With the coming of the new academic year 2015/2016, the Faculty of International Tourism and Management welcomed the second group of excellent students recommended by UNWTO. The FITM also welcomed some new exchanging students from France and Taiwan, China. In order to enhance the cultural exchanges among the international students, Macau local students, and Mainland students, and to improve their English proficiency, the Faculty of International Tourism and Management as well as the Faculty of Education, initiate the English Corner workshop again. On September 19, this first activity was organized in the new campus, Choi Kai Yau Building. The theme of this activity is Mid-Autumn Day.

The English Corner started with an ice-breaking game, Twist with Even Numbers. All the participants were divided into four groups based on even numbers. Each group stood in a circle. The group members closed their eyes and made their hands twisted together. After reopening eyes, the group members need to try their best to resume the circle. In this process, all the participants were sufficiently involved and got familiar with each other. After the ice-breaking game, the English Corner moved to the main theme- Mid-Autumn Day. The host student, Soukaina from Morocco, a Master student of FITM, invited students from Mainland China and Taiwan to share the celebration traditions in their hometown. She also showed a rabbit lantern and stimulated a discussion about the historical story related to the Moon Festival. Within this procedure, many participants actively responded to Soukaina, elaborating what the rabbit means and why it stands for Mid- Autumn Day. Moving to the third part, knowledge transfer, Soukaina organized two games, Name and Adjectives, and Letter Solitaire. In the two round games, students felt very excited. They not only need to think about an adjective word having the same first letter with their English name, but also need to show a word having the same letter to the one of last letter presented by the previous student. Finally, the English Corner ended by tasting moon cake and free communications.

In this new academic year, holding the principles of keeping interests, transferring knowledge and exchanging cultures, the Faculty of International Tourism and Management as well as the Faculty of Education will organize a series of English Corners. This activity aims at not only promoting intercultural communications, but also stimulating students’ learning interest to English and well serving students with English learning needs.