Student Testimonials
Name: WONG Kwai Yip, Wendy
Host Institution: Kristianstad University (Sweden)
Term of Exchange: Term 2, 2019-20
In the early 2020, I travelled to Sweden to study for a semester. It was my first time to live in a foreign country for almost five months, which has given me brand new and unforgettable experiences that I had never had in the past.
On the academic aspect, I learned a lot in the new learning environment at Kristianstad University. Comparing to the classes that I attended in Hong Kong, my courses in Sweden adopted different teaching approaches. For example, Intercultural Communication emphasized on interactions between the instructor and students, rather than going through reading materials. I also took some courses that are not offered at Lingnan University, one of which introduced the history, socio-political formation and unique cultures of Sweden. It helped me to build up an in-depth understanding of Sweden and learned much more about the cultures and the social practices of the Swedish, which greatly
enhanced my cultural exposure.
Personally, I became more independent after this exchange experience. Living on my own without my family’s support for the first time, I was so nervous yet excited before departing from Hong Kong. It was considered hard and quite helpless at first when I encountered troubles during my exchange journey. During those few months in Sweden, I successfully tackled different challenges and problems. For instance, I learned how to get along and communicate with the flatmates where all of us are coming from distinct cultural backgrounds, so that we have a harmonious hostel live while sharing the facilities. Learning from each experience developed my problem-solving skills, which helped me to be better
prepared for the upcoming challenges.
I gained a lot from this exchange period. It is a valuable and memorable experience for me to broaden my international exposure and making friends with different people which might be my once-in-a lifetime opportunity to study and live in a foreign country.