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[Music]
In German: Hi, my name is Chong, I am from Germany. Life in my home country is a lot
calmer than here. The city I’m from is called Speyer, which has 50,000 people living there.
It is a rather small city. My area is sometimes called the Mediterranean area of Germany because
it is the warmest due to the topography there. I decided to come to the United States because
I wanted to study abroad, and to UNCG in particular, there is a collaboration between my university
back in Germany and UNCG. But more importantly, I wanted to see a part of the United States
which I might not be able to see later in life. I arrived in Greensboro in August last
year before the semester started, and my very first impression was wow, there is no one
on the streets. And I had the feeling before in Germany that people normally use their
cars and the cities are sprawled around the land and much more widespread, and you don’t
see that many people. But the very first impression kind of shocked me. When the semester started
and we got used to the city and know the places where people actually are, it really became
better. The main differences between the educational system in the United States and in Germany
that I’ve experienced, is that German teachers tend to be more theoretical. And American
professors tend to be more practical. They use more case studies. And what I like the
most is that they interact with the students on a personal level. So, I am impressed by
their ability to remember faces and names. German professors tend to stick to your matriculation
number on which base they also rate your exam. That’s something I really like in the United
States, that it's much more personal, it feels like professors care for you as a person and
individually. The greatest lesson I’ve experienced in America and at UNCG in particular is the
international environment. We don’t have that many Asian, Iranian, or people from all
over the world in Germany. That’s a plus in the United States, and a great plus at
UNCG in general, that you can meet so many people from different countries, and interactions
with them always gives you new perspectives. So my future plans after I graduate here in
May is to return back to Germany. My dream job would be to become an internal auditor,
which is not really a popular position. But I think that’s a fun experience, to have
a lot of challenges, to meet new people in new departments all the time, and to have
a great team to work with, especially at BASF the internal auditing team is great. That
would be my dream, but we will see where I end up when I’m back.
[Music]