July 30, 2010

WASHINGTON - Georgetown University rising junior women's golfer Joan Dulieu (Bloomfield Hills, Mich./Detroit Country Day) has had a busy summer.

Since the school year ended in mid-May, the Hoya co-captain spent much of the month of June playing in amateur tournaments. Following that she spent a good portion of her summer visiting Hong Kong as part of Georgetown's McDonough School of Business Study Abroad Program.

Upon her return to the States, Dulieu took some time to share her epxeriences:

"I participated in the study abroad opportunity in Hong Kong, China through the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown. I am a finance and international business major, so I wanted to get some experience in how business is done overseas. The program entailed a one-month stay in Hong Kong while taking two Georgetown business classes and then ended with one week of travel throughout southern mainland China. We attended the Chinese University of Hong Kong and took international marketing and international strategic management with two Chinese University professors.

"One of the most beneficial parts of the trip was the business site visits in which we met with executives of local businesses to discuss the challenges and opportunities they face working in the international marketplace. It was great to be able to find out the real problems that exist in China and their truthful perspectives about the United States. It was also special to meet with some Georgetown Alumni in China to discuss their experiences in international business and reminisce about their times at Georgetown. Georgetown has such a strong alumni network that proved extremely beneficial to our stay in Hong Kong.

"We also took cultural trips to temples, markets, the biggest outdoor seated bronze Buddha, downtown Hong Kong, Victoria's Peak, and many other sites."

Classroom Atmosphere
"The classroom atmosphere in our classes was similar to that back at Georgetown since our classes only consisted of Georgetown students studying abroad. However, we did have the opportunity to attend one of our professors graduate classes taught in English to Chinese business students. I was amazed at the different classroom norms that existed under the same professor; students spoke to classmates over the professor while he was talking, answered phone calls during lecture, played games on their cellular phones, and never raised their hands to answer questions or make comments. We expressed our surprise to the professor after the class and he explained that these actions were just the norm for a Chinese classroom although they were considered rude in the eastern culture.

"During the Mainland China trip, we visited a local university and had the opportunity to speak with Chinese students our age. They were fascinated with the United States and I could barely voice any questions about China because they wanted to know so much about my culture, politics, and experiences in the west. The Chinese students' extreme thirst for knowledge was apparent."

Expectations of the Trip
"Surprisingly, I wasn't nervous before I left for the program. In retrospect this was because I had absolutely no expectations of what China would be like. I had traveled before around Europe and Australia but never to Asia. One of my international business professors and academic advisor, Professor Charles Skuba, introduced me to his long-time business partner and friend who currently worked in Hong Kong. I spoke with him about how to prepare for this experience.:

Cultural Aspects:
"One of the main things I worried about was that I might unintentionally insult people there simply because the eastern culture was so different from what I was used to. For me, the most difficult cultural aspect to get used to was receiving and giving everything with two hands; money, credit cards, business cards, and any sort of tangible object had to be exchanged with both hands and a slight nod of the head. It was considered rude and ungrateful to accept things with only one hand unlike in the United States. The hardest thing to get used to was the food. It was cooked in a different way and I could never get used to using chopsticks!

"Overall the whole experience was unbelievable. Not only did we learn routine lessons in the classroom but I felt the real learning happened just walking soaking up all the aspects of China. The study abroad experience really made me strive to work in Hong Kong someday and I would recommend this trip to anyone interested in International Business."