Every semester over 200 exchange students come to City U for a period of education, exposure and experience. Many of us full-time students interact with them and are curious about their background, culture and the education system of their own countries. Regardless of whether they come from Canada, America, Romania, England or Australia, at some point we have all made the effort to converse with them and explore details of each other’s lives. But what about our own students who go on exchange visits themselves to explore how their overseas counterparts manage their residence halls and organise their hall activities?

This month I had the opportunity to interview Jacky Man Ho Yin. Jacky, a Residence Tutor (RT) of Hall 9, had the opportunity to go to the University of California, Los Angeles in April 2009. My focus for the interview was mainly on capturing the interactive ambience he had experienced and how different it was from City U. While conversing he established that he was more “culture intrigued” than “culture shocked” during his exchange. I was curious about his views of American-born Chinese. Was he able to identify with them or vise versa? He responded by saying “No, most of the Chinese students I met there were either born there or had lived in America. Yet despite their lack of exposure, they are more accommodating and more willing to know more about us.” Most importantly, how different were his Residence Tutor duties in a different country? “In UCLA, the Residence Tutors are more management-oriented, while Resident Advisors are more activity-oriented. I took part in helping to interview and select the Resident Advisors, which was a good experience.”

When asked whether he would recommend RTs or Residents’ Association (RA) members to apply for exchange visits to UCLA and learn about their operations, his enthusiastic “Of course” came without a moment’s hesitation. He summed up “Every student should take the opportunity to go on an exchange visit, because although City-U aims at being international, there is nothing better than experiencing the international atmosphere itself! It is indeed eye-opening.”  I was inspired and encouraged by Jacky’s candor and his enthusiasm. Don’t wait for the opportunity to come knocking at your door. If you are an RT or an RA member, take the initiative and send in your application to SRO by 5 December 2009 for an exchange visit to UCLA.