Marina Papadopoulou｜Belgium｜MBA Candidate ‘22
Marina Papadopoulou, a Belgian citizen with Greek origins, is well-versed in French, English, and Greek with intermediate to advanced proficiency in Chinese, Italian, and Korean. For Marina, one of the most rewarding parts of joining IHRD is being able to meet peers from all over the world and enjoying the creative spark through discussion with them.
Marina mentioned a memorable presentation she had with her group members in the course “International Management”. “When we have presentations, I can see many Taiwanese creativity comes out. One time, we had a group project about Disney, and we started the presentation by singing Aladdin and dancing. It’s fun!” Marina said.
International students are drawn to IHRD because every course in this program is taught in English. For Marina, having English-medium instruction (EMI) courses is not a big change. What impressed her the most, however, was the improvement the other classmates made to achieve English proficiency. “In the first year, I can see a lot of Taiwanese students are worried (about taking EMI courses),” Marina said, “But right now, they are writing their thesis in English!”
Seeing how local students overcame self-doubt and got good command of English, Marina encouraged undergraduate students to enroll in EMI courses. “If you are interested in taking EMI courses, just go for it,” Marina said, “You will not only learn from the course but if you make friends with international students, you are also going to speak more natural English.”