On what brought them to UIC … Charles: My wife ' s family is from China, so this seems to be a natural place for us. We have a daughter. We wanted to continue her development of her language and the connection with her culture and so I gave her a chance to be with her grandparents. Uche: One of the reasons why I decided to work in UIC was to stay closer to my family. I had been away from my family for almost eight years, as my wife and two kids reside in Hong Kong while I worked in Malaysia. My wife is a Malaysian Chinese and works in Dongguan. As my kids turned four and two, they started asking more questions, it became increasingly difficult to connect with them from a very long distance.
Why they have been staying for long … Charles: I wouldn ' t say four or five years is a long time for working in a university. We have great students, I have a very supportive dean, and we have a good president. That ' s the best situation for a teacher from my perspective. Uche: I have been in UIC for a little over four years and there is a strong supportive environment in the division and the college. My dean, my colleagues and the great support staff we have at the division including the hard working students are instrumental to the comfort and welcome I feel in UIC. Supporting the division ' s and UIC ' s initiative to enhance the quality of stakeholders received from us remain a key motivation for me.
Differences of teaching experiences in different countries … Charles: The culture of teaching in the USA emphasises cooperation and working together more than that in China. I think to foster a sense of community in classroom is very nice. That ' s the positive thing. Sometimes the differences are overestimated because of good teaching. A good teacher-student relationship at UIC, which is fostered with trust, interest, engagement, organisation and clear goals, is the same as if you were in the USA. We are here to teach young people information but we are all here to listen and to learn. It ' s a relationship that both can learn from each other. Uche: The difference is probably the challenge. The challenge here is our students are generally not very strong in English language but the students in Malaysia are. So, on that ground, it is a higher challenge to teach
It was a long journey coming down to UIC for Dr Uchenna Eze. He finished his Bachelor ' s Degree in Banking and Finance, and then worked in a bank and a marine company in Nigeria. Like many other Nigerians, he left their country for further development. He pursued his master ' s at the University of Technology Malaysia in 1995 and then went to Singapore for a doctorate at Nanyang Technological University. Deciding to step into academia, Uche returned to Malaysia onto the platform of classroom for seven years. He became the Acting Programme Director of Marketing Management at UIC until August 2016 when he became the Acting Associate Dean of the Division of Business and Management.
here. But in terms of quality of students and in terms of the calibre of students, there are no differences.
Language talent … Charles: English is what I ' m most comfortable with. I was trained a little to speak Russian but I am now very rusty. My grandmother was a Slovenian, my grandfather Ukrainian, and my school offered the opportunity to learn Russian. Now I speak yidiandian( a little) Chinese. I learned it in China and a little before I came to China from my wife. Uche: I speak four languages. I speak English, I speak Bahasa Melayu, a Malaysian language, I speak Pidgin English, a creole Nigerian language, and then I speak my native language, Igbo language.
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