[“Having an international experience opens your mind: Marlene Hellthaler”.]
“For me, an exchange is not only going to study or doing homework every day, it is also important to have the opportunity to get to know the place so you can be broad minded and UPAEP gives you the chance to do it. Besides, it hands down the freedom to choose the courses you are interested the most and having English ones is also an advantage” said Marlene Hellthaler from Germany. However, she studies at FH Kuftstein Tirol University of Applied Sciences in Austria. Nowadays, she is studying for an academic year in UPAEP.
“This University has something special because before classes start, the internationalization office prepares a lot of activities so we can know a little bit more about the place we are at; we have a campus tour, but also introduction to the culture and what we should do and should not do in Mexico. This is where we get our first approach to the Mexican food and get to know traditional dances, an event that I found really pretty”, she said.
“Mexico has a lot of faces, the Pacific Ocean, snow, dessert, everything! It has an amazing culture with Aztecs, Olmecs and Mayas, very interesting and astonishing country. I found really nice people and everything that I think about Mexico makes me really happy” shared with us Marlene.
She told us that her stay in UPAEP has been satisfying personally, professionally and academically. “I learnt a little bit more professional Spanish that will help me for my career and future. I took classes with a German professor, he is pretty good and talked about his experience here and his teaching is different from others. I learnt a lot from him because he gave us a lot of tips that we now can use in the professional environment. Being out of my country makes me a quicker learner. I did not know anyone before coming here and nowadays, I have pretty good friends”.
“I like challenges because it is a possibility to grow up and get better. The hardest was the language in the academic field, which is why I took Spanish lectures, at the beginning, I did not understand anything”.
However, she also told us she is always open to new cultures and now, Mexico adds to her list of different countries where she had lived before like Italy, Brazil and Canada. “After a while, since I am an easy adapter, I am no longer aware of the new culture because it becomes familiar and nothing seems strange anymore”.
“A very different thing with Germany is that we get to be pretty strict and we think something should be done in one way only because it works, even though is not all the time like that, there are different ways to do stuff and when you are in other cultures, you learn that besides other ways of thinking.”
Finally, Marlene Hellthaler, International Commerce student told us and her classmates to go on an exchange and never leave behind the opportunities once they are in front of them.
“Take a chance when life gives you this offer, and always be sure there is a reason why is there. Being in touch with other people makes your life easier, people are grateful and they also want to get to know you. Want to open your mind? Talk to them!”
Click here to read the text in Spanish.
