Study Abroad Highlights from Shanghai
After studying in Beijing last summer, I knew I wanted to return for a full semester abroad in China. Still, I worried that the experience might not live up to last summer. Did I enjoy living in China or was it friends who made it special? Would I be able to form connections as deep as the ones I made then?
When friends feel like family
After getting through the inevitably awkward first introductions, we boarded the first of many group bus rides to our welcome dinner, later known fondly as our first family dinner. We were treated to a spread of delicious traditional dishes: Peking duck, squirrel fish, and beef with sprinkles—the type you put on ice cream.
We made so many jokes about that dish that it probably won’t be ordered for future IFSA dinners. It even turned up during the first of many games of charades—a tradition that lasted the whole semester. Just this past Friday, we played our final round, which lasted over three hours.
Over the semester, our cohort grew closer and closer, through bike rides around the city, movie nights in beloved Room 202, hot pot dinners, and countless adventures exploring beautiful Shanghai. And then there was the anime show we watched every week… while opinions ranged from fierce love to dramatic hate, it’s forever etched into the IFSA 2025 experience.
Exploring China from top to bottom
Our program trip to Wuzhen was another memorable experience that brought us even closer. As always, we shared delicious meals and absorbed the beauty of one of China’s ancient water towns.
Our adventures extended well beyond IFSA programming. We walked along the rooftop of a skyscraper to watch Chongqing light up at night. Slept in a fortified earth building in Fujian, Raced through Chengdu Zoo at 7 a.m. to catch a three-minute glimpse of the famous panda, Huahua. Watched Sichuan opera’s legendary face-changing performance. We saw a lot, experienced more, and ate exceptionally well along the way.
Outside these adventures, I made the one hour trip to Suzhou every week to see my grandparents, often staying the weekend at their house. When deciding where to study abroad in China, proximity to my grandparents was a main factor. My weekly trips made me even closer to both of them and for that I am so grateful. I learned how to play Chinese chess with my grandfather and stayed up until midnight confiding in my grandmother. For the first time in my life, our conversations started shifting from English to Mandarin-—a special experience.
Teaching migrant children
This semester I also took part in IFSA’s internship program, teaching English to migrant and left-behind children at a nonprofit called Stepping Stones. I learned about internal migration, the floating population, and left-behind children in a class at Brown. I was excited for the chance to support this community during my semester abroad, and I’m proud of how my students’ confidence grew. In my first few classes, only one student would answer any of my questions, and when I called on others, they would just shake their heads, too nervous to speak. At my last class, I had to pick among 30 raised hands. I will miss seeing my students run across the courtyard to greet me with newly learned English phrases. I also gained experience interning in the Stepping Stones office and putting my Chinese to practice in a formal setting.
Mastering Mandarin
One of the highlights of my semester was my Mandarin Chinese language class. While I still find studying Chinese challenging, there’s something uniquely special about learning the language in China—and over time, I’ve come to love the process. Our classes were small, and mine was the smallest—just my roommate and me! We went far beyond the textbook, incorporating Chinese culture, idioms, slang, and sayings that would impress a taxi driver. Learning wasn’t only for the classroom. We also chatted with elderly locals at Lu Xun Park and watched a Mandarin film at our local theater. My teacher, Li Laoshi, was incredibly warm and supportive—I’ll miss her dearly.
Building on my internship experience, I based my final Chinese research report on the effects of internal migration on Shanghai and migrant home communities. For the first time in a decade of learning Mandarin, I wrote an academic report entirely in Chinese—conducting interviews and distributing surveys in Mandarin. I’m grateful for the opportunity to challenge myself and take my language learning to a new level.
From visiting my grandparents every week to building friendships with locals to late-night charades—these are experiences I never could have imagined and people I never would have met had I not chosen to seek the unknown. I’m incredibly grateful to my IFSA family—Stella, Michael, and Tina—from the IFSA Shanghai team, and my friends for the memories of a lifetime.
Brooke C. | Brown University | IFSA Study in Shanghai | Spring 2025