“I’m very satisfied of the online courses provided by the university. During the epidemic, online courses can ensure our self-protection while letting us continue our studies. Our teachers are amazing.” Grinchenko Snezhana, from Kazakhstan, is a 2019 undergraduate of Chinese International Education from College of Chinese Language and Culture. Influenced by the COVID-19 epidemic, like Chinese students, she is having online courses in her hometown. “At first, there were some problems of internet. Our teacher contacted with technical staff and solved problems. From this epidemic, I have learned that China is really a great country. There’s no doubt that Chinese people will win this battle. I hope to return to our classroom and meet our teachers and classmates.”

Like Grinchenko, there are more than 300 foreign students from more than 30 countries who are having online courses. To ensure the quality of online teaching, the College combines online course construction with WeChat groups. The College also provided group training and individual tutoring for full-time and part-time teachers through various methods, so as to help teachers to master online teaching methods as soon as possible. Foreign students now can get on Xuetang X, Rainy Classroom, WeChat, Tencent Conference and other platforms to meet their teachers and classmates online and express their thoughts about Nankai and China.

 “It is the first time I have online courses. Except for the beginning, when I couldn’t focus, now I’m used to it and I find it a very good way not to stop lessons.” Lee Jiyoung, from South Korea, is a 2019 master student of Chinese International Education from College of Chinese Language and Culture. “We encourage each other online and make progress with our teachers’ help. Now the epidemic is spread both in China and other countries, but it’s important to keep learning and every second counts. I hope the epidemic can come to an end soon and I can get back to campus the sooner the better.”

Minasyan Anush, from Armenia, is a 2018 master student of Chinese International Education. When the epidemic broke out, she chose to stay in campus. “Nankai campus is safe. My teacher always sends me electronic documents and instructs me to write the thesis on the phone. In our WeChat groups, teachers keep solving problems for us and patiently inform us about the graduation. I truly appreciate the concern and care of every Nankai teacher.”

Davide Francolino, from Italy, is a 2016 undergraduate of Chinese International Education from College of Chinese Language and Culture. “In this special time, I’m having online courses in my hometown, too. At first, I had some problems, like the 7-hours’ time difference, the login passwords and so on. But every time I asked my teachers for help, they always replied me very fast and helped me to solve every kind of problems. Now that all the problems are solved, I began to adapt to the online courses, but I hope we can be back to our classrooms at the earliest date possible.”

Though it is challenging to have transnational online courses for teachers and students, they still feel that the effort is worthy. We all hope the epidemic can come to an end in the spring, so that foreign students can come back to the campus as early as possible.

(Reported by Jingqiu Hao, Translated by Yuchen Shi, Edited by Davide Francolino and JianjingYun)