On 28 November, the 6th SFLEP Shanghai Intercultural Competence Contest and the 4th National Intercultural Competence Contest were successfully held online. 29 teams from Fudan University, East China Normal University, Tongji University, Shanghai Jiao Tong University and Shanghai International Studies University competed together. SUES foreign students’ team and undergraduate students’ team participated in the competition. Under the guidance of Ma Dezhong, Qi Mingjun and Zhang Bingtian, the teachers from School of Foreign Languages, three foreign students, Yahya Abdulrahman Hussein Alhaimi, Euritsy Elizabeth Moises and Naoumi Marcy Michel Said Mihidjahi performed well in the competition and won the Intercultural Communication Friendship Award, they successfully advanced to the national competition, which is the first time in the history of our university. Three students from Department of Translation and Interpretation of School of Foreign Languages: Li Xiaowei, Zhang Guanxi and Lu Zhiming won the third prize of this competition under the guidance of teachers Zhao Wen and Liu Jinlong.
In the competition, the three foreign students from SUES talked about the great feat and touching spirit of the Chinese people in the fight against COVID-19 pandemic in China. They admired that Chinese government and people have put up a united front, defeating COVID-19 with solidarity and cooperation, they respected the selflessness of the Chinese government and people in sending medical teams and donating vaccines to many countries and regions around the world during the pandemic. They used three key words to sum up their impressive feelings about China’s action against the epidemic: Solidarity, Great Love and Freedom. They have learnt the difference between the “Common Value” of humanity from China and the so-called “Universal Value” advocated by the West. At the same time, they appealed the western countries to respect and protect the diversity of human civilization.
The three undergraduate students from the Department of Translation and Interpretation, School of Foreign Languages SUES, vividly illustrated intercultural phenomena and communication strategies based on English case studies developed by themselves. With topics containing media trends such as self-media, they presented the conflicts and solutions in intercultural communication by using intercultural communication model and the cultural iceberg theory. The students demonstrated the concept of intercultural communication in which different cultures are beautiful in their own way and in harmony with each other with openness, respect, understanding and appreciation.