After I failed the Bachelor one semester abroad to make and I previously could produce only a two-month internship at a Chinese school as international experience in my CV, stood out for me at the beginning of the Masters and firmly that this time I will definitely spend a semester abroad. Unfortunately, my university has few offers in the area in which I am studying (a mix of business administration and technology) and many of the partner universities offered few subjects that I needed. Accordingly, I looked elsewhere and ended up on the MicroEDU site through a friend. After browsing the site a little and comparing many prices and courses that the universities offer, I ended up stuck at Mahidol University in Bangkok, finished my application documents and completed a language test at my university.
Finally, a few weeks later, the confirmation came and I was able to start planning. The semester should run from September 11th to December 24th, so that it is still possible to write exams at my university in Germany in both semesters. Then topics such as recognition, choice of subjects, foreign health insurance, etc. had to be clarified. I decided to only book a one-way flight in order to have some flexibility after the end of the semester. Visit anycountyprivateschools.com to get information about study in Germany.
When choosing a course, I decided on International Marketing, Digital Marketing and Learning & Development, as these courses sounded promising and were in line with my home university.
Apartment Search
Before leaving, I made an appointment with another student so that we could start looking for an apartment together. This turned out to be a little more difficult than expected, as all realtors tell you something different and in none of the houses where we had requested two apartments were available. In the end we decided to move into KPN The Capital Condo and initially share one apartment until another one becomes available. After we spent the next few days on Ko Phangan until the first apartment was vacant, we came back and were told that the apartment is unfortunately still not ready, but that we can move to another one in the meantime. So everything is a bit idiosyncratic, but it doesn’t matter.
The Mahidol
The beginning of the university was scheduled with two days of orientation, where we were given the most important information about the university in general, visa matters, etc. Afterwards there was a cooking demonstration and lunch. On the second day we were shown the main campus of Mahidol University and we visited a Thai Culture Village. Then we had a few more days off until the first lectures took place, which many use again to drive away, for example we were on Koh Lanta.
At the beginning of the lectures, many of the courses first explained how the course works. My first course in Learning and Development (like all other courses) mainly consisted of group work and a midterm and a final exam. The teacher was super nice and spoke very good and quite understandable English (which is not a matter of course for Thais). All in all, the course is a lot of palaver and also my worst in terms of grades, but if you want to train yourself in the personnel area or need a course that goes in that direction, this is very good for you.
My second digital marketing course was held by a French person who also speaks very clear English and expects you to complete a Google certificate as a midterm. Furthermore, you should set up your own fictitious company in a group and design many different marketing campaigns within the semester and work with Google Adwords, etc. In this course I learned a tremendous amount and the grades are more than fair, even if the effort is really not small. The exam is also written as a group work at the end.
My last course was supposed to be International Marketing, but neither understood the professor nor did I like the content presented. The course was more like a economics or politics course and focused on marketing to third world countries. So after half the lesson I switched to Consumer Behavior. This course is held by an American who is very polarizing. I like his way of telling things personally very much and the course itself wasn’t infinitely demanding. There is an approach to the midterm that you have to submit in writing (of course as a group) and at the end there is an elaboration and a presentation. The topic here deals with a company or an industry that is having a hard time on the Thai market and how one could change this through advertising.
The time in Bangkok and at the Mahidol was indescribable and I can only recommend everyone to take this step and enjoy the Thai food, raise lanterns in Chiang Mai and take a trip to Pai by scooter. It was the best time of my life!
