Feedback from Summer School 2024 at Nanjing Agricultural University

Please Introduce yourself

My name is Daphné Gérard, I've just finished my first year at AgroParisTech and I spent two weeks at the Nanjing Agricultural University Summer School (from July 7 to 22), entitled One World One Health (so the courses were rather agriculture-oriented, although the other participants weren't necessarily studying in this field).

In which context did you come to China (exchange, double degree, summer school...)? How did you find out about this program?

I found out about the Summer School from my Chinese teacher (I study Chinese as second foreign language at AgroParisTech). Although this offer was addressed to the ParisTech group, I didn't get the impression that it was very well communicated. So my advice: if you're interested in this kind of program, don't hesitate to ask your language teachers, or even the administration.

Why did you decide to go to China for a summer school?

I started learning Chinese in high school, in LV3, and really enjoyed the language and culture (which I knew very little about before). I hadn't had the opportunity to go to China, so this program was perfect for me: a grant that covers most of the costs, and a duration that allows me to discover China without it being too engaging (unlike an Erasmus program, which is much longer, for example).

Can you give us a brief overview of the summer school at NAU?

Over the two weeks, we had morning and afternoon classes (8:30-11:30 then 14:00-17:00). The weekend was free, so my group and I took the opportunity to discover Yangzhou (we had hesitated with Shanghai). In the two-week course, "trips" are included, so we didn't just have academic 5-day courses. We had a day of discovering Nanjing, two days in WuXi (first day of aquaculture-related visits, overnight in a hotel, then a quick visit to a city park the next day) and also a company visit. What's surprising is that, unlike in France, the visits are very short, around 30 min-45 min (for two to three times the travel time).

As for the courses, they can be very general (what is food processing), or very specific (feline hyperthyroidism). You don't necessarily have to pay close attention or take notes (I did at the beginning, but I was the only one). At the end, there's a 30 min presentation to be given in groups of 4. I was a bit stressed at the time because communication was difficult within my group (a Chinese girl who didn't speak English, and the other two people weren't working much...), but it's really a no-pressure report that can be done at the last minute. Having done a BCPST prépa and then being in agronomy engineering school, I didn't learn much. What's more, the way courses are taught is slower and less dense than in France, so you can quickly get bored (a feeling shared with other internationals). However, some teachers knew how to make their lessons dynamic.

For meals, part of the scholarship covered 700 yuan (about €100) put into our student account for food (it was plenty sufficient). There are 6 canteens in the university, for breakfast, lunch, dinner. The choice is vast, whether in terms of dishes, desserts, fruit or even drinks. Taking dish, fruit and drink at each meal I had about 50 yuan (the dish alone is about 15 yuan).

For accommodation, we were in a dormitory dedicated to internationals (there were 6 of us in all and we had the dormitory to ourselves). The single rooms are very large, as they were formerly for 4. Toilets and showers are shared (the showers remained clean).

In terms of organization, to be honest, there's room for improvement. ... A lot of crucial information isn't given to us, and the administration isn't always very responsive. For example, we had to join a WeChat group (the university's) to access our student account. It was from this account that we had access to the 700 yuan, which is used for the canteen, but also for recharging the wifi and electricity (air conditioning, lights...)! I hadn't been told anything about this, and when I came back to my room one evening and neither the air-conditioning nor the lights were on, I didn't really know what to do. But thank goodness we had Victor for all those logistical matters! A NAU Summer School volunteer student who helped us with all this, as well as showing us around the city and the surrounding area over the two weeks (he spoke Chinese, so that made a lot of things easier).

What can you tell us about your experience at NAU? Were you involved? What do you get out of it?

As far as the courses are concerned, I found it interesting to see how another education system works.

By far the best part of the experience was the people I met and all the outings we went on together. I was lucky enough to have a great group, we were all quite different, but we got on really well. The Chinese students didn't join us at all, so we stayed between internationals (group of 6), with volunteer Victor who has been studying at NAU for 8 years but is originally from the Central African Republic. We were between 20 and 29 years old, but the age difference was not at all noticeable. We used every minute of the day to make the most of it, and the fact that we were a dynamic and inquisitive group made the time we spent together very enjoyable.

I'm lucky enough to have traveled a lot already, but this experience is very different from anything I've done before: the fact of being "alone" (the only French person anyway), in total immersion (seeing China from the inside via the university)..., it's extremely enriching, especially as China is a country that's a bit out of the ordinary, both very modern in some ways (internet etc), but which also retains a traditional side (architecture, markets...)....

Despite the difficulty I encountered during my stay, thanks to the very good group I was in, I was able to get the most out of the experience. So if you want a change of scene, I recommend this summer school.

Tell us about your life in China; what are the differences between life in China and life in France?

Everything is online. Ordering at restaurants, paying (by Alipay or WeChat, personally I prefer AliPay as there is sometimes the option to translate menus).

Chinese people (especially those from "small" towns) aren't used to seeing tourists. So there were a lot of insistent stares, and people asking to take photos with you, or not (some of them stand in front of you, with their lens pointing in your direction). The children are the most curious, and don't hesitate to come and chat with their notions of English.

Everything is very big, not at all on a human scale compared to Europe. The buildings, the schools, everything is out of proportion: it's quite impressive.

Our generation is very absorbed by their cell phones and social networks. All schoolwork is done with AI, which is quite striking (teachers are worried about it). What's more, they're not very curious and don't come to you. So it's with the kids or the elders that exchanges are possible.

What advice would you give to students from ParisTech schools wishing to study in China?

Remain flexible and understanding. The Chinese mentality is quite different from the French. Even among international students, views on certain subjects can be shocking, but you have to bear in mind that you come from very different backgrounds.

Install a VPN (otherwise bye bye non-Chinese sites and applications), like Lets VPN for example (be careful, not all VPNs work in China). It's best to install it before coming to China (it can be difficile on the spot), especially for computer VPNs, which are impossible to install once in China.

Take a Chinese SIM card with a Chinese number and data. Everything goes through the internet here (payments etc.), so living without it is difficult. I advise you to buy this in the study city. I bought mine during my stopover in Shanghai, and after a week they cut off my internet and blocked my number for some mysterious reason. According to the company (China Unicom), I had to go to the city where I had bought it to sort it out (Shanghai). So I lived through my last week without 4G, and it was a real pain (a friend of mine used to share connections with me when I had to pay).

Notify your bank. AliPay and WeChat are payments that work like internet payments, which can alarm our bank (after a certain number of purchases, or for certain amounts). There were a few of us whose transactions were blocked for these reasons.

Get out and try to see as much as possible. There's a lot to do and see in China, and it's all the better to go outside the tourist areas.

Feel free to contact Daphné