement for newly qualified TEFL teachers in Châtellerault, Western France. I completed my TEFL qualification with TEFL England in February this year consisting of 20 hours in a classroom and 100 hours online and found this job advertisement on their site. This seemed the perfect opportunity to get some teaching experience and use my new qualification. I will be working as one of three teachers at a children's holiday camp. There will be classes in the morning and activities in the afternoon. Although I will be required to speak to the children in English, I do get weekends free and will be in a more French environment than the holiday resort. The position is unpaid but accommodation and food is provided and I think it should be a great experience and am really looking forward to it. I leave on 10th August. 

On top of this, I have also enrolled myself onto an Advanced Revision course at the Alliance Française de Manchester. It is a four-week course with two 2.5 hour lessons a week (20 hours total) costing £130 or £120 for students. The course focuses on conversation but there is also some useful grammar revision. I have been to two classes so far and am enjoying it. The teacher is very good and gives us little bits of homework to do. I also get free one-year membership to borrow various French books, DVDs and magazines from their extensive collection so am hoping to make use of that soon! They also run a course specifically aimed at final year university students in September so I may do that as well if I still feel that my French is a bit rusty. 

I may not have chosen the easiest option for my year abroad but I feel like it was the right one. It is nice having something productive to do during my summer holidays and spending a year abroad in China as part of my degree was not an opportunity I wanted to turn down. 

Xiamen University Xiang'an Campus

This year I am studying at Xiamen University's Xiang'an campus, a brand new campus in the Xiang'an district of Xiamen to the northeast of the main Xiamen island. It is connected to the city by the 751 bus which runs regularly throughout the day, last buses leaving at 9:30pm from Xiang'an and 10:20pm from XiaDa (the main university campus). Buses in Xiamen cost 1元 on the island and 2元 between island/mainland.

Alex and I went up a hill just outside campus to get a good view. In the first picture, the big building is the library, to the left are the Chinese dormitories, the building next to the library on the left is the Overseas Education College where we have our lessons. The second picture is a more zoomed in look at the library and teaching buildings, again the one to the left of the library is ours. On the far left of the photo, with the flat roof, is the swimming pool building. 

Xiang'an Campus

Pool, teaching buildings and library

Everything on campus is new and huge with parts still to be built in the future. Things to be completed/started include the library/main university building, whose outside is more or less complete but needs to be finished off inside, a golf course, a student union, a gym within the stadium, more basketball courts and another sports ground. So far there are several teaching buildings, student dormitories, two canteens, a health centre, two swimming pools (in one building), a sports stadium, basketball and tennis courts, football pitches, a supermarket and various shops. Due to the campus' size it is almost necessary to own a bike to get around. These can be bought on campus as there is a guy who sells them near the main canteen and maintains them either for free or for very cheap. Here's a picture of my bike:

My bike!

Overseas Education College

Building 2 is the Overseas Education College 海外教育学院 where most Chinese classes take place. The teaching buildings are pretty much the same consisting of sections A, B and C and 5 floors high. There is a lift from floor 1 (ground floor) and a car/bicycle park in the basement. The corridors are all open with courtyards in the middle of each section meaning that it's nice in summer but can be quite cold in the winter! 

Overseas Education College

View of one of the lakes, Chinese dorms in the distance, student union under construction and a teaching building on the left taken from the 4th floor of the OEC

The open corridors and a courtyard inside building 2

International Dormitories

All international students are entitled to a dorm on campus. The buildings are split up into staircases of six floors with a flat on each side per floor. Boys and girls live in separate buildings so therefore there are no mixed flats. People from different countries are put together in a flat though so, for example, in my flat there is a mix of American, Russian, Thai, German and English (me!). Each building has space to store bikes on the first floor and a laundry room containing 4 washing machines.

A flat contains four bedrooms (2 people max. per room), a bathroom consisting of two cubicles containing a toilet (not a squat one) and a shower each and a wash basin and a living area with a wooden coffee table and wooden sofa. Each room has two beds, two desks, two chairs, a wardrobe (roommates have half each), two safes and a balcony where there is a sink, a mirror and a rail where you can hang clothes to dry. As mentioned in a previous post, it is possible to get internet/WiFi in rooms but it's quite a complicated process! Cleaning needs to be organised as a flat so some people choose to pay cleaners for the bathroom and communal area while others, like my flat, have a cleaning rota to ensure that the cleaning is spread evenly amongst flatmates.

Scholarship students live in dorms for free with a 1,000元 deposit but non-scholarship students pay 2,000元/semester or 4,000元/year, also with the 1,000元 deposit, which is still really cheap. Some students do still choose to live off campus but due to the campus' location, it's more convenient to live on campus, at least during the week.

Our dorms

The building on the left of the photo is my building. The one on the right is for boys. There is a gate with a security guard at the entrance to dorms checking that people swipe their student card to get in.

Inside the gate

Courtyard inside dormitory buidlings

 Canteens

There are two student canteens on campus and I regularly go to both of them. One of them is near our dormitories so is useful for breakfast and if you don't fancy going too far away from your room for lunch/dinner. This canteen only has one floor that serves food and restricted opening hours. It is open all morning until 1pm serving breakfast until about 11 then lunch. It then opens again at 4:30pm until 8:30pm. At breakfast there is congee, vegetables, various dumplings, vegetables and some meat. You can have fried chicken for breakfast if you want to! Lunch is when there is the biggest selection as they serve boiled and fried rice which you get first before choosing whichever meat/vegetables you want with it. There are also dumplings, cups of fruit and occasionally cake. The other main option is to go for noodle soup. For this you choose the noodles you want and the meat and vegetables you want with it before they make it for you while you wait. At dinner time there is the option of boiled rice (not fried) with meat/veg of choice up until 7pm and the noodle soup from opening until close. There is also a small shop open when the canteen is open selling drinks and snacks. This canteen also has a room with ATMs at the back including one where you can pay money into your Bank of China account which is very useful.

The canteen near our dormitories

Inside the canteen. You get food from the left.

The other canteen is the main one. It is situated near the Chinese dormitories and is closer to the teaching buildings. We tend to go there for lunch as we can study on the second floor afterwards (you know you're in China when you study in the canteen!). This canteen is bigger with three floors serving food. The first floor is similar to the canteen near the dormitories, serving rice, meat, veg and noodle soup. This canteen also closes at 7pm in the evening. The second floor is divided into two sections. The largest section only serves at lunch as the rest of the time it is used for studying. The small section is the Halal restaurant which is always quite busy but also finishes early. The third floor tends to be where we go. This canteen is different from all the others as it consists of small private businesses with menus above each stall. The shop owners do their best to try to tempt you to buy from them as they are all in competition. The food on this floor is made while you wait so is fresh. You can get noodles (fried or in a soup and lots of different types), dumplings (包子，饺子，蒸饺,...), vegetables and meat dishes. There is also a place called HKC (a bit like KFC) and an Indian place.  

The main canteen with lots of bikes outside

First floor

Second floor

Halal restaurant

Third floor

Swimming pools

I was happy to find out that there were two 50m swimming pools free for students to use on campus. In order to be allowed to use the pool, students have to do a health check which means a visit to the health practice on campus or to the university hospital on the island so that they can check the soles of your feet and eyes. You are then given a card with your photo, name and faculty on it which allows you to go swimming. When you enter the pool building you hand over this pass in exchange for a locker key, after your swim your pass is returned to you once you've handed the locker key back. It is compulsory to wear swim hats when swimming in the pool and goggles are also advisable. Although there are two 50m pools, there is only one in use at the moment. It doesn't tend to get too busy though so you can get a good swim done. Unfortunately I've injured my knee so haven't been able to swim as much as I'd hoped. The pool is not heated even though it is inside meaning that in colder weather it can be very cold! The pool is open until 10pm every day. I've heard that there are also ping pong tables on the second floor although I've never been up there.

The swimming pool building

Other sports facilities

I can't tell you too much about the other facilities as I don't use them but here are some photos:

The stadium

Football pitches and exercise park

Basketball courts and tennis courts as seen from the coffee shop

Supermarket, other shops and services

There is a supermarket on campus near the main canteen selling the main essentials - drinks, snacks, fruit, bedding and towels (these are not included with dorms), toiletries, cleaning supplies, stationery etc.

Other shops near the canteen include a pharmacy, optician, printing/photocopying/photographs, barbers, China Mobile, China Telecom, China Unicom and a coffee shop (which is another one of our study spots!). 

Shops/services at main canteen

Supermarket (超市)

Outside terrace of the coffee shop

Main building/library

As already mentioned, the main building is still not complete inside but is impressive all the same. The library is 10 storeys tall, towering over the other buildings on campus. In front of the building is a statue of the university's founder, Tan Kah Kee. He was a overseas Chinese who made a lot of money in Singapore and used it to found lots of schools and universities, in Jimei (mainland Xiamen) in particular. I'm sure there will be a post about my visits there at some point!

The characters on the pillars in front of the building make up the university motto.

The e-card system

Xiamen University has a system where every student is issued a card connected to their Chinese bank account. You load money onto this card and use it to pay for most things on campus including food in the canteen, shopping in the supermarket, hot water for showers and getting in and out of dorms. This card makes life a bit simpler and can also be used on the other university campuses. 

More photos

A selection of some of the other more general photos I've taken of campus

View from the coffee shop

Teaching buildings

Teaching buildings

Roundabout (not sure why it's needed?)

Outside the West Gate

Outside the canteen, Chinese student dorms and truck taking away a stage. There are quite often events on outside the canteen with singing and dancing

The lake and teaching buildings

Sunny Xiang'an

Pathway from the OEC

I've tried to make this post detailed as it is long overdue, a couple of people have asked me to write it. However, if you feel like you would like to know more information on something or feel that I've missed something then please let me know in the comments section and I'll add it to the post.

I am now in  Dubai for Christmas followed by Hong Kong for new year so the next few posts won't be about Xiamen!

Am I actually going to China?

Although it says in my first post on here that I'm going to Xiamen University in China this September for my year abroad, this is still not certain. I sincerely hope I am as I have been looking forward to it so long, but at the moment the subject is quite frustrating. There has been a bit of a lack of organisation throughout the year abroad preparation which means that I still do not have a confirmed place there. I've put this down to this being a new exchange programme and the university not being used to sending people to China, but it is still annoying. We got an email on Thursday saying "Oh, btw, you need to apply and the deadline's on Saturday", brilliant.

Bearing in mind, I was at home in Manchester and left the UK for Madrid on Saturday, I had limited time to acquire an academic transcript, fill in my application form, get a recommendation letter, write a study plan (thankfully I'd already written one for my scholarship application), get a photocopy of my passport and send all this off in the post to China. I somehow managed to get this all done on Friday and felt relieved at getting it out of the way. I emailed the contact in China with the postal receipt and explained that I'd done everything to the best of my ability. I've received emails from her since asking me to complete everything I've already done and send it all to her (which I've already done). The last one was this morning. Hopefully this will all sort itself out but at the moment it's a source of stress that I could do without. I'll write an update when I know more. Rant over.

TL;DR Everything to do with my year abroad is disorganised and it's stressing me out. Hopefully I'll still get to go to China.

Sorry for all that, I'll write some lighter posts about Spanish life soon!

Welcome to my blog!

Hi everyone!

As many of you will know, I don't spend long in any one place. As a Modern Languages student (French, Spanish and Chinese), I have the perfect excuse for my travels! 

Tomorrow I will be leaving for Madrid where I will spend two months au-pairing with a Spanish family before going on my year abroad to Xiamen University, China, as part of my University of Southampton course. I'm sure I'll find somewhere to head off to for next summer as well! I will then head back to Southampton to complete my final year in 2014.

I've started this blog partly so that anyone who wants to keep up with what I'm doing can do so easily (Facebook's blocked in China, UPDATE: apparently blogspot is blocked too...) but also so that I have all my memories in one place. I plan to post about my experiences, cultural differences and just generally what I get up to with maybe the odd photo.

Hasta luego!