The oversea study plan in Monash College was a challenge. The main course focused on Business English that I is used in company and the communications between team and colleague. The course schedule was tight and we learned lots of things within those three weeks. For me, the challenging lectures focused on communications skills, teamwork skills, and employability skills.

First of all, the communication skills hold a great deal of importance in our daily life. The lectures show us that first impressions for the ongoing relationships are important. The person who presents themselves confidently with correct body language, shake hands, speaks well will allow to the succeed. Also, effective small talk will build a positive image for us. However, there’s a different situation in telephoning and we had been taught to use our voice effectively over the telephone. Additionally, I have learned teamwork skills that allow me to develop harmony in a team. Thus, there’s a challenge to combine all the communication and teamwork skills that can solve any problems in reality.

In addition, the employability skills was very demanding for me, because I had to answer some personal questions about myself and this was surprisingly difficult for me. This is because I have seldom reflected on myself and my personnel characteristics. Also, we did some interview rehearsals in class and tried to present ourselves in a successful way. It was a good experience to let me think about myself deeply and will make my career life easier in the future.

At the middle of the program, we had two industry engagement. The first company was CPA (Certified Practicing Accountants). It was a great opportunity for me to visit CPA and leaned about the internships, hear about employability interviews, and received tips about the industry. I observed the work experience from Rahul who works at CPA, and told us to learn as many as things we can. He also said to network with people at the beginning of our career life. He mentioned, don’t be afraid to ask questions, provide gives suggestions, and feedbacks. This knowledge is useful because if sometimes I experience awkward or nervous moments, Rahul’s speech will enable me to address this problem and move forward.

The second company was Dairy Innovation which is the biggest dairy organization in Australia. The culture of Dairy Innovation is more traditional because they combine manufacturing and technology research within here. There’s no open door policy, and they had professional specialists like microbiologists. Also, I leaned the business model of Dairy Innovation, the workflow and processing of the products, and the research technologies they use. We were lucky to have a chance to go into the factory and learn the operations of the latest equipment used, and observed the production of cheese.

The culture of Australia was very different from what I imagine. I thought the Australians were lazy, fat, entire white people with British accents. But actually, they are hardworking, friendly, and have strong team spirit. I’m very happy to have an elder brother in my homestay who played guitar with me. I learned a lot about Melbourne and Australia in those three weeks including: Australia football, celebrity, and some history about aborigines.

I liked Australia very much. I was very happy with my new friends from Shanghai and Japan. We traveled around Melbourne everyday and chatted with each other. During the first weekend, around ten of us went to Mt. Buller to have ski. The scenery of Mt. Buller is marvelous, and I have never seen before. I also went sky diving on the next day. I jumped out from 14,000 ft. from the plane. It was cold, and a bit scary. I felt excited and made my heart beat faster than ever before.

The most impressive place in Australia that I have visited would be the Great Ocean Road. I rented a car with my friends and traveled all the towns from Melbourne to the Great Ocean Road. The scenery of the Twelve Apostles and Loch Ard Gorge was amazing that we wanted to stay there forever. After we arrived at Lorne Town, we caught some crabs for our dinner on Lorne Bay. I’m very happy to create new memories with my friends, and it was the most beautiful time in my life.