Mainland Students Enjoy Umac

By Joe Lam

What do Mainland Chinese students feel when they are studying in Macau? Do they have to adopt a different lifestyle in Macau? Not surprisingly, the answers are encouragingly positive.

Selena Hong from Fujian

"I have more freedom and can arrange my own time between studying and enjoying life in Macau," said Selena Hong, a Year 3 Faculty of Business Administration (FBA) student who came from Fujian.

Oscar Ma, a Year 1 FBA student who came from Guilin, Guangxi, also thinks that studying in Macau gives him more freedom. Both Hong and Ma came here alone and the reasons for choosing Umac for their study are almost the same.

"Umac is an international university which uses English as the medium of instruction," Hong said. "It gives me a chance to improve my English."

Similar to Hong, Ma also wants to improve his English and to know different cultures and education systems between universities in Macau and in Mainland China.

"I don't feel lonely although I came here alone," said Ma. Hong agreed, "I feel happy because I have made friends with many local students. They are very nice."

Although they have many new friends now, Ma thinks that mainland students may miss their families especially in festival days such as the Mid-Autumn Festival. This may not be true for all mainland students; at least, he said he is one of them.

Compared with Mainland China, Macau is a different place. "In my hometown, my life was 'two points making a line'. My lifestyle was very boring," Hong said. "But in Macau, I can have my ideal lifestyle. Besides studying, I can have some entertainments for relaxing, such as shopping."

However, for Ma, his lifestyle becomes simpler in Macau. "In my leisure time, I just go out for shopping and playing football or basketball," said Ma.

Despite more freedom, they both have to overcome a common difficulty. They said that the language barrier in Cantonese is the main difficulty they have in Macau. "The way to overcome this difficulty is to have more communication with local students," Hong added.

"My feeling of the Mainland Chinese students is that, compared with the local students, they are very hard working," said Biki Cheang, a Year 3 student who majors in Chinese Communication of the Faculty of Social Sciences and Humanities.

The University currently has about 900 mainland students from 14 provinces and cities in China.