Hello everyone, my name is Sophie Limberg and I’m from a small village close to Paderborn in Germany. I study Asian studies at Humboldt University of Berlin and was able to join the 2024 Experience Diverse China Summer Program at ECNU before starting my exchange semester here in September!
The first time I came to China was in 2018, when I went to study Chinese at Nanjing University and lived with a host family. I came alone, without any knowledge of the Chinese language or familiarity with the culture. To this day I am still grateful for my Chinese Host family who always had my back, my teachers who showed me the fun in learning languages and my friends with whom I was able to explore the beauty of Chinese culture.

After going back to Germany in Autumn of 2019, I began majoring in Korean studies at the Free University of Berlin. Although my focus was on Korea, I still tried hard to incorporate China and Chinese in my studies and connect it to Korea. I took Chinese classes besides learning Korean, befriended Chinese people during my exchange year in Seoul and researched about the ethnic Korean minority of China for my bachelor thesis.
After graduating last year, I decided to change Universities, but still focus on East Asia. I was happy to be able to join Chinese classes again in my Masters programme and I quickly decided that I wanted to go back to China. The fascination for the country had never left me and my encouraging language teachers at Humboldt university had awakened my love for the Chinese language all over again.

I gratefully accepted my place at ECNU for the Fall Semester 2024/25 and the nomination for a place in the 2024 Experience Diverse China Summer Program. The coordinator helped us prepare for the visa application, dorm reservation and answered any other questions that we had. Although I had to leave in the middle of the semester and everything was a bit hectic and stressful, I couldn’t wait to fly to Shanghai!
The online placement test for the Chinese language classes put me in a class that fit my Chinese level well and I am happy to have a very encouraging and lively teacher.

The Chinese classes are not your typical language classes! Besides learning new words and grammar, we also learn Chinese in a fun way by trying dubbing of movies like Zootopia or Titanic, singing Chinese songs as well as reading out Chinese poems. On some days we have out of class activities like going to the history museum of Shanghai or sightseeing on Wukang and Anfu Road! On other days we go to companies like Canature that manufactures high quality water treatment systems and the Shanghai Supercomputer Centre. One day we did Chinese painting on a fan and even though it was difficult at first to get the perfect ink to water ration on the brush, my fan did not turn out that bad.

On the weekend we have lots of time to explore other cities. I took the opportunity of my free time to take the next train to Nanjing and visit my host family in the city that still occupies a big part in my heart. A few of my friends went to Disneyland and Beijing, but I think I will wait with that until the weather gets a bit cooler.
The excitement of being in a big and unfamiliar city with lots of good food (and I say this as a vegetarian) makes up for the suffocating heat (ACs also help a lot).

I am so happy to have joined this programme. On one hand, I can experience Chinese culture with my friends here and learn Chinese in an environment that makes it easier for me to pick up the language, on the other hand I learn a lot about my classmates’ and friends’ countries and culture, which makes this experience really diverse. Me and my Korean room mate exchanged German and Korean snacks, my Belgium friend recommended her favourite Boba shop in Brussels and my Russian friend tells me about her university life in Russia.