A new student exchange program was established this semester between the University of Macau (UMac) and Southern Illinois University (SIU), Carbondale, in the United States, the first such program with American universities.

Five students from the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities (FSH) participated.  They are: Alice Lam, Candy Lam and Cassenna Chan from General English Program, and Agnes Vong and Gloria Si Tou from English Communications, all are Third-Year students.  They arrived at Carbondale in early January.

They believed that this would be a great opportunity to have study experience in a different country.  "I feel very honored but at the same time it is going to be a very big challenge for me," Alice Lam exclaimed.

"SIU Carbondale is such a campus that I can really taste the American life," said Chan.  Since there are no students from Hong Kong or Macau except them, they have to struggle to integrate into the American community.  And there is no Chinatown in Carbondale, so they are put into a real foreign society.

Some of them were sick at the beginning because of the cold weather, the low humidity in the dormitory and the "exotic" food.  Apart from that, language problems occurred.  "We are the only students who are not familiar with their slang and accent in class," said Chan.  They had to pay more attention to lectures and participate more in class discussions.

UMac has held regular exchange programs with universities in Japan, Holland, Finland, Sweden, France, Norway, New Zealand, and Portugal.  Every year, about 58 UMac students go to these countries while 70 foreign students come to study at UMac. 

When asked about differences between UMac and SIU Carbondale, Chan singled out the atmosphere in class.  She said that students in SIU are always ready to fight to answer lecturers' questions.  They are not shy to give feedback and comments.  She thinks that there are more challenges studying there.

Lam complained that they've got a lot of assignments every week.  "Don't think that studying abroad is a way of getting away from college work."  She has chosen Speech Communication as the major in SIU, and she could only be able to take five courses because the reading load is much heavier than at UMac.

After class, they enjoyed all kinds of sports activities at the campus Recreation Centre.  They also like to go shopping or visiting friends' homes during weekends.

All five exchange students will be back to Macau in July and continue their last year of study in UMac.
 

Agnes Vong, Cassenna Chan and Gloria Si Tou with their new friends. 

Anges Vong and Cassenna Chan in front of the campus.