Wudaokou Watch: "My Mind Has Been Opened to an International Perspective"

Welcome to Wudaokou Watch, where we profile a different Beijing-based student from abroad each week to hear about their life in China's capital. You can read the whole series here.

My name is Regis-Renaud Dusabe, and I’m from Burundi, an East African country known as "the Heart of Africa" because of its shape and geographic location. 

I came to Beijing to study in October 2018. I'm doing my master's in Computer Science and Technology at North China Electric Power University.

Compared to my home country, Beijing is a big city, with tall buildings, a subway and other innovative technologies that I really wish we had in my country or other African countries. On the other hand, Burundi is a beautiful country with a stable climate (there is no winter season), clean atmosphere (no pollution compares to Beijing), and of course, Burundian people are very beautiful!

Since I arrived in China, the biggest challenge for me has been learning the Chinese language but I’m working hard, especially at reading, listening, and oral expression. I hope to finish my first year of study here with good skills and a basic knowledge in Chinese which will help me in my future professional career.

I'll never forget the first day I attended my Chinese class and the teacher asked me to introduce myself in Chinese.

In my downtime, I love playing football, basketball, or ping pong with friends in order to free my mind. Sometimes on the weekend, I hang out with my country mates we chill together and have fun. Apart from the Forbidden City and some parks that I've already visited, Beijing has many nice tourist sites that I still need to explore in this coming summer.

When I’m feeling homesick, I try to find something to do. I take part in different activities such as the Chinese Culture Festival, Beijing School of AI which provides knowledge and skills in machine learning and related domain through a free workshop at UIBE.

Beijing is full of open-minded and creative people. It’s a great place to meet many different personalities, to share ideas and experiences in order to make a change in the development of the country and to build a good future especially in the area of Information and Technology.

Chinese people are hard working. It is motivating to see how they are doing great things in terms of technology. Living here has impacted my lifestyle, and my mind has been opened to an international perspective.

What inspires me the most is to help my family first, and to help the community by serving my country. To achieve that, we need a lot of energy and courage to overcome the challenges of daily life. I still have a lot of things to learn and want to continue to explore different job opportunities here in China.
 

READ: "I Can Now Confidently and Fluently Speak Chinese"

Are you a student in Beijing? Let us profile you and your unique experiences here. Drop us a line at editor@thebeijinger.com and we’ll get back to you to schedule an interview.

Images courtesy of Regis-Renaud Dusabe