Skip to main content

Student Stories

     

Mandarin Chinese  - I joined the class because I had been to China teaching English for 3 weeks in 2008 and I found that I didn’t know any more words of the language when I came home than when I went. I thought I should try to learn at least a little bit and, as I find China fascinating and want to learn more about it, a language class seemed to be one way to start learning about the Chinese people and their culture.

This is my first Open Learning course at QUB.  I find Monday nights great fun. I enjoy the great diversity among my classmates, who are aged from 20 to somewhere in their 70s; they range from student to retired. We are a real mix and we attend the class for very different reasons. I enjoy our tutor’s teaching methods and I am amazed at how much I’ve learned (even though I have a very long way to go with this complex language!). 

Kate McAllister

  
Playing Shakespeare - I am a return student. I have studied ‘Introduction to Philosophy’ and a computing course in previous years. This year I decided to do “Playing Shakespeare” because I would like to act in a local amateur drama group and wanted to get some tips before starting. I am 47 and it is something I have wanted to do for a long time – most of the other students are much younger than myself which is great as everyone is so full of energy. Our tutor, Rosie Pelan, is excellent and very encouraging, and it is a long time since I have had so much fun. I thought the course might be a little bit heavy as Shakespeare can be very difficult to understand, but Rosie makes reading and understanding Shakespeare much less daunting.

Christine Lynch