大三出國、全英語課程 - 國際視野 : 淡江大學大三出國通報及學分採認系統

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2018大三出國輔導通報系統 - 留學心得報告[編輯]

語言 405810358 　田庭萱　　留學學校：賓州印第安那大學

(一)基本資料

I choose the Indiana University of Pennsylvania for my junior aboard program. IUP located in Indiana County in Pennsylvania state, it’s a good place for studying. In the first semester (fall 2018), I took German I, geography, criminal & justice system and history courses. Then, in the second semester (spring 2019) I took German II, public speaking, the introduction to business, introduction to music and legal environment of business.(67字)

(二)課程學習

【照片說明：German class】

I highly recommend the German class and the legal environment of business class in IUP. First, there are two professors teach German, Dr. Noob and Dr. Witthoeft. Dr. Noob focuses on grammar and German reading ability. He helps me lay a great German foundation. In his class, we go through most of the contents in the textbook, include vocabulary, grammar, short video, and culture content. He always picks students in the class to reading paragraphs or answering questions. If you didn’t preview the textbook or finish daily homework, you may get lost in his class. Unlike Dr. Noob, Dr. Witthoeft is more focus on culture study. She shares a lot of information about German. In her class, we got many handouts about grammar, practice the pronunciation and discuss German culture. Moreover, Dr. Witthoeft allows students to ask her definition of non-relevant words in the test. Both professors take attendance and participation, means student need to discuss or answer questions in class to earn credits. At the end of each semester, we had 15 minutes German-speaking test. Overall, I learn a lot in German class, not only the language but also the culture. Both professors are very kind and helpful if you need help just ask. The other course I would recommend is Dr. Webb’s legal environment of business. This course allows me to find the direction to work hard in the future. Although we have one to two hundred slides and class notes for each exam to review, I am willing to do so. I found this is what I want to study. Dr. Webb only takes 3 test scores as final (each test accounted for 33.33%). In the class, he mentioned many cases he has personally handled, and these examples were not placed on the slides but will be placed on the test. For me this class is very interesting, we learned tort, breach of contract and other common laws, etc. In Taiwan, we used Roman law system different from the US but learning different legal system has made me very fulfilled.(342字)

(三)生活環境

【照片說明：Whites Woods】

As I mentioned before, IUP is a great place for studying. Unlike San Francisco or Philadelphia, Indiana is a small county. If you don’t have a car, you have limited places to go and there is not much entertainment. The campus is beautiful and has a lot of green space. When the weather is good, you can go out to the sun. Although the weather is on and off. The temperature in Indiana is about 5 to 20 degrees Celsius. If the polar cyclone strikes in winter, the temperature may drop to minus 20 degrees Celsius. But don't worry, the air conditioning in the dormitory is open 24/7. Most international students live in the Wallwork Hall, business school students live in the Stephenson Hall. Wallwork Hall is near the North dining hall and Stephenson Hall is near the Folger Dining Hall. I personally prefer to dine in the North Dining Hall. If you are tired of eating food from the dining halls, there’s the Crimson Café near the library, Humanities And Social Science building (HSS) and Cogswell Hall. Let me make a brief introduction to some of the main buildings. Cogswell Hall is for the music department, HSS is for the school of Humanities, Wilson Hall is for criminology department and Eberly is for business school. Sutton Hall used to be the dormitory, but now it’s a historic place with museum and offices. HUB is where the PNC bank located on campus, it also has a gym, co-op store, and food square. If you are tired of staying on the campus, Philadelphia Street is a good place to go. There are various shops there. I also recommend the White’s Woods trail near Philadelphia Street. The natural scenery over there is beautiful, and the trails are not too long.(298字)

(四)自我成長

【照片說明：Wilson Hall】

At the beginning of the criminal & justice system class, I was frustrated. My performance in the first case analysis is a disaster. We have only 20 minutes to read the case, discuss and finish the answer sheets. The case paper is about 3 pages long with legal terms. After 5 minutes, my group members began to discuss the questions and I was still working on the 3 pages case content. There’s a problem, I couldn’t join the conversation and have no idea what they’re talking about. With my not good enough English-speaking ability and spontaneity, I blanked out completely when others asked me my opinion. “She can’t speak English.” One of my group members who are very unfriendly said. At that moment, I froze. Huge frustration occupied my mind and I couldn’t find any word to defense for myself. After that awful experience, I studied hard and previewed 2 chapters before the class, went to the library, searching for more cases to practice, etc. In the end, I improved my English-speaking, case analysis abilities and the most important, stress resistance. Eventually, I did a great job in this class and no longer care too much about the criticism from others. In the second semester, I was more confident to speak and actively join the discussions. With a preview before class and chat with my conversation partners in English help me reduce the language barrier. Conversation partner is a program which pairs a local student with 1 to 2 international student(s) as partners to share different culture. Sometimes I may have a grammatical mistake when speaking English, but I can be corrected by others if I speak out. Then, I can learn the correct usage and improve my speaking ability.(288字)

(五)大三出國建議

There are some suggestions. For the student who wants to take Criminal & justice system or Legal environment of business, if you didn’t have any basic concept of the US law enforcement or the justice system, think twice before you take these two courses. In criminal & justice system class, students are supposed to discuss and analyze cases with many legal terms. The legal environment of business has a lot of detail need to memorize and its test focuses on the case analyze skill and critical thinking ability. For those who want to shop in the US, make sure your luggage capacity is enough. Postage is not cheap, even a small package often cost more than $50. The weather in Indiana county is changeable and the umbrella is necessary. I suggest students bring an umbrella from Taiwan, the umbrella here is a little expensive and not very durable. For winter wearing, if you don't want to carry a thick coat or want to save money, as long as you don't care to wear second-hand clothes, you can get cheap coat at Goodwill. The last thing I’d like to remind the future students is to make sure you close your PNC bank account before you leave the US. If you didn’t close your bank account, after 6 years PNC bank will charge you $7 per month. Unless your account has more than $500 in it, then nothing will happen. Moreover, if your account has anything still pending that your account can’t be closed.(250字)