Class is in Session

I decided to return to school to pursue my master’s degree. I’ve always known that I would be doing it, it was just a matter of finely-tuning the why. I found a reason a decade after I graduated from university but a reason's a reason, right? And only time would tell if my reason is good enough. Let’s not jinx it. I digress. 

Long story short, I went to a business school in France to get my postgrad degree and I’m happy to announce that I survived my year of independence abroad. There were two habits that I developed early on in my recently concluded academic return – first was spending at least half an hour getting abreast with the global business market, and next was how to use generative AI. I adapted the first not by choice but rather out of my fear of public humiliation. Others less dramatic refer to it simply as 'class recitation' though. On the first day of classes, my Finance professor asked us to introduce ourselves by specifying the country where we came from and to mention a trivia about our country's economy, something as simple as "my country's birth rate hasn't dwindled down yet, contrary to the global trend." He responded by giving another trivia about the student's country, albeit something more nuanced and contextual. There were more than 70 of us in our cohort, representing around 25 nationalities. It was pretty impressive how he was talking about Cote d'Ivoire one minute then moving on to how the Marcoses have returned to power in the Philippines while giving a background on why the world thought it impossible before the 2022 elections. He then began all our succeeding lectures by volleying with the class about the recent news on the Financial Times for about 30 minutes, impressing on us the importance of being updated with what's going on worldwide, both for our grades (let's be real, I, for one, wouldn't have voluntarily chosen to start my day by skimming through articles about the money market) and for our own brain's benefit. The exercise has stuck with me until now, made easily digestible thanks to select Spotify podcasts.

A hot topic in the business world, one that was consistently present in all 4 terms between 2024 and 2025 that my recent education was condensed into, was the emergence of Chinese electric vehicles, not just in the European market but in the global market as a whole. As a brief aside, it fascinated me how our class discussions always had to be examined through 3 markets: the European market, the US market (because let’s face it, they are still the standard when talking about the economy; besides, I’ve come to realize how heavily dependent business schools are on papers published by Harvard Business School), and everyone’s current favorite, the Chinese market. As an Asian, it captivated me how much the latter can affect global economies. We’re in the era where the sleeping giant has truly been awakened.

Chinese car manufacturers have been eating into the market share of all other Western-produced EVs. This was the consistent trend for the entirety of my master’s program. I could just recall how shocking it had been when news of the factory closures of giant German car manufacturers hit the stands. This was particularly historic because I’m sure no one could have predicted that one of the stalwarts of the European economy would be hit this badly. The luxury cars we have grown accustomed to, just like our parents and grandparents before us, are mostly, if not entirely, made in Europe. They’ve been rolling down our streets for so long that we were certain they’d continue doing so when it’s our children’s children’s turn. But alas, EVs seemed to be the one area where the European giants were on the brink of being shoved away. At that time, not one of us could predict when the dominance of Chinese EVs would plateau. Certainly the Harvard-published papers that credited their manufacturing vertical integration as a significant key to their out-of-this-world price points were at the forefront of our consciousness. As such, we could only list reasons for their continuous dominance, making it difficult to assess when the damage could be stopped. The increasing tariffs that the EU market kept levying were mere band-aids because it seemed that the Chinese government could just reach into its deep pockets to mitigate those fees. At least to me and my group, it was clear that the European market was a casualty of Chinese innovation.

So much so that for our final paper, we chose this topic over other interesting themes like green bonds. Trust me when I say that this type of bond blew my mind when I was introduced to it in my Sustainable Finance class. As a Filipino whose local market doesn't seem fully prepared to trade ESG-related bonds just yet (due to many reasons that remain valid for any other developing economy), you can imagine how eye-opening this class was for me. Chinese EVs came back to mind because a month ago, I saw a YouTube video asserting that, for lack of a better phrase, the rise of Chinese EVs has met its end. The video claimed that sales numbers are inflated and that demand was heavily orchestrated. A quick search confirms that since the latter part of 2025, the local sales of their cars have gone down drastically. Or at least, that is the case in the Chinese domestic market. Their global expansion is still in its aggressive stage. Only time will tell if the industry will yield another Harvard paper praising how it completely overturned the EV landscape, or if it will just become another case study on how they conned the world into believing in their manufactured dominance.

These photos were taken in Australia last August 2024, six days before I flew to France to attend my in-person classes. Knowing that I would be gone for a year, my parents organized one last family trip to for me. I wanted to have a clean mental slate before taking on the challenge of going abroad for a year, but as we all know, it's me. I've never really had a momentary break, which is exactly how I like it. At that time, my mind was all over the place already, trying to nail everything on my mounting to-do list. Firstly, there was my previous work. It was my first job, the first organization that gave me a chance, and let's be real. Everything that I know in a professional setup, I learned from working there. I wanted to leave all my files up-to-date while simultaneously attending all the despedida trips that were arranged for me. Make no mistake, I love how my family and friends celebrate my birth month, and how they come up with the most thoughtful ways to make me feel so loved. The same thoughtful celebrations were organized for my farewell parties, only this time, they came in the form of traveling with different sets of friends. One weekend I was in Hong Kong, returning to work the following Monday, only to take another leave on Friday of the same week to make way for another trip—Taiwan on the second weekend—and so forth. The other trips were to South Korea and Tagaytay. My bosses at work even arranged a very nice farewell lunch overlooking Makati for me too. Not to sound ungrateful, but for every minute I spent having fun away from my desk, I had to make up for it by coming to work even earlier than I usually did.

There was also the factor of me being the designated family organizer. My parents wanted my farewell trip to be in Australia where my younger brother is now based, joined by my cousins (including those who flew in from Canada). It was up to me to arrange our car rentals, Airbnbs (my Dad insisted on staying in houses that could accommodate 13 to 15 people instead of hotels with limited spaces), and even the itinerary. And since we had been in Australia during the exact same months the year prior, no one wanted to see the same places twice. But all of these paled in comparison to what demanded my time the most. My classes officially began in July 2024 with 3 online foundational courses. I took them seriously. I watched each video carefully, took notes, and answered both the quizzes and exams honestly. I was so scared that I had lost my grasp of the academic material that I even supplemented those courses with YouTube videos. I didn't take a single shortcut. I simply did not have enough hours in the day to accomplish all the professional and personal things happening at once. Looking back, perhaps what suffered the most was my ability to enjoy the personal side of things. If not for the photos and videos, I think I would have forgotten a lot of what actually happened during my despedida trips.

 Take this not as a paper I would’ve written for a class, and rightly so, given that I didn’t fact-check my claims here, but simply as a personal commentary from an easily impressionable girl who's come to understand that she lives in a world she'll never fully catch up to.