Bildung, it's all about improving yourself

 

Welcome to this blog, this blog will focus on my personal development during the minor MDBWC.

We are now 9 weeks on our way since the start of the minor MDBWC and I can look back very positively on everything I learned during this minor. Apart from the obligated theory I’ve also learned a lot of myself and improved a lot. This blog will primarily focus on my personal development and everything related to Bildung. So first let me start from the begin.

 

First two weeks

The first two weeks we had introduction classes wherein we learned more about ourselves, our classmates and the Chinese culture.

The fourth day of our introduction week was a visit to the Muzieum in Nijmegen. During this visit we experienced how it feels to be blind. We entered a completely dark building where we had to rely on our other senses to walk through this building. We were assisted by a women which is blind an can’t see in real life. I was impressed by this visit as you had to rely on other senses and it made me realise how lucky I am that I am able to see things. During the walkthrough I used my ears to listen how far someone is from me and if I can walk or not. But then I realised that we were in a building and if you were outside there are more sounds, so you can get easily distracted. It really changed my way of thinking regarding to people which can’t see. Every time when I see a blind man/women get in the bus/train I try to help him/her with checking in and trying to find a place to sit on. It really changed my way of looking to them in a positive way. Furthermore it has put things in perspective because I sometimes am not very happy about some small things in life but this just made me realise to be happy with what you have. I also realised that this trip can be related to our China trip which is planned for November this year. In China we may encounter the same with the language and Chinese characters which we can’t speak and read 100%.

Furthermore we had two classes in which we have learned more about some specific Chinese cultural topics. Those topics were Chinese religion and Chinese art. Unfortunately I couldn’t attend the last class because I caught the flu. But I heard some good stories about this class. The Chinese religion class was very interesting for me as I learned a lot about the important religions in China, when they started, the way of thinking etc. I’ve learned something about one of my main goals for this minor: cultural knowledge during this class.

We also had classes about Global citizenship and history, art, ethics and technology, ethics and integrity and identity and global citizenship. First we had the art class which I didn’t know what to expect from the beginning but after the class I was very positive about the class we had. We learned more about ourselves, how other people see me and how I see myself. Furthermore I had the chance to get to know my classmates in a very positive way. Normally that would take some days to get to know each other but this was a very good way to break the ice.

Then we had two classes about global citizenship and identity. It was very interesting as they teached us new insights regarding the meaning of global citizenship. It was also very useful to know how our classmates think about global citizenship. Then we had two classes of ethics and integrity wherein I gained more enthusiasm for these classes. I had ethics and integrity last year and I didn’t like it because you had a lot of theory which didn’t appeal me. But after these two classes I got more enthusiastic about ethics and integrity. Both the teachers were explaining the theory enthusiastically and it appealed to me.

At the end of week two we were asked to give a presentation about ourselves, what we have done the last two weeks and what our goals are for this minor and how we are going to achieve them. The development goals I set for myself are 1: Improving my English and overall communication skills, 2: learn more about the Chinese culture/language (improving my cultural knowledge), 3: trying to not stress very quickly when I don’t have control over something and 4: trying to see things apart from my personal values, norms, religion and way of thinking. The next articles will focus on the four development goals I have mentioned above.

 

Learning goal 1

My first development goal is to improve my English and overall communication skills. My major focussed on learning all the subjects in the dutch language. We had some classes in English but they weren’t 100% in English. I wanted to improve my English language because it is a world language and as an Business Management Student you need to communicate in other languages as the globalization of the world will continue. For me it was a logical step to choose this minor apart from learning a lot about China and their culture.

This minor is fully in English so the need to speak in English only is there. That’s the best way to achieve my goal to improve my English communication skills. If you want to learn a language you have to practice it every day without speaking Dutch or speaking Dutch with your fellow students. I have said to myself that I won’t speak Dutch with my fellow Dutch students if it is not necessary. Combine that with the amount of International students we have in class, it is the best way to improve it. Practice, practise and practise.

Furthermore I want to improve my overall communication skills as that is not my best point about myself. I tend to stutter and talk not clearly in Dutch so another important development goal during this minor is to talk clear even though it is in English. As above mentioned I will improve my overall communication skills by doing it and practising it. That’s the best way to improve them as how more you practice the better you get. During the past nine weeks I have the feeling that I get more used to speaking English as it was in the beginning very uncomfortable. You think about a lot of words if I translated them correctly. Furthermore I also improved my communication skills because I have the feeling that I’m used to talking in English which got me out of my comfort zone and thus being better here in. If I continue with this minor I am sure that it will further improve the above mentioned points.

 

Learning goal 2

My second development goal during this minor is to improve my cultural knowledge about China and learn the Chinese language. If I characterize myself I would say that I am always interested in other cultures and people and how they live in their countries. I want to travel around the world after I finish my bachelor degree to learn more about other people and their cultures. I am convinced that everyone you meet in your live brings you something where you think and learn about.

I am a student who is born in the Netherlands but my parents are originally from Morocco so I already have grown up with two different cultures. Which for me isn’t a problem but an eyeopener how people differ in the way they think. I call it an eyeopener because I have learned a lot of having two different cultural backgrounds. One of them is that I’m (a little bit) used to not be surprised when I am in another country with different cultures. I am going quite often to Morocco on vacation and every time when I am there and I see/hear things which at first are strange but due to my quick adjusting capabilities they become normal.

Due to my curiousness towards other cultures and people I chose this minor to learn more about a relatively unknown and unreachable culture. In the Netherlands we don’t have a large community of Chinese people to know more about their culture. Furthermore China is not an destination which you would visit easily due to the language and cultural barriers. That’s what I want to improve of myself, being more cultural aware of the Chinese culture and how they think about things. Furthermore I want to learn Chinese because of the big economic boom and it may be useful in the coming years.

How am I going to learn about my personal development goals in regards to cultural knowledge? Well by attending all the classes which are related to Chinese culture/society and Chinese language.

The best way to learn something about a country their culture/society is to learn something about their values, norms, differences and similarities. This is the best way to learn the theory and that’s what I’ve learned during the nine weeks. I have learned the theory in regard to the Chinese culture and I think I am prepared to visit China in a couple of weeks. By visiting China in November this year I will put everything what I’ve learned into practice. I can’t exclude a culture shock when I will be in China as I’m still experiencing it when I’m visiting Morocco but I am highly convinced that I can turn this cultural shock in the beginning into something positive.

 

Learning goal 3 & 4

My third and fourth learning goal is to not stress when something unexpected happens and to see my personal values, norms and religion apart from others. I am someone who can be stresses quickly if something unexpected happens or something not according to plan. I am an control freak and if I lose control I tend to stress a lot. One of my personal development goals which is not directly related to this minor is to stress less about this. How am I going to achieve this?

Well with this minor I can work this out. As I said earlier in of my blog posts I will visit China in November for a study trip. During this study trip we will conduct a research on a topic assigned by school. One of the main things to do in China is to conduct a questionnaire with Chinese people in China in order to get information from them. One big risk with this questionnaire is that the aimed target group will not be reached and the aimed amount of people will not be reached. This could potentially harm our research and can cause a lot of stress. For me this is a good example of putting this in practise and try to not stress about it.

Another personal development goal is to see my personal values, norms and religion apart from other their values, norms and way of thinking. I am grown up with some values, norms and religious aspects which I find important in my live. But those aspects may not be important to others. For me it is important to see these two apart in order to understand people more. This is a goal which takes time to achieve because it requires a lot of time to adjust your wat of thinking. But during the past nine weeks I have seen that I am changing in the way I used to think to this aspect. If people tell me something about their values, norms and way of thinking I tend to listen to them carefully and try to learn from in their way of thinking. Whereas I used to have an opinion after they tell me their important aspects in life. For me this is a major improvement because it gives me the chance to get to know these people without judging them one those aspects. I am highly convinced that this will help me to be a better person and to learn from others as it is a very important to see your important values apart from someone else. As I said before I am interested in other people and cultures and what to learn something from them. But that is not possible if you judge somebody on their values, norms and way of thinking. I have made a big step in achieving this learning goal during the past nine weeks but I am assured that I will learn more in my life.

 

With that I want to conclude my portfolio wherein I gave a short summary on the classes I had during the past nine weeks of this minor. I have summarized what I have learned during the classes and field trips. I have learned a lot about myself, how people think about me and how I think about others.

Furthermore I explained my four important learning goals which I have during this minor and after. I gave an explanation why they are important and how I have achieved them during this minor or how I will achieve them during the next weeks of this minor. Working on your personal goals makes you aware of everything you do and makes you think twice of the things you do/say to other people. It also makes you a better person as you are trying to improve some aspects which you think need to be worked on. I can conclude to see that every new experience in life makes you (re) think about some aspects which you (first) liked or did not liked. I have reached an age where I am thinking what I want, what I find important and what I to achieve in life. At this age you will start to rethink about everything what you used to find normal or oké because of the environment you were born. This minor made me realize that I am the only one who can shape my future and change my behaviour. With these words I want to conclude and say that I’ve learned a lot during the past nine weeks. I hope you enjoyed it!