SISU junior attended Harvard Project for Asian and International Relations

Hello! I’m Letty from Shanghai!”

“Oh, I’ve been to China!”

.....

“I’m learning Chinese!”

A junior student, Sun Xinyi, from the School of Education of Shanghai International Studies University (SISU) attended the Harvard Project for Asian and International Relations (HPAIR) several days ago. During six days, with her sweet smile, she met representatives from all over the world.

HPAIR is a biannual international academic conference, organized by students of Harvard. The summer conference is annually held in an Asian city. For this year, it falls on the Philippines. 500 scholars, entrepreneurs, social workers and students from over 60 countries gathered in Philippines’s capital, Manila, to enjoy a marvelous cultural feast.

“Confronting Asia’s Development Challenges with Innovation” is the theme of this year’s conference. Representatives were assigned to different groups of topics like corporate leadership, entrepreneurship, human Rights, etc. They specified the certain topic into specific branches like human trafficking and Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender right. Sun Xinyi said, “These topics are hot issues, close to our life. When we discussed these with open minds, I felt moved with this kind of atmosphere. There are many people, especially youngsters, caring about people who really need help. They are trying to make a better world.”

During the conference, Sun got to know many representatives from Japan, Malaysia, Germany, Zambia and many other countries. The most fascinating part is no doubt exchanging ideas with people with respective culture.

When it came to the most impressive talk, Sun recalled her communication with two Japanese girls about Sino-Japan relations.  “Although it is a little sensitive, we were honest to exchange attitudes of Japanese and Chinese toward this issue. I am delighted to see that young people of both countries become more open-minded and tolerant. Two Japanese girls said they have learnt lots of Chinese ancient history in senior high school and wish to visit China one day. ” Sun said.

After going through the Harvard conference, Sun realized her spoken English left much to be desired especially when discussing complicated and deep topics and figuring out quick and various English accents. “You can’t find words exactly to express your ideas even though you know what to say. Finally you may only output 30% of your thoughts.” she said.

Sun mentioned that many SISU students think their English is good. But it is still a long way to go when facing native speakers. She hoped that students from SISU could be strict with themselves and speak on the global stage on behalf of China.