Hanoi 2018

Global Leadership Experience – Hanoi 2018 

Amelia Durkin  

 

When I was younger, my school reports written by my teachers often said; “Amelia has a curious nature” and “Amelia is a talkative member of the class.” Sometimes, I think the second comment was passive aggressive and was code for me to be quieter. I’m glad I didn’t get quieter, and I’m glad I remained curious otherwise, I wouldn’t have ended up spending the week in Hanoi.  

Since my early teenage years, I was always fascinated by East and South East Asian culture. You would often find me slipping away from the sleepy, Northern village I lived in to go and venture into Manchester. 9/10 times, I’d go to a Vietnamese or Japanese restaurant. As these trips into the city increased, I grew more and more interested in this magical and distant land and I dreamt about the day I would visit.  

I didn’t think the time for me to visit would arrive so promptly.  

I found myself reflecting on the interview process and commonly thinking; “I should have said this instead of that!” I think that’s normal for an interview and thinking about it now, the answers I gave didn’t have to be perfect, I wasn’t expected to be super knowledgeable, as the whole point of the trip was to develop my cultural intelligence and understanding of the world and its problems.  

I remember where I was when I received my email saying I was successful. I was in my kitchen at my halls of residence, making the standard dinner of pasta with pesto. I was so distracted by the email that I forgot I was cooking and managed to burn my pasta… I didn’t even think you could burn pasta.  

Fast-forward a few months and all 25 of us have attended a few workshops where we chatted about cultural intelligence, Hanoi as a city, the itinerary and obviously the weather… because we’re British. We were all SO excited to be travelling this far and most of us were already looking at what films would be available to watch on the plane.  

I was feeling somewhat apprehensive about the next few days once I arrived in Hanoi. The thought of being surrounded by new people from unfamiliar cultures and backgrounds was starting to make me feel a bit nervous. The details of the program were quite vague (which I later found out was done on purpose) so I felt I was absolutely walking into the unknown.  

Even though we hadn’t actually gone to RMIT yet, the tour given to us around the Ninh Binh province was already making me start to question what CQ was. The way the tour guides spoke to us about Vietnamese culture was done with such enthusiasm and I was already seeing the uniqueness and rich historical background of Vietnam.  

The days following saw us embark upon the Global Leadership Experience at RMIT. Seeing so many people from so many different places felt overwhelming at first, but I sought comfort in the fact that the majority of us felt the same way. One of the first ideas introduced to us was the idea of CQ. I had a basic understanding of what this meant and I had some time to think about it the day before but over the next few days, I found myself using CQ more and more and thinking about it until it got way too philosophical and freaked me out a bit.  

The first group task we did made us all a bit fractious as we immediately had to start discussing our moral and political values. I was already getting quite defensive over my opinions. After hearing the explanations off others, conflicting views to my own were starting to make sense in the context of their own personal experiences. At this point, it occurred to me that CQ requires us to remain tolerant of people’s values in order to understand what exactly needs to be addressed in a world full of complex issues.  

As the days went by I grew to really enjoy the company of the students from the other campuses. I enjoyed not only the academic discussions we had but also the fun we had in the evenings. It was a real honor to be able to connect with them on a more relaxed level and having a friend from Hanoi who could show us all the cool places was definitely a bonus! 

The immersion visits were really useful in helping us answer the question of how we can ensure smart cities remain inclusive. The spokespeople for the Vietnam Farmers Union and Vietnam Bio-Gas gave us a very broad insight into the cultural, economic and political dynamics of Vietnam. Our group’s experiences at the visits found that education was at the heart of objectives becoming achievable, so we decided that education reform would be the best way forward in ensuring Hanoi was able to be a smart city and remain inclusive.  

After the visits and some further discussion, it occurred to me that education is the foundation on which we need to build upon. None of the problems faced by Hanoi would be solved without a good education system and I soon became passionate about reforming the current system. Our group decided that it was not just the syllabus that needed to be changed, but the way in which students and teachers view education also needed to be addressed. We believed that teachers needed their own union to help co-ordinate education plans as well as have the opportunity to be surrounded by like-minded people who have a similar passion.  

This experience has given me much more of a drive to do more with my time at university. I want to be able to demonstrate my new leadership skills by working more closely with various societies. It has given me new ideas and shown me new ways of approaching certain issues, which I hope to use when I begin to tutor students. I aim to have this experience and what its taught me in my mind when I continue studying my law degree. I want to be able to take what I’ve learnt and apply it to my studies and actually be able to make real differences and discoveries in different areas of law within the future.  

This experience has not only allowed me to fulfil my personal dreams, but also my academic and professional goals. For me, my time in Hanoi will forever be one of my fondest memories.