China university offers course pushing students to call strangers to build confidence, social skills

An unconventional course at prestigious Nanjing University encourages students to call strangers to hone their social skills, challenging the traditional value of “do more, speak less”.

At the top-tier institution in Jiangsu province, eastern China, former television producer and director Xu Kai launched a course called “Oral Expression” in 2015. Over the years, it has become one of the students’ favourite public courses.

The course includes a legendary assignment: students must call a stranger at random and interview them over the phone.

Several students have posted on social media about how difficult they found the task.