Final study report at Catolica University
Guiying Zhang 2016
At the end of 2015, I signed up for the study abroad project and was successfully selected to study at Catolica University for one semester as an exchange student. I cherished this precious opportunity to study abroad very much and thanks to Shantou University providing us such wonderful platform to experience different culture and know more friends.
When I came to Portugal alone, I felt nervous but excited. Before I came there, I had found a room to rent with my classmates help. In addition, they patiently answered my problems when I applied for my visa to Portugal. Facing a total new environment and totally different language, I felt lucky and relaxed that my classmates and my landlord helped me to be familiar with it in the first week. Looking forward to explore Lisbon and studying in a new school reduced my miss to my family and friends in China.
In Catolica University I have selected three courses: Strategy, Organization and Leadership, Entrepreneurship and Behavior Decision Making. The behavior decision making course is trimester so I have finished it at the end of March. The exam score of this course (16/20) reflects that I have done a good job on it. This course is very interesting and atmosphere of the class really encouraged me to take an active part in exercises and discussion in class and form my own opinions. This course provides me with a better understanding about how you and other people think, feel, decide, and behave. It helps me to increase awareness of the psychological processes that underlie the choices that people make, as well as systematic biases and heuristics that people have when making decisions. Another is to give me a space to reflect on who I am and who I want and do not want to be, as well as provide tools for how to mindfully create a life that aligns with my goals. Another is to better understand how to interact with oneself and other people in ways that are responsible, productive, and rewarding. A last main knowledge I learned is to appreciate the role of emotions and moods in how people decide and behave.
Concerned with the Strategy, Organization and Leadership course, it is a course that helps me to know about the business market in Portugal. Why I say so? Because every week we need to do a case analysis and then discuss in class, such as the Delta Coffee(coffee market), Feira Nova(retailer market), Salois(cheese market) and so on. These are the very important markets in Portugal. As I know nothing about the Portugal before, this course helps me learn a lot about these industries trends and competition level. The strategies applied in the cases give me inspirations and new knowledge. Every week there are two classes, one of which is designed for theory class and the other is designed for case discussion using the theory we learned last week. Through this format, I master the method and know how to apply the knowledge to the real case.
For Entrepreneurship course, it really improves my team work ability. We are in the international class, which means that my teammates are from different countries. My teammates are Portugal, Spain, Hungary and me China. At first, I found that they really behaved to insist their own ideas as they think that was the best. However, as we communicated more and more, we cooperated well and learned to accept and listen to other’s opinions if they are good. This class is to create a business idea and then take actions to make it true step by step. We need to present our results every class after our group work. Therefore, my public speaking skill and has improved a lot.
While studying abroad, I know more about China and have a great sense of belonging to China, as well as experiencing the different culture. Through this one semester exchange study, I made friends with different people from different countries and know more culture about these countries. Different teaching methods and active classroom atmosphere help me to have critical thinking and to form my own ideas. All in all, these greatly impress me and enrich my life.
