Hi, Tuan Minh. I am glad to see you after your exchange semester in France. You must have had a great time there, aren't you?

I returned to Ha Noi for over two months now and have started daily activities normally. While the emotions, memories, worries, and happiness of the exchange semester seem still alive...

Could you share your journey to the East? I'm sure a lot of our UEBer are curious.

I feel fortunate when become a student of the Faculty of International Economics and Business, UEB - an energetic and exciting environment. I always participate in extracurricular activities to find a new experience.

Throughout the semesters, the Fanpage of the University announce the students exchange program to the UEB’s partner universities in the UK, Korea, Japan, etc.… I collected information about the program and decided to take the exchange program at University of Rennes I in France.

 

I received huge support from teachers at the UEB and coordinators at IGR Business School, University of Rennes 1, who I should contact when coming, what procedures to do, what problems to anticipate as well as procedure to take when I need a rescue flight back home. I want to thank my teachers who gave me advice on suitable subjects to choose when joining the exchange. I also received a lot of best wishes and encouragement. 

 

How did you feel when you heard that your application was successful?

When I heard the news that the application was successful, my feeling was very complicated, both happy, relieved, and worried. I'm happy because I have succeeded with my international exchange plan after a long time of preparation. But after moments of being immersed in happiness, invisible worries also came. My parents were worried about the epidemic situation raging worldwide; Europe was no exception.

At that time, I had to talk and convince my parents with solutions to overcome difficulties and specific plans for each problem. Finally, after many discussions, I got the consensus of the whole family, I am stronger and more confident to go forward.

After a semester in France a long time, I am sure you had a lot of stories, memories and experiences, are you willing to share about that?

For a long time, I have heard about the politeness and courtesy of the French, as soon as I arrived, I experienced it. The school in France where I study has many affiliated institutes, facilities such as gymnasium, sports area, lab, large campus. All of the above conditions have enabled students to pursue academic activities, exchange and play sports they like. Classes are usually quite small to ensure the professor has the ability to guide groups when solving cases.

 

The first is the knowledge of France's culture, history, and art; although it has been learned through the magazines, it's great to experience by yourself. Next, the experiences to work in an international environment are valuable, I had chances to learn in a "multicultural" class, students come from many different countries such as the USA, Belgium, Italy, Mexico, Iceland, Algeria, Japan, etc...

 

Besides studying, maybe extracurricular activities are very diverse, exciting and dynamic?

In France, international students have many options for extracurricular activities. The most exciting experience I had was the "multicultural" parties organized by international students. Each of you will prepare a local dish to introduce to everyone. When attending those parties, I made many new friends and learned more about the culture of each country.

During the time, I had chances to tell good stories about Vietnamese culture, introduce UEB, and receive excitement and enjoyment from international friends. I am happy to know that those who have been to Vietnam still desire to visit my country again, and those who have not had the opportunity also plan their trip to Vietnam someday.