We are alike, as international students
You Li is one of this quarter's FIUTS student bloggers. She is from Shanghai, China and is a junior at UW. Having lived in both New York and Seattle, she has a unique perspective on life as an international student in the U.S. Read on to learn about some of her experiences!
Zhiming's notes for learning Chinese
It was really a coincidence and a pleasure that I met this new friend, Zhiming Ke. He is an American and has a Chinese name. The first sentence he said surprised me because it was in Chinese. It was my first time talking about Chinese culture and study abroad experiences with an American who speaks Chinese. I decided to write down my thoughts to record this memory.
Since Grade 6, Zhiming started to learn Chinese and the first lesson was Pinyin which is like phonetic symbols in English. After that, he learned to write simple Chinese character and practiced writing characters by hearing. Now, he can speak Chinese to me fluently. I asked him why he was interested in Chinese and even majored in it, he smiled and said that he just like it. He then told me that during the past years, he went to China twice to study and understand Chinese culture. In my perspective, his life in China was similar to mine in America. He met some Chinese friends in elective courses, he traveled around in the holidays and he even prefers Chinese food to American food.
When he started to share his study abroad experience with me, he said “I did not know the feeling when I saw many international students in the US but I got to know that after studying abroad. In the strange atmosphere of culture, no one could literally understand your meanings, except your peers and yourself.” I nodded to agree because this is also what I thought when I first came to America five years ago. I no longer felt confident about my English and had a strong sense of homesickness. I was surprised to find out that everyone who goes to a new country will confront this situation no matter what nationality he is and which country he visits because culture shock does exist.
Actually, Zhiming now is very confident to express his mind in Chinese during our communication. He said that Chinese people would commend him when they heard he speaks Chinese that fluently and then chatted with him. Hearing this, I suddenly wanted to know that what his feelings were when he heard some international students speak in English with an accent, because I wondered whether Chinese people have higher tolerance for Americans who speak Chinese with an accent comparing to Americans’ attitude toward Chinese who speak English with an accent. He replied that it was acceptable with the accent as long as Americans understand what others are talking about. Even though I learned English since I was in kindergarten, I still had Chinese accent. Five years ago, I went to New York for high school and because of my accent, I did not get the leading role in school musical. After that, I made up my mind to learn to speak original English.
We chatted about an hour and I found out a lot similarities in our study abroad experience. On the way to learning another language, we both met with difficulties and sometimes may not be fully understood by others. In school, we also have to use that language to write essays and take exams.Though language can be a challenge sometimes, interest and courage will accompany us to live and study in the foreign country.
For more about You Li and the other Winter 2015 student bloggers, click here.