Reflections on My Experience of Living and Studying in the UK - Essay Example

Topic: REFLECTION REPORT XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX XXXXXXXX Reflections on my experience ofliving and studying in the UK I chose to pursue my studies at the Greenwich University in the UK because English educational institutions have a rich tradition and a successful performance history. Secondly, in comparison to other universities in the UK, the University of Greenwich has one of the most affordable tuition fees. The fact that the quality standards for all institutions in the UK are ranked among the best worldwide was a motivation for me to study at the UK. Schools, colleges as well as universities are required to prove that their courses meet strict standards on a continuous basis and thus, UK’s education system is respected and recognized globally. I therefore expect that the qualification I obtain from Greenwich University will provide a solid foundation for building my future and promoting my career ambitions. I expect to develop my potential given that the university offers a challenging, creative and vibrant environment for this. I have acquired the necessary skills for me to survive in this increasingly globalized economy of the world. From the knowledge I have acquired so far, I am now capable of thinking independently, creatively and effectively. The assessment and teaching criterion used at Greenwich encourages independence and mastery of the subject in question. Given that the UK is a cosmopolitan place to reside in, having hundreds of cultures from all over the world has taught me how to get along and associate with different types of people. This has made me an open minded individual as I have learnt to deal with people from various cultural, political and religious backgrounds. This has in turn added to my experience and influenced my view of the global economy. The English language will play a vital role for my career. There is no place better than the UK - the origin of English - where I can learn this popular international language used widely in global business. Studying English in the UK has made me perfect in how well I can communicate both orally and in written form. Some of the steps I took to improve my knowledge in the language by reading books and interacting with my fellow students in discussions and clubs. I also learnt English by using the phonemic script which made it easier to understand words. By learning the phonemic script, I was able to improve my pronunciation and hence improved my communication. I have managed to improve my reading skills in a number of ways. Compared to when I was in my home country, I can now study more effectively by use of study skills taught at the university. I can now synthesis what I am studying better than I used to. I have discovered that I learn best as I write. This helps me memorize what I am studying. This discovery has had a positive effect on my grades. In order to adapt to studying at the UK, I had to improve my communication skills. I also had to better my understanding of English. I did this by frequently practicing how to talk in English in order to improve my eloquence. I also tried to expose myself to listening English speakers so that I could improve comprehension of lectures. I therefore watched lots of TV and attended theatres to watch plays done in English. These practices were very successful in helping me adapt to studying in the UK. I am confident that my learning experience here will be very useful in my career at home. Given that English is a global language and I have acquired quite a lot of skills on it, I will be able to communicate well in my professional capacity back at home. Since qualifications offered by UK institutions are recognized internationally due to their exceptional quality, I believe my knowledge will be valued back in my home country. It will also be easy for me to work in a multicultural environment since I have experience of living and studying at UK. Studying at Greenwich University has been a quite pleasure. I believe that the knowledge and skills I have acquired will be beneficial in my career endeavors. Reflection on the Dissertation Project Reflection on Preparation of the Research The research preparation process was very important to me. This is because it made me understand the basics of my research. This process helped me identify the topic I chose to investigate since I had several topics which I needed to choose from. I have always wanted to do a research that focuses on brands. In the modern world of business, a brand is as important as the product itself. Leading brands have successfully managed to diversify their product range due to the strength of their image. Image of a brand therefore remains one of the most important assets of any company. Due to my understanding and value for companies’ brand, I decided to word on a research which would investigate the relationship between customer loyalty and the images of companies (brand image). In the process of preparing for my research, I had to choose a company which I would focus my research on. What I learnt is that in the initial part of any research, it is important to narrow down one’s research since broad research works require too many resources which are not available to me at this level of my course. I selected IBM as the company whose brand would be the focus of my research due to a number of reasons. Firstly, IBM is one of my all-time favorite laptop brands. It is advised that one should consider his or her interest while choosing a dissertation topic. Secondly, I considered the availability of information about this brand in order to know whether I would have enough material to use in my research. As we all know, IBM laptops are renowned because of their quality. With the use of a good methodology, I can easily be able to get information for my research from the many current and former customers of this brand. Due to IBM’s joint venture with Lenovo in China, there was a change in the brand image of their laptops especially because China is associated with low priced and low quality products. This decision by IBM may have had some impact on its image and thus, I identified a gap in research that my dissertation would seek to fill. During the process of preparing for my dissertation, I learnt that a researcher’s interest in a topic, subject or phenomena is important in boosting one’s ‘hunger’ for conduction of the research. I also learnt that it is important to ensure that information required in the research can be easily acquired considering the resources at one’s disposal. The major challenge I experienced in this preparation process was to find the right wording for my dissertation’s topic. It is important to use the right words since the topic itself gives the research its overall meaning. With the help of some of my friends, I arrived at the following topic: “Exploring the relationship between customer loyalty and the images of companies”. I believe this topic does well in explaining what is to be expected in my dissertation. Reflection on the Introductory Chapter I view chapter one as the backbone of my research. This is because this chapter can give the research its objective and purpose. The general objective of my research is quite clear and can be totally derived from the title of my dissertation project. The general objective can be identified so as to determine the relationship between customer loyalty and the images of companies（brand image). This objective guided me well to remain within topic even in instances where available information on the internet tended to diversify my research. The purpose of my research gives it its significance. Besides this being a requirement of my course work, my dissertation project and its findings will be beneficial to those interested in determining the impact of a company’s brand on customers’ loyalty. After returning to my home country, I believe I will have an upper hand than majority of those with my qualification since I will have acquired ample knowledge through research on the impact of a company’s brand. I experienced some challenges while working on this section of my research. Since my research topic was majorly inspired my interest, I had a difficult time trying to identify the statement of the problem. After consulting some of my friends, I decided to check online for some of the works which had been researched by other researchers so that I could take note of how they wrote this section of the research. In some of the research projects I reviewed, I learnt that one could relate the purpose of the research to the statement of the problem. With this new knowledge in mind, I found it quite easy to determine the right wording for the statement of my research problem. Review on Chapter Two and Three Chapter two of the research involves conducting a literature review. I found this stage of the research quite easy since I could access unlimited information on the web. I made a point of ensuring that all the materials I extracted from the internet were reliable. This is because the internet is susceptible to possession of inaccurate information due to unrestricted postage of materials. This knowledge helped me access reliable information which I reviewed before including in my literature review section. This section of my research was quite informative since it helped me identify different methodologies used by other researchers. It also helped me grasp different theories that are important in understanding the brand concept and concept of customer loyalty. The information gathered on the literature review and the objectives of my research played a key role in helping me choose my research method. Due to resources available to me, I settled on 40 as being my ideal sample size. I believe this number will be sufficient in providing a representative sample from the population of IBM current and past users. I intend to choose three groups of people for my survey. One group consists of loyal customers of IBM laptops. The second group consists of current IBM users who previously used different brands before IBM entered into a joint venture agreement with Lenovo. The third group consists of individuals who shifted to other brands after the joint venture. These three groups will help me explore the relationship between customer loyalty and the images of companies (brand image). Conclusion The process of preparing and carrying out my dissertation project was quite interesting especially given that this is my first time to conduct this kind on research. With a little bit of reviews on reliable online content and after consultation with my friends, I overcame challenges experienced in project preparation and other parts of the research. I am excited to be focusing my research on my favorite topic - brand image – and one of my favorite brands – IBM. I believe that this dissertation project will be beneficial to my career life since I will gain vital market research skills necessary in understanding customer behavior. Read More