My Name is Caroline Fanglin Han and I am a 22 year old woman from China.  I am originally from Qingdao, which is in Shandong province. Qingdao is a really peaceful and beautiful coastal city famous for its beer and German style architecture. I left my hometown when I was 15 years old and went to live in Beijing by myself to study at college and then stayed on to work.

I worked in Beijing for 3 years. I worked for two companies the first being a subway company. I am an intern in the electrical engineering department, mainly responsible for asset management. Meanwhile, studying my major which is electrical engineering. The second company I worked for was an education service company which recruited and placed English language teachers within state schools in Beijing. My position was as a foreign teacher specialist. The main role was supporting foreign language teachers once they arrived in China (this included dealing with housing, banking, visa and residence regulations, lesson observations etc.)and also communicating with the school if any problems arose.

The job required a lot of speaking English and translating, so therefore, my English comprehension ability improved rapidly. I really appreciated that experience. This work experience helped me to develop a lot and increased my self-confidence. The job also was one of the reasons why I decided to continue to study because I saw that I could no longer move forward in my career development without continuing my learning. So I then decided to continue my studies in the UK. I am currently working towards a Masters Degree in Business Studies at Coventry University.

In my spare time I like to play sports such as basketball, running and skateboarding. I find that exercise can help to relieve my stress. Moreover, by doing sport I am able meet more people. That is really important, especially in the UK, as many people are alone and they do not know how to meet new people.  Staying by themselves is not good for peoples well being. It is important to have a balance of work and leisure in my life. I also enjoy watching movies on TV and reading when I want to stay at home.

Overall, I am confident that I will have a good experience studying in the UK. I will hopefully achieve my goal and move into the next level of my career development.