This summer，from EAP to HFI

“ The pure, the bright, the beautiful,

That stirred our hearts in youth,

The dreams of love and truth;

The striving after better hopes-

These things can never die. ”

——Charles Dickens

I’m typing these letters in Dubai, waiting for my flight connection. But those memories in England will always live in my heart when I return to my home country, or even when I fly up to space in the future!

An Oxford Royale summer school was really a masterpiece in my dreams. Engagement, pleasure and involvement are felt and innovations were made by me. It is extraordinarily amazing that a class could really let me make a great progress and such deep involvement in such a short period. Thanks to the active classes and the enlightening style provided by this summer school, I could let myself feel free to explore the entire world of academic knowledge. Thanks Oxford that provides me with such great experiences!

I certainly have to talk about the different classes’ experiences I’ve had in the curriculums. Classes are shown in comprehensive and vivid methods. The program has given me a positive introduction to the English-style class. Taught in classes with less than 20 people, students are taken care of carefully and points of views are spread out in a free way. The western education system is of better variety and it stresses motivation more than Chinese classes do. In class, short interruptions that are contributive to the development are accepted and new topics of extension produced in this way are a shining point of Oxford as long as the advanced and mature teaching mode. 

The most significant memory with my professor Mr. Graham is the initiative helps he provides me with. Project is a damn difficult thing, to be frank. The most important factor is where to put hands into the whole thing. Graham just got into my team and did some checking and vital points were raised. When business analysis was done in the mission, he just came and asked about each feature of the product, giving inspiring questions that are firmly linked to the business world and academic contents in the textbook. Facing his questions, the group made reassignments and new designs and the final results proved to be satisfactory. That is different from most teachers who directly provide answers.

Another shining point of Graham is his encouragement and support after class. Sometimes his writings on the board, or on my student’s guide, could be even more informative and complex than those written on class. Perhaps my courage and interest of business is enhanced by his effort of help, and through which I activate my full effort and focus, getting the Effort Prize finally.

Though it is called an “academy”, my summer school covers is much more than academic advances. Activities for fun and for extra curriculum knowledge considerably enhanced the trip’s delight. Model Stocks and Share Market gave me the first practice of my course, though the loop playback of background music “GDFR” and “Low” indicated my results as a beginner; the Great ORA debate and the MUN told me that I still have to be humble even facing debating and political issues which I considered I was skilled in. 

Tours and dance parties were formed in the ways I had never experienced before, giving me a new way to explore and free myself.

Students from more than 100 countries filled the whole campus. To a large extent, this is one of the most challenging and interesting part when I was staying in Oxford. Learning about “Bonjour”, “heavy industry” and talking about “blocked Google”, we put down our prejudice, living deliberately, living deep, and smudging the marrows and the extremes in our lives and views – quite educational.

Students from more than 100 countries filled the whole campus. To a large extent, this is one of the most challenging and interesting part when I was staying in Oxford. Learning about “Bonjour”, “heavy industry” and talking about “blocked Google”, we put down our prejudice, living deliberately, living deep, and smudging the marrows and the extremes in our lives and views – quite educational.

Embracing the Certification of Achievement in my hands, all the paths I have passed through my eyes like a graph. I recalled that someone asked me why I was qualified to combine and compete with all students from the globe. Though I felt ordinary in a life like that, I could hardly say that what made me here today was not ordinary at all. Three years ago when I first stepped into HFI, I had started the luck that would last for 6 years with it. Unlock dragged into the world of academic English, getting me addicted, and not surprisingly, volunteered to attend the advanced EAP curriculums. What engraved in my mind Yoee’s vivid complaints about daily phenomenon and seductive descriptions about her life in England, Sarah’s long-lasting and unhindered classes and inter-cuts for our “ads presentations”, Sheldon’s delicious biscuits as well as fun games related to vocabularies and academic experiences. Wendy’s amazing fraktur which I have imitated for three years so far, as well as Darcy’s pop songs that accompanied with me for summers and winters, of course. All that I’ll put deep inside my memory, as they are the ways I’ve come by, and what brought me here today.

From EAP to Oxford Royale, and going on to the brand new HFI, this summer.

Keep calm. Keep the love. Be thankful. Hold on. And move on.