TEAN: Study Abroad in Shanghai, China

I came to Shanghai with high expectations, excitement, and a huge desire to explore and learn about the world's next superpower. TEAN seemingly offered to help me deal with all the necessities. At least that was what they advertised. Through reviews and promises to deliver I finally chose TEAN to help me take care of the stress of moving to a new country for 10 weeks. However, things start to look suspicious after the initial deposit. No communication was issued for a good amount of time after I was forced to dropped a few hundreds dollars. TEAN withheld information regarding the program until the last minute forcing me to fork out more cash to pay for my plane ticket as well as my visa. The stress of finals and the dire shortage of time regarding my visa made the trip so much more stressful than I expected already. I came to China without any basic knowledge of Chinese, thus, I needed TEAN to do their job of getting me settled in. TEAN utterly failed at this aspect. We were all promised to have an airport pick-up service to drop us off at our dorm, despite this promise, only a few students were actually lucky enough received this promise. Needless to say, I was not one of them. With my non-exisistance knowledge of Chinese and the cab drivers with their non-exisistance knowledge of English, I was utterly overcharged for a 40 minute ride. Unfortunately, that was only the beginning . Fudan, one of the top universities of China did not have English speaking individuals at their "international" students dorm. Because I did not understand what dorm personal were trying to tell me, they basically yelled at me until I found a fellow student to help translate. So much for TEAN's help when I have to find a random student to help. Fortunately, I did not run into many issues the first five weeks of class with the exception of my room key being deactivated for no reason and the constant lost of electricity (this was inconvenience when I have to sleep through the hottest nights in Shanghai). TEAN inability to be organized as well as their inability to deliver unfolded during the second five weeks of class. First, we moved from our dorms into apartments. Since my roommates and I didn't complain and caused a ruckus regarding our room assignment, we were placed in a sub-par apartment. They basically bullied us into a place that was cheaper than the others because it seemed like we would take it with no complaint. We had no microwave, a broken ac, no cooking utensils, broken lights in various areas, and no beddings. To add salt to the wound, classes for the second half of program has already started. We came to class a week late. Throughout the second part of the program TEAN students had to play catch-up in a more difficult language program. This was unacceptable. TEAN promised an immense amount of things, yet, was unable to deliver. Beyond school and the apartment was the issue of my visa. TEAN's director DID NOT warn us that some of us might encounter the issue of our visa not being issue for the correct amount of days. We did not receive both acceptance letters for the two programs we were enrolled in, thus, was unable to get our visa for the right amount of days. The solution? I had to hand over another $200 for an "extension" of eight days in Shanghai. Making the total cost of my visa nearing $400. Please don't make the same mistake I did with TEAN. Find another program.

Fall 2012 was the best semester of my entire life. Why? The people, the culture, the activities, the adventures, The Education Abroad Network. Shanghai, China will never be looked at in the same way. TEAN offered wonderful excursions and awesome bonding opportunities which brought every closer together. They prepped us with what to expect to help students be at ease. The housing was in a prime location and was very close to campus. Because we were fully integrated into the fudan system, we were able to choose among the whole class list which I really appreciated. If it weren't for TEAN, I would have been disappointed with my class options. THANK YOU!

My experience studying abroad was the greatest experience of my life. If I could do it over again I would take that opportunity in a heartbeat. Before I left for China, I had no idea what to expect. I knew the culture would be different, but I did not know much beyond that. This scared me, but TEAN did a great job of taking care of all of us and slowly setting us into the culture rather than just leaving us to fend for ourselves. The orientation at the beginning of the program definitely helped a lot with both the culture immersion as well as meeting everyone on the program. The orientation let us experience parts of China that I would not be able to experience if I had just visited Beijing on my own. From the Peking duck, to eating with a family in a Hutong, to climbing the Great Wall of China at sunrise, I could have never done that without TEAN setting that up for us. It was definitely a great start to the program and I don’t know of any other program that had done anything like that for orientation.

When I got to Shanghai I lived in an apartment with 3 other girls in my program as well as one Chinese student from Fudan. Her name was Daisy, she was Shanghainese, and her English was impeccable. She helped us out a lot with both the language and other things. She told us where to buy different things, where to go when we were sick, and also helped us out with our Chinese homework. We also got to go over to her parent’s house for dinner, which was an amazing experience. We got to eat home cooked traditional foods made by her mom. It was all absolutely delicious.

At Fudan University I took 5 classes and an internship. The classes I took where Business and Culture, Negotiations and Conflict Resolution, Political Economy of China, Chinese language, and International Financial Mgmt. As the school system is a lot different from the US, it was hard to get used to the way the classes were taught at first, but overall I really liked them. My favorite and most redeeming classes were probably Political Economy of China and Chinese language. I feel like those were the classes I learned the most relevant information from.

My internship was at Planet International, an exporting company for medical supplies and baby products. My job there was research assistant. I would research either FDA regulations, or write up marketing proposals. As an international business major, it was a good experience to learn that kind of thing and will benefit me in the future.

Probably my favorite part of the TEAN program was the group trip to Inner Mongolia. This again was something I could not have imagined doing on my own, and the trip was one of the greatest I’ve ever taken. I don’t have anything bad to say about the trip, other than the large amount of mosquitoes living in Mongolia. We got to live in Yurts, ride camels, go sand sliding, and take part a wedding reception around a campfire. I’m pretty sure everyone who went on the trip can say that they had a blast, and it was one of the great parts of the whole study abroad experience.

Before studying abroad I went through a lot of research trying to find the perfect program. After many pros and cons lists, I finally settled on studying abroad with TEAN, and I do not regret my decision one bit. Unfortunately for me I had to go through an extra step of writing a petition since TEAN was not affiliated with my school, but I went ahead and did it because I thought it was worth it. The main reasons I picked TEAN over the other programs was because of living with the Chinese roommate, the trip to Inner Mongolia, and the amazing orientation to Beijing. The other programs I looked at provided some of these things, but not all of them together.

Overall I’m so glad I studied abroad, and I’m so glad I went through TEAN to do so. I could not have asked for a better experience.

I would highly recommend any other student to study in Shanghai through The Education Abroad Network (TEAN). I chose TEAN as my program provider for several reasons; namely, the amazing orientation in Beijing, the internship component and the fact we got to live in apartments. Let me tell you about the orientation in Beijing. We got to stay at the lavish Marriott hotel, with a pool and gym—basically it was a great way to meet everybody. A native tour guide showed us all the amazing sights Beijing has to offer—the Forbidden City, Tiananmen Square, the Great Wall, etc. We also got to eat amazing food at the most well-known Beijing restaurants. After a five day orientation, we flew out to Shanghai, literally my favorite city in the world. Shanghai is a blend of so many cultures. There is every type of restaurant, clothing store, electronic center, and what not available. The city is so fast paced—it never gets boring! TEAN, unlike many other programs, offers an internship opportunity. Having work experience in China has improved my resume drastically. It also opened up my eyes to the many opportunities out there. Aside from my internship, I got to also take classes at Fudan, one of China’s top universities. Having the chance to sit in a classroom with China’s top students is absolutely invaluable. Overall—my trip to Shanghai was life changing. I would recommend anyone to travel with TEAN, whether to China or one of their other locations!