On October 19th, Mr. Ma Xiao, the Vice President of the Nankai Italian Alumni Association, the Managing Director of the Nankai Tourism Alumni Association, and the Executive Director of the Milan Culture Consulting Co., Ltd., was invited to the College of Foreign Languages of Nankai University. As the second speech for “Hundred Alumni Lectures for Centennial Nankai”, Mr. Ma Xiao gave a vivid lecture to the students with the theme of “Important Life in Studying Life” – Guide to Studying in Italy. The lecture was hosted by Associate Professor Yang Lin who is the Director of Italian Major. The Italian professional teachers including Shidou, Leizia Vallini, Cui Weiwei and all the students from the Italian professional classes and project classes attended the lecture.
Mr. Ma Xiao first pointed out that China and the EU had good prospects for cooperation. Italy, as the EU's third largest economy, would also have deeper contacts with China. Then Mr. Ma introduced the general situation of Italian economy as well as the European debt crisis and populism. Italy's GDP ranked the eighth in the world and the 27th per capita and the Gini coefficient is good. Through a brief and detailed introduction, the students had a preliminary understanding of the development prospects of China and Italy and had a preliminary thinking on the future development.
Mr. Ma Xiao also introduced the university rankings and related education situation. He said the Italian universities, with a long history, didn't have many requirements during the enrollment but had strict requirements for graduation. And the language was very important and the campus was scattered in the city. He also introduced some famous Italian universities such as the Italian Institute of Technology, Bologna University. Mr. Ma Xiao made students recognize the importance of language learning and encourage everyone to pay attention to communication by telling his own experience in a humorous way.
In addition, Mr. Ma Xiao briefly introduced the employment direction of the Italian language profession at home and abroad. At home, students of Italian major mainly work in a university, a foreign company, a consulting company or as a translator. In overseas countries, they mainly work in overseas branches, trading companies, cultural tourism industries or as a translation. He also pointed out that the relationship of China and the EU would certainly develop further in the future, and emphasized the importance of language learning. Through his narrative, many students were on longer confused about their future employment.
Finally, Mr. Ma Xiao answered the questions related to the overseas life that students were interested in. He gave comprehensive and multi-angle advice on applying for dormitory or housing, school canteen or cooking, planning for travelling Europe, and making friends and personal safety issues. Mr. Ma Xiao’s humorous narrative aroused much applause from teachers and students.
After the lecture, Mr. Ma Wei exchanged ideas with the teachers and classmates in-depth and answered the questions that everyone was concerned about. Everyone was free to speak and many of the confusions about studying abroad were solved.
