ISTM in Hong Kong

*Courses

Living in Hong Kong is nice ! The weather is really fine (sunny and not as wet as in July, 25°C ) ...if we did not have so many homework and assignments, I would think I am still on holidays...

Anyway...back to the reality ! Let's talk about the courses I have here.

So in ISTM, I am majoring in Biotechnology and Management...hence, in CityU, I am in the MEEM (Manufacturing Engineering and Engineering Management) department, and I have both engineering and management courses. My courses are the following :

1) MEEM 3024 Ergonomics in Workplace Design (3 credits)
2) MEEM 6012 Management of Technological Innovation (3 credits)
3) MGT 5313 International Organisational Behavior (3 credits)
4) CCIV 0201 Chinese Civilisation in English (3 credits)
5) CTL 2996 Basic Cantonese (3 credits)
6) MGT 2209 Business and Hong Kong Society (3 credits)

It is compulsory to have at least 12 credits, and the maximum number of credits is 18. I have 15 credits ( in fact I have not registered to the course Business and Hong Kong Society, I just attend the lectures).

Description of the courses (mostly for ISTM students) :

1) MEEM 3024 Ergonomics in Workplace Design : Interesting class. For example, you learn how to design a chair, according to the measurements of the body... but this class is known to be difficult and requires a lot of time and work... Pre-requisites : statistics, physics (sounds, wavelengths...).

2) MEEM 6012 Management of Technological Innovation : Not the same concept as the 2nd year ISTM course. This class is actually a mix between the classes "Management de l'Innovation" and "Création d'entreprise", but with an added program "how to open your mind and being creative". Here the first part of the class consists of opening people's mind and make them be innovative (maybe because Chinese people are not used to think different and innovative...). Then the second part deals with how to make a business-plan. You will have to write a business-plan with your group-mates... and you will learn how people in Hong Kong think and work...

3) MGT 5313 International Organisational Behavior : one of my favourite classes ! This class could be the 2nd part of the ISTM2 majeure "Management interculturel" ! You will have case studies and group discussions. Very interesting because most of your class-mates have already a job !

4) CCIV 0201 Chinese Civilisation in English : also one of my favourite classes ! This class tells you about Chinese history, schools of thoughts... you will have to go to the Museum of Art of Hong Kong and the Heritage Museum of Hong Kong, and write a report of what you have learnt. There are also online discussions about your points of view concerning Confucianism and the nowadays Chinese society... If you want to understand the Chinese society, take this class !

5) CTL 2996 Basic Cantonese : Interesting class if you want to learn this so difficult language but we only learn spoken Cantonese ("survival Cantonese" as the teacher says : how to say hello, to shop, to bargain, to invite people, to order in a restaurant, to answer the phone...) ! It is difficult to learn Cantonese (much more difficult than Mandarin partly because Cantonese has 9 tones whereas Mandarin only has only 4 tones...). Is it all the more difficult as the teacher has his own phonetic system which is different either from the international phonetic system, either from the Mandarin pinyin... and you will also have phonetic dictations (and focuse on it : it is 40 % of your final mark). But fortunately, the teachers gives you recordings to practice your Cantonese at home.

6) MGT 2209 Business and Hong Kong Society : also interesting class. Deals with sociology and the competitiveness of Hong Kong in business.

It is really great to be an exchange student here : I can take courses from other departments such as MGT (Management), CTL (Chinese Translation and Linguistics) and CCIV (Chinese Civilisation). So, do not hesitate to look up for classes from other departments than MEEM ! You can also take Physical Education courses ! How to dance, to play badminton... Furthermore, I am registered as an undergraduate student, hence I can also take both undergraduate (code courses beginning with 0, 2, 3) and postgraduate courses ( code courses beginning with 5,6). I encourage you to take postgraduate courses, they are much more interesting...and the students are much more mature (most of them already have a job).

Then, when you chose your courses, think that here a lot of personal studies is required...so feel free not to take as many courses as me...because afterwards, it would be very difficult to drop a class ! (but do not worry, you have 2 weeks to make up your mind). And do not do the same mistake as me : keep in mind that studying abroad also means that not only you learn from the classes you take in the University, but you also learn from interacting and talking with the others, either exchanges students (I learn a lot from my Turkish or Danish friends), people from Hong Kong or Mainland China...

As most of the postgraduate students already have a job and are part-time students, the postgraduate courses are in the evening (from 18:30 until 21:30). I am still not used to that... whereas the undergraduate courses are during the day. Here you choose and manage your schedule by yourself. So maybe you would be able to have all your classes in one or two days, and the rest of the time, you can travel around !

posted by yonali @ 12:34 PM