Model UN students take steps to understand China

April 9, 2006

Over spring break, a group of nine MIT students traveled over 7,000 miles to Beijing, China to compete in the World Model United Nations Conference, WorldMUN 2006. Not only did they attempt to solve the world’s problems during the five days of the conference, they also immersed themselves in the culture of a foreign land.

The Conference

WorldMUN is a five-day conference organized every year by the Harvard Model UN student group and hosted by the MUN student group of a foreign university. Each year, a new conference host is selected, which allows the conference to move around the world.

This year’s conference was hosted by Beijing University on their beautiful campus located on the outskirts of the city. Universities from every inhabited continent sent delegations to Beijing, creating a very diverse mix of cultures, opinions, and perspectives. In total, over 1,400 delegates traveled from across the globe to attend the WorldMUN conference.

The main goal of WorldMUN is to increase the interaction between Model UN teams in the United States and teams from around the world.

According to Elisabeth Markham ‘09, a new addition to the MIT Model UN team, “the best part of WorldMUN was having the opportunity to work toward solving global problems together with college students from foreign universities. The diversity of opinions and perspectives brought together at the conference has broadened my perspectives on the challenges faced by people in other countries.” Elisabeth was very successful in her collaborations with other delegates at WorldMUN, so much so that the chair of her committee presented her with a Diplomacy Award. Congratulations Elisabeth!

At the conference, MIT delegates were able to address many of the most pressing issues of the modern world. For example, in the Organization for the Islamic Conference (OIC), MIT delegate Daniel Dale represented the nation of Jordan during a discussion on the topic of economic development in the Islamic world. In collaboration with a number of other OIC nations, Daniel introduced a draft resolution on education reform in the Islamic world as a means to spur future economic development. “I really enjoy the intellectual challenge of Model UN,” said Daniel. “The problems that Model UN committees try to solve are very broad and sweeping. It is very satisfying to apply my MIT training to these problems and come up with realistic, actionable solutions that people with different perspectives and needs can all rally behind.”

Exploring Beijing and Chinese Culture

In addition to academic discussions on global policy, WorldMUN is all about immersing oneself in a different culture. The MIT delegation jumped in headfirst.

Home to over 15 million people, Beijing is a BIG city with many cultural attractions. Both in-between and after committee sessions, MIT delegates would hop into taxis, pull out their Instant Mandarin books, and get whisked away to the next exciting destination. Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven, and the Beijing Zoo were just a few of the places the delegates visited.

MIT delegates also found plenty of time to shop. Part of the satisfaction of shopping in China is the negotiation involved with any transaction. Aron Varga, a CME student who joined MIT Model UN this year, especially appreciated the interaction with locals that shopping and bargaining provided: “For any given item I bought, I probably spent 30-40 minutes negotiating the price downward. Although I still probably paid too much for everything, being an obvious tourist who didn’t speak Chinese, I was happy paying a little bit extra for the entertainment value of bargaining. Some of the shop workers could get quite animated during the process and by the end we would both be quite tired. It was at these times when I tried to get to know the people I bargained with, asking them about their current lives and how they got there. All of their stories were interesting and gave me an inside glimpse into life in China.”

The Head Delegate of the MIT WorldMUN delegation, Jen Kwok ‘08, had the following to say about interacting with locals: “I was constantly amazed whenever I talked to Chinese people and got to know them. For example, I was on a tour of the Forbidden City with an English-speaking tour guide, and it turned out that she had just graduated from college and was doing guided tours to earn a little extra money before going abroad to graduate school. Talking to her made me feel that while the US is a world away from China, as people, we are not that different.”

Speaking about his Model UN experiences in general, Hashem Dabbas ‘07, President of MIT Model UN, said “I believe the beauty in Model United Nations lies in the fact that participants truly begin to appreciate the power of negotiation and learn to appreciate the strength of cross-cultural exchange of ideas, philosophies and perceptions. I truly believe that Model UN is a character building activity that helps complement the technical and analytical skills offered by an MIT education.”

Published as MIT Home Page Spotlight on April 9, 2006.

Comments and questions to airmun-exec@mit.edu