My name is Kuo Yu Hung, I am a student of product design. I did not achieve the IELTS’s score required for UCA, so, I had to join this course. But thinking about this course more, studying on the pre-sessional course not only improved my English skills, but also familiarized me with the educational environment in England. There are some parts of the course, which are different from studying in my country, especially, ‘lectures’.

The important thing about lectures is that the lecturers can teach a lot of students in the same classroom, at the same time. In additional, different lecturers have different styles of delivery, for example, Mary-Lou, who was a lecturer on the course, talked about creativity. I think that the reason why she chose this kind of materials is that most of the students here belong to design areas and we need something to inspire our creative ideas. In order to ensure students participate and focus on the lecture, our tutors asked us to take notes by ‘mind mapping’, I think that some complicated words can be replaced by simple images,

I learned a lot from this course through a variety of different methods of learning, and I also believe that the things we learned can help us to our main course. I hope I can keep learning and be inspired with new ideas to add to my creativity. For me, I am in a new environment and I should experience it as well as possible.

I am pround that I attended this 10-week pre-sessional course,it not only prepared me for my main cours e,but also allowed

me to experience UK life.

Introduce

YU-Hung Kuo

TaiwanBA Culture Heritage Conservation10 weeks PSEADMA Product Design

Discuss

that is why we can use mind maps to help us to take notes effectively.

Target

Lect

ure

Trip

When I was at university, I learned many things that related to space, interior,

and furnituredesign.And after finishing my BA,

I decided I would like to study furniture design and installation design at MA level.

So I chose to study ‘MA Design’.

For example, in Brighton, I saw a lot of famous furniture in Brighton Museum!I was so pleased I shared each opinion with my friends through the trip!And I felt I could learn to English as well while discussing!

I t was qu i t e exc i t i ng t o see t he sculptures in Tate Modern, London.The sculpture, ‘Trip hammer’, by Richard Serra was quite interesting for me, His work inspired me.I have seen this work on the Internet, But seeing it directly was much more attractive than just seeing some images.I hope it will be inspiration for me in the future.

Anyway, I’m living in the UK.It means I can learn art and design because there are many chances to absorb knowledge and have new experiences and will influence my design work.In the future, I would like to work in the UK as designer.This course has been a great experience and opportunity for me.

My major is ‘Interior Design’!When I was at university, I learned many things that related to space, interior, and furniture design.And after finishing my BA, I decided I would like to study furniture design and installation design at MA level. So I chose to study ‘MA Design’.‘Trip to Brighton’ and ‘Trip to London’ were part of the PSEAD projects.The purpose of the trips to Brighton and London were to seek out things related to art and design especially related to our main courses. In these towns, there were many museum and shop related to my major.

Classic furniture collection in Brighton museum

‘Trip hammer’ by Richard Serra in Tate Modern

Entrance hall in Tate Modern

TokudaKanakoJapanBA Interior DesignMA Design5 weeks PSEAD

Background

Future

PSEAD course will be useful for my main course and my future career as an artist!

In PSEAD 10 week course, I learnt a lot of skills that I need for my main course. The skills were not only academic skills such as writing or reading but also how to organize my imagination and ideas such as mind mapping, experiments and documentation.In my case, particularly experiments and documentation were very important skills that can organize and show my ideas and process of my work. I had experience as a freelance glass artist in my country, but I have lacked these skills. Therefore, these skills enabled me to show my ideas in the form of visual information. In many cases, showing information in this way is very effective as it can be understood easily and it is more interesting visually. Therefore, these skills will be useful for my main course, MA Glass, and my future career as an artist.

In addition, the London trip inspired me. I visited several markets in London to see contemporary crafts. In Spitalfields Market, I could see some crafts made by local people. The atmosphere of the marketplace was really lively and friendly, and crowded. In this place, people can communicate face-to-face and negotiate with artist about their work. Artist can also advertise directly to customer. In that case, documentation about the work would be useful to show the process and explain the idea. Therefore, I was really impressed with the energetic atmosphere in this market and the opportunity to communicate between people and artists.

This summer, I leaned and experience a lot through this PSEAD course, and I believe that they will help me to improve in my future.

TamiIshidaJapanBA Glass10 weeks PSEADMA Glass

Discuss

Finally

Docu

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To study here was a precious opportunity for me to learn about the education system and

lifestyle in the UK. Making new friends pushes me further to learn English, because I want to

communicate with them!

I learned ‘mapping’ in the first week of the 10 week Pre-sessional English and Design course. Mapping, or mind mapping, is a creative way to make ideas visible by writing key words on the paper. The importance of mapping is that it is not enumerations of short sentences. Mapping is applied to creative design processes too. Mind mapping is ef fect ive for product designers to solve the problems and to make decisions in working processes. I think it is important for designers to grasp their own opinions and positions. To draw a mind map makes my idea clear, and it leads me to the direction that I should go ahead through. In my experience, product designers have to grasp all necessary conditions of products when they start to design.

During this course, I wrote mind maps five times to explore my interests about product design. I can choose key words, but I am not able to connect these words together through their relations. My map was still only putting keywords, and it needed to become more effective and creative. After I rewrote it again, I found that the map and my brain became clear and more specific. I think mapping is a useful tool to know my potential interests and where they can lead me.

Moreover I found that there are beautiful maps like art works. I was impressed by them. I have not learned mapping skills to develop my ideas enough yet. But I am interested in mapping itself. My goal is not only developing skills to produce functional maps but also making beautiful maps.

I felt improving my mapping skills profits me in my career as a product designer. When you explain something to other people, explanation by simple images and keywords is easier to understand than by mouth and long sentences. Mind map is an effective way to communicate my ideas to others.

Mapping of 30 years of my favorite things.

SakiYokotaJapanBA Industrial Design10 weeks PSEADMA Product Design

Map

ping

Fi lms can br ing people colourful scenes, visual spectacle, real emotion and inspire ideas. Through films we can understand things like peoples lifestyle and clothing style. Music is also used to show different emotions. It was a very interesting and usefully part of the course.

In the past, when I watched films in the cinema I did not ask questions and think about the context of the film or how it relates to my main course, I just appreciated the story and image and did not look deeply into theses things.

But during this course it helped create purpose to films and helped inspire ideas. For example, the films: ‘The Great Gatsby’ and ‘CoCo Chanel’ are different films but they introduced me to a certain era of fashion.

In the fi lms women’s style of dress changed from formal and proper to free and spirited. The actresses in the films wore cloche hats, art deco jewellery, beaded headbands, had bobbed hair, and held long stem cigarette holder. Their fashion style represented their social status. The transitional shoes become freer with low-heeled shoes. It is interesting that the bob cut and the cloche hat, are still very popular in contemporary fashion, this made me consider how design and social life are connected due to film.

From this course, I discovered that the flapper style challenged and redefined women’s roles and was an important turning point in history. I know some students did not l ike this f i lm and thought it was very boring and slept in the cinema. However I enjoyed the films and felt that through the films’ music and picture, you could feel emotions, like danger, happiness and sadness, and it inspired my idea of design. At last, I want to say that I enjoyed the films, and you will find more fun things to do in the cinema!

10 weeks pre-sessional course is very funny and interesting, and it very

important in my future study.

MengWangChinaBA Accessory Design10 weeks PSEADMA Contemporary JewelleryDesign

Cine

ma

While studying on the ten week Pre- sessional English for Art and Design course, l learned many things. l am going to talk about one of the key points that affected my vision, awareness and visual impression.

The most interesting part of the course was the sketchbook; this was used for creative expression. During classes, lectures and trips everyone was using their sketchbooks, we were sketching, sticking photos and making mind maps. Most of the pages in my sketchbook do not have any words on them. This is a very new experience to me, before l used to use the sketchbook for my main course in university; l had never used the sketchbook like now for every day life.

“Sketchbook changed my life”I started to use my hand to record my life, it has helped me see things l did not notice before. Now I can use this to look at people's work. Before I looked at things using my eyes, I did not think what the designer and artist want to produce. It is interesting to notice that when I photograph and draw the same thing the sketch and photo show different feelings to people. On the other hand, in the begging when I started to draw in the sketchbook I thought it was a waste of time.

Nowadays, mobile phones are very convenient; you can use them to take photos without any other tool. But, I found the problem was, you see something beautiful, so you take a photo, but a few days later when you see the photo again the feelings you felt at the time have been lost. A photo will not retain the feelings in the same way as a hand sketch.

'Sketchbook changed my life', I started to use my hand to record my life.

Yu-WenChenTaiwanBA Product Design10 weeks PSEADMA Product Design

Sket

chbo

ok

Before I came to UCA, I choose to take part in the 10 week Pre-Sessional English language course. At the time, I just wanted to use these ten weeks to improve my ability to live and study better in the UK. When I took the course I found it was different to what I expected. At first, Teachers taught us different methods of learning, and we had a varied programme, such as trips, group discussions, use of sketchbooks, drawing mind-maps, presentations, tutorials, lectures etc. Through these we found ways to improve our English language and learning skills.

From the different things we did on the course I liked presentations the most. We had five minutes for each of our presentations to share our experiences. We spoke about what we fel t was interesting during our journeys and at the end of the presentation the group asked questions. At last, each group chose a student to present in front of all the other groups. It not only improved our spoken English ability but also improved our power of expression, many students in the beginning were unable to present and read directly from their notebooks, but after a lot of practice they began to improve their speaking skills. I think this is very useful for us in the future.

I believe in the future I will still use the experience from this course to help me learn. I hope after the ten weeks, we can look forward to our main courses. I like pottery, so I hope I can use the knowledge that I learned in UCA to enhance my design of ceramics. I also hope the one year I will spend in UCA is unforgettable.

The PSEAD not only improved our English language skills, but also helped

us prepare in every way for our main courses.

LingBaoChinaBA Art Design10 weeks PSEADMA Ceramic Arts

BackgroundDiscuss

Future

Pres

enta

tion

Listening skills are the most essential part of what I learnt from TED.

I received my bachelor degree after my graduation in June 2013.In the past 4 years I spent most of my time studying jewellery design. And worked as a designer from 2012 to 2013.

Showed me a different learning system.

‘I'm not a smart man, but I work hard’,

It has given me a new insight and I know more about different cultures, Practiced my listening skills: the TED Talks are available so you can listen a few times or whenever you want.

I will study my main course in Rochester. In Farnham, I experienced many things from this short program about the UK lifestyle and education. The most meaningful aspect of the pre-sessional English course is independent learning, which is a method and philosophy of education that a student acquires knowledge by his or her own efforts and develops the ability for inquiry and critical evaluation. This approach also gave me the opportunity to collect information by researching. I have improved my research and time management skills. And we had study t ime for group discussion, so I have learned not only how to learn independently, but also learned how to complete a task with peers.

I am very happy to have studied on the pre-sessional English course. Thank you to all the teachers and students.

ZhanShiyuChinaBA Process and Identification of Jewelry10 weeks PSEADMA Contemporary Jewellery Design

BackgroundFinally

TED LecturesTE

D Ta

lk

How wonderful the PSEAD course was! New life , new friends,useful classes and exciting trips. Everyday here is

challenging and creatung fun.

In essence, the PSEAD is an English course, so it was inevitable that we had writing work such as essays and reflective writing. Because whether we can successfully finish our college course depends on it. Because I come from a country that has a totally different education system, I knew nothing about how to write an essay or reflective writing relate to my subject. Thankfully, PSEAD offered me an opportunity to improve my writing.

Discuss

After a discussion with my tutor, I rethought my essay and tried to figure out what had made me go wrong. Then I came up with the answer that I didn’t clarify what I wanted to argue about and how to write it down in a logical way. To be honest, that had been taught in the class, but I didn’t write notes in details. As a result, I learnt that part of academic writing the hard way. Moreover, I was too lazy. I started to write my essay in the last few days. Therefore, I was not able to think deeper and write carefully. That experience taught me that I should put down some key notes in order, to remind myself what I am going to write before I start to write. Although my essay was not very good, I have learnt to think more logical. I feel like information and thoughts in my head are no longer in chaos and have been organized through careful thought.

As what I have mentioned above, PSEAD course not only improved our writing skills, but also improved our information management skills. Though I really don’t like writing, I am happy with what I have achieved in the course. In the near future, I will be careful about clarifying my main topic and organizing every paragraph logically in my writing. Hopefully, I can develop my thought in a more creative way and get a good mark in writing.

Through exercises, I realized writing helps me to think deeper and organize my thoughts logically. For example, in the second week,

MengyanChenChinaBA Industrial Design5 weeks PSEADMA Product Design

Introduce

it said that I hadn’t written a comparative essay and that my essay was descriptive.

Target

Refle

ctiv

e W

ritin

g

‘Essay’ means we need to write our ideas objectively and analyse

the advantages and disadvantages in 3rd person.

I have learnt about how to write a bibliography in Harvard style. This is a special, and useful, list at the back of our essay. It was the first time for me to use it and it caused me a lot of trouble when I was writing. I always needed to record the webpage and the books’ pages and this interrupted my train of thought. However, I learnt that by using this it would show other people where my proof came from. Essays need to be written objectively and make judgements about the advantages and disadvantage of something. Therefore, the more references I use, the more it helps me to prove my ideas so that others believe my arguments.

Besides referencing, I needed to use quotations to analyse the advantages and disadvantages objectively in essay writing. It was a little difficult for me, because of my unclear key points and caused my essay to be confusing. When I used quotations, I needed to write ‘……’, which meant I borrowed arguments from books, websites, articles, etc.. However, in my view, all of these arguments should link with your opinion.

Essays are one of the most important parts in education. Apart from using referencing, to produce a great essay we need to plan first, this will help us decide the areas we want to research. After that, we must check our typing, structure and grammar carefully for mistakes. It would be silly to lose marks on these things!

YuqingZhangChina5 weeks PSEADBA Jewellery Design

Bibliography

Quotations

I wrote an essay comparing 3 chairs in several aspects, however, in my tutor’s feedback, In a word, bibliography is a quite an important part of essays, thought it is difficult for me.

Summary

Essa

y

Taisei Mishima

In the future, I would l ike to design products which people use for a long time, 50 years or 100 years. Moreover, I want to solve various problems with the power of design Finally, I will take over my father’s job which is the maker of baby goods. This is because I respect his job and want to design a wide range of products including baby goods.

"I think that the PSEAD course is one of the greatest courses in the UK."

My name is Taisei Mishima, and I will be progressing on to product design in UCA. Actually, I have wanted to study making products since I was a child. In particular, I am interested in sustainable design and biomimetic which imi ta tes animal forms or funct ions. That is why I studied Environmental Science in Canada before I came to the UK. After I left the university in Canada, I worked as a Japanese maker in order to get experience and earn money to study abroad.

I have learnt a lot of things in the PSEAD course, in particular, this course taught me how to use a sketchbook. This skill will help me learn product design efficiently in UCA because it is the most basic and essential skill for product designer. There are two main reasons why it is important.

Firstly, every product is based on drawing in the sketchbook. In other words, initial ideas of product design are produced from the sketchbook. Secondly, I can develop these ideas by using a sketchbook. For example, first of all, I research products and draw prototypes in the sketchbook, and then analyse them. After that, I modify the part that does not work or need improvement. Through the sketchbook, I can do this process smoothly.

JapanBA Environment Science5 weeks PSEADBA Product Design

Introduce

Discuss

Target

Idea

Ske

tch