Entrevista

Legal Alien

Rui Valadão (22)

Studies: Minor Journalism.

Native country: Portugal, 10.7 million inhabitants, 2.3 times the size of the Netherlands.

Loves: Travelling, sports, night life.


Hate: Ducth weather.

Why did you choose Groningen for your study abroad?

I wasn’t thinking about Groningen in the first place, because I wanted to go to Warsaw in Poland. But after spending some time looking around, I found out that Groningen is, like the city of my home university, Coimbra, a city of students.

Back home you studied social media and now you learn journalism. What are the differences?

The journalistic writing part is almost the same with some more focus on the practical writing here at Hanze University. The only thing that is better at my home university is the focus on different types of journalism. For instance, we have producing and editing classes.

How do you adapt to the Dutch culture?

I find the Dutch culture easy to get used to. The only things I won’t be able to adapt to, are the Dutch weather and the food. There two things are way different from the warm weather and the great food in Portugal.

What expectations did you have before you come to Groningen? 

After studying social media in Portugal for a year, I wanted to try to get more Journalistic knowledge and experience on an international basis.

After being part of some basketball games here, what do you think the competitive level of your Dutch colleagues?

In my opinion there’s a big difference between the professional and the amateur league. Here, as in Portugal, basketball is not the most popular sport. I think basketball could grow into a well-liked sport, because the Dutch can be very successful if consider their average height. The Dutch are one of the tallest people in the world.

If you could change one thing at school, what would be?

I would have been glad if the course involved different directions. In my opinion a journalism course should be about more than just writing. Here there is only one class of video a week, so it would be more interesting if the teachers explored other journalistic areas as well.

Marcelo Chagas