Hello, I am ‘old’ people in check-IT because I am one of the students who were also members of check-IT group 15. We had such a great time full of joy and have bid farewell to old friends in that group. We liked it so much that we join again. And in this semester we have 5 new Dutch friends, one programmer, Bob, and four designers, Emal, Daniel, Ruben and Vincent. What never changes is the atmosphere here and the daily life is full of joy and happiness – the across culture daily life.
The first week our Dutch friends presented the knowledge of Scrum, even though I have known Scrum before because the Dutch students from group 15 had introduced. It still feels fresh to listen to the presentations again. Dutch students tend to describe something, for example a concept, with specific sentences so that it is easier for the listeners to understand, that is to say, Dutch guys are more detailed. What impresses me most is that the Dutch guys perform a story: Bob was the scrum master, Daniel the product owner, Ruben, Vincent and Emal were the designers and programmers. They show me how to make daily standup meeting, how to startup the Scrum process, and also to negotiate with the product owners vividly and exactly.
After two week considerations, every student has their own project and new team members. We have 7 different project teams. The biggest one called huashitong, consists of 5 team members Emal, Rain, Zed, Kangze, and Hezhentao. My project is a continuation project of check-it group 15 and I have some jobs to finish. Our assignment is to make two apps for rural logistics, we use java and the platform is Android Studio and IDEA, what is more, we use Scrum instead of water fall, which makes the efficiency higher. There are also other 5 projects which are all very good projects and their team members are both Chinese and Dutch students.
In our daily life, what surprises me is that our Dutch friends get used to Chinese so quickly, not only the language, but also the speed of becoming Chinese – they know how to pay with Wechat and AliPay, buy stuff from Taobao and order food. They jokingly call each other ‘laowai’. What is more, they have nicknames: Bob is called good guy, Daniel’s name is little black. About Emal, Ruben and Vincent, maybe need time and your wise to think one for them. We really have good projects and the project members are trying to know each other well and enhance culture exchanges.
Besides, we Chinese students also share our family information and learn theirs from them. Most Chinese students are the only-child while Dutch people have brother and sisters. And Daniel is from Nigeria, Emal is from Afghanistan, Ruben is demisemi Indonesian, only Bob and Vincent is original Dutch. However, we know no matter where we come form we will be good friends. And I hope our friendship the older it grows the stronger it is. In the next blog, there will be more about our working experiences and our activities time. See you in the next blog!
Archer (Zheng Wei Hao), Check-IT 16 student