Based on what I heard from friends who have studied at ESCP in the past, I expected my classes to be easy and potentially boring. What I didn't expect was that I'd love them. My first class each week is Tuesday mornings for 3 hours: strategic marketing. At first, I felt like I was right back in Badm 320 listening to Oatmeal talk about branding. But then the class changed; we were put into groups of 5 and were given a semester long assignment. Now, I usually try not to be too competitive but this class is going to bring that side out of me for sure. Our semester long project is a marketing simulation where each team works for a separate company and uses the simulation to boost their product sales against their competitors. My group is awesome and half of our class time each week will be spent in groups. Bring it on.
Then Tuesday afternoon I have positional bargaining. Ok, so this is the class I heard was a joke. To be honest, it's a joke in terms of how we're graded but it actually might turn out to be one of the most beneficial classes I ever take. What do we do in class? Argue. Alright, we do a little more than that. First we were given an acquisition case and then the class was split up into 2 groups and we planned out our strategies of how we will approach the other side in next week's class. The best part ESCP is that there are students from all over the world in each of my classes. In this class, even on the first day, it was interesting to see how each person approached the issues and what kind of result they each wanted. For example, the Americans talked too much, the Russians thought no one could compromise and wouldn't agree with anyone, the Polish hardly talked, and the Spaniard always played devil's advocate. Now, I'm not trying to stereotype because this was only one class but it was certainly interesting.
Then Wednesday afternoon I had Consumer Behavior: again, just like badm 320. Our professor is from the states and he's very interesting. His entire lecture was filled with interesting facts and statistics. The only problem was that it really was just that, a lecture for 3 hours. If it wasn't for the 15 minute break that we get in the middle of each class, there is no way I'd be able to pay attention for that long. Oh, and he actually has the most ridiculous comb over; it's impressive. If you have some coffee and are really awake for this class, it's got a lot of potential to be great.
Thursday morning's class was my favorite by far. Even though we went out Wednesday night and I was tired for class, I was blown away by our professor. The class is "Does the European Construction lead to a European Model?" Before going to class I was hoping the answer was just going to be "Yes" and that's all I needed to know. But the class is primarily on the European Union and our teacher just knows his stuff. This class is a mix of history, politics, economics, government, and culture. It's awesome. Even though I was hoping for very easy classes this semester, I'm actually really looking forward to being challenged in a different way by these classes that really give you an international perspective on life. Really, that's what Dean Hedeman believes studying abroad is all about. He told me a long time ago that I'd come back a new person. I'm only about 2 weeks in and I don't know if I'll come back a new person but I think I will definitely have a new perspective.
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