我的学校很意思！

So it has been way too long since my last blog post.  I’m going to try and have a post at least once a week form now on so keep you all up-to-date on my China travels (or lack thereof).

This post is going to be all about classes and school because, after all, that is why I am in China.  Do you remember how in my last blog post how I said that I had finalized my classes? If not, go check.  Good? Ok.  I lied.  My classes were not finalized then.

My classes are now:

1. Marketing Research (MBA)
2. Human Resource Management (MBA)
3. Doing Business In China (Undergrad)
4. Service Marketing (Undergrad)
5. Primary Business Chinese (MBA)
6. Consumer Behavior (MBA)

In addition to those classes I am also doing an independent study of Chinese 202.  That is being run through Miami because I need to get credit for CHI202 this semester but there was no equivalent class at PKU.

I’m sure some of you are wondering: “Why is Daniel taking so many classes?  Doesn’t he want to explore China and stuff while he is there?”  You would be right.  I do want to explore China.  And there is so much to see in the Beijing area alone (more on that in a later post).  However, of the classes listed above, 1, 2, and 3 end after the 10^th week of the semester, and 4 and 6 end after the 12^th week of the semester.  That leaves me a decent amount (read: over a month of 6 day weekends) of time to go and travel around China.

The MBA classes that I am in are actually easier than the Undergraduate classes.  My Marketing Research professor went to school at UIUC (small world).  Him and me had a pretty good talk about Illinois, which was pretty awesome.  My HRM class is quite possibly the most boring class known to man (closely followed by Doing Business in China).  My Service Marketing Professor… How to describe him?  The only way I can describe him is that he is The Man.  He blatantly favors foreign students, loves America, and spends class time occasionally recommending restaurants and talking about how the service industry (Restaurants, Airlines, etc.) in China sucks compared to the service industry in America.  The only downside to the Service Marketing class is that there is so much homework that I really just don’t want to do.

Because of my Chinese Minor at Miami, I should be taking the class Chinese 202 right now.  The only Chinese language class I can take here though is Primary Business Chinese, and that is for people who have NEVER studied Chinese.  So after berating Miami’s administration for months, I finally got an independent study of Chinese 202 approved so I can make progress on my minor while abroad.  My advisor for that is actually my PBC teacher.  My PBC teacher thinks I know so much Chinese and thinks I’m a genius because my Chinese is so much better than the rest of the class (no one else in the class has studied Chinese before, I’ve taken 2 years- it’s not really a fair comparison) and I’m not bothering to correct her. 

My Consumer Behavior class is just weird.  I’ll admit that the teacher is good looking.  But some of the Chinese students are just plain weird (read: messed up) about having a good-looking teacher.  One of the exchange students in my class was talking to a Chinese student in the class and according to the exchange student the dialogue went like this:

 

Exchange Student:  I’m really glad I got into this class.

Chinese Student:  I know.  She’s really beautiful isn’t she?

Exchange Student: (with blank stare) Not what I meant.

Chinese Student:  (Pulls out camera phone and takes picture of teacher)

Exchange Student:  (Goes to find new seat)

 

Overall, the classes are pretty easy.  The worst part is just having class on Sunday nights.  That is probably the worst part about being in China.  I’ll be sure to post updates more often- I am going to try and make my next post about general travellings around Beijing.  Beijing is a pretty awesome city and while it is very different from dinky little Oxford, Ohio, it is still a very exciting city with a lot more to do than Ohio.

 

再见!