Time

     The most frustrating thing about studying at such an intensive language immersion program is that I rarely have time, even on the weekends, to get to know Beijing. I spent most of my time preparing for class or in class. Even on the weekends, I have worked so hard studying throughout the week that I occasionally prefer sleeping in my bed and don’t want to travel too far away from campus. It is frustrating having the capital of China, Beijing, at my fingertips and not having many opportunities to enjoy Beijing. It’s also quite overwhelming because there’s a lot I want to do and accomplish here aside from studying Chinese. I want to make Chinese friends, visit the museums and popular historic sites, try many kinds of Chinese dishes, etc. However, with only weekends to explore Beijing I don’t know how feasible, or even possible, such activities are during the program.

     I visited the Military Museum this past Sunday; it was awesome. I could read a lot of the information, or at least get the gist of the exhibits, which were mostly in Chinese. It was also interesting seeing the ways in which war and the military are portrayed here. And on the most fundamental level, I was introduced to revolutionary Chinese military weaponry. However, none of the exhibits provided much information about post-Cold War military affairs, which is what I am most interested in. Adam and I ran into a guy that asked us what was our impression of the museum. We didn’t know how to answer, so we just said the statues were cool. He replied that he most enjoyed every aspect of the museum, and it gave him pride in the Chinese revolutionary army (which today has expanded into the People’s Liberation Army, or the PLA), and is the fighting force that brought the Chinese Communist Party, or CCP, to power. I wish I had more opportunities like these to better understand Chinese history and culture.

     For future Light Fellows, keep in mind that you can book your tickets for an early arrival before your program starts or leave China later than your program. I came earlier, so I got a chance to see Beijing before I came, but won’t have time to travel to other cities. I also only came a week early, so there’s still a lot of Beijing I have yet to see. You’ll want to get out during your programs, but unless you sacrifice studying for getting out more (which I think is fine if you feel you retain the material well. I don’t retain material unless I spend lots of time studying it). But this isn’t just a problem I have. Almost every student in ACC feels the same way. The more rigorous Light programs are quite demanding and give you limited opportunity to practice speaking Chinese and to go sightseeing, so you have to force yourself to get out on the weekends when you’re extremely exhausted. Also, one weekend is so not enough to see everything Beijing has to offer. In order to make the best use of your time here, I think it’s best to arrive earlier and/or leave later so that you have the opportunity to 了解中国文化 (understand Chinese culture). I don’t think you can successfully say you are fluent in Chinese until you thoroughly understand the culture as well.

毕业典礼 (Graduation)

     ACC came to a close a few days ago. The last week flew by. One minute I was studying the last lesson, the next minute I was taking the final exam, and then quickly attended graduation shortly thereafter. The ACC graduation was a rewarding event and a special occasion for all of us. Not only did it mark the completion of the program, but it was also our cue to begin speaking English (around teachers) again. It was a very heartfelt ceremony with speeches from the Student Council representatives from each level of Chinese, funny clips from China Night, pictures from teachers and students from the summer semester, and speeches by the director of ACC and the head of the foreign exchange department at CUEB (Capital University of Economics and Business).

I'm getting my ACC diploma from the head of the foreign exchange department at CUEB. He shook my hand really tightly and told me not to give up studying Chinese.

     At the end of the ceremony, all the ACC students emerged from their seats shouting random English words like “the”, “piece”, and “hello.” It was amazing. Our teachers all became different people because they all seemed uncomfortable speaking English with us. It was awkward seeing them in such a vulnerable position. But to compromise, we spoke fluent Chinglish with them. It became the happy medium for us, English-deprived ACC students, and our Chinese teachers.

     We quickly headed over to a nice Beijing Duck restaurant close to campus and ate our last meal with our teachers. I realized throughout the day, as graduation events came to a close, that I’d really miss Beijing. Even sadder was the fact that I was leaving at 8am the next day, so that dinner was the last time I saw many of the teachers before I headed back to the United States. That was also, out of all the great meals I had in Beijing, the final one before my flight back home.

Many of my awesome classmates. Left to right: Eve, Chris, Me, Alissa, Adam, Yu Laoshi, Jackie, Devin, Gi'selle, Harry, and Alec. I'm gonna miss all of you.

This is one of our Yale photos. Left to right: Miles, Adam, Jackie, Me, and Eileen. We are so SILLY.

We took this photo after dinner. Hey Amy and Zhu Laoshi! I look like such a fool in this picture. Haha.

食物中毒

（To have been posted on August 18, 2010.) 

Yeah, so what do the characters in the title of this blog mean? They mean food poisoning.

This is what got me sick：凉皮（or “cold skin” noodles）

I’ve been in China for the past eight weeks and have had little to no problems with illness. I caught a cold for one day, suffering from a sore throat and mild fatigue. However, two days before I get on the plane to head back to the United States, I get food poisoning. The problem is that I really can’t blame anyone but myself because I ate a Chinese cold dish literally called “cold skin.” Generally speaking, Chinese cold dishes don’t have sanitation issues, but this particular dish is made and then left to sit out in the open until ordered. Of course, all this profound information about these thin, almost transparent cold noodles was learned during my bed-ridden Wednesday hoping to get better so I could study for the next day’s oral exam. But because I pulverized a bowl of these raw noodles with my Chinese friend, I don't plan on eating solid foods for about another week.

And on that note, here are some of the best Chinese dishes I've eaten this summer. I'll add more as I upload more pictures.

I didn't have enough time to photograph it before everyone at our table demolished this fish. It's called 红烧鱼.

A delicious vegetarian dish that I can't remember the name of. It's like bean sprouts and green onions mixed over a sweet sauce that kind of tasted like a sweet vinaigrette dressing.

This is a huge meal that one of my Chinese friends spent six hours cooking for me. Aside from the bowls of steamed rice, he fixed salted fish, peanuts and chicken, pickled cucumber, some kind of pumpkin dessert, tofu and carrot soup, and boiled shrimp.

            

I'm eating a Vietnamese rice bowl. So tasty.

            

So, the menu said "Duck leg and rice." That's exactly what it is: rice, a meaty duck leg, and tofu/veggies.

Of course you can't go to China without trying the new McDonald's curly fries. Delish-es-ness.

China Night and Other Things

(To have been posted on August 15, 2010.)

Last night’s “中文之夜” (“China Night”) brought together all ACC teachers and students in a huge assembly displaying our different talents and abilities. Each performance, whether displaying Chinese culture or not, offered a traceable cultural exchange between us (American college students) and Chinese people (our teachers and host families).

I was chosen to be one of four of the 主持人 (MCs) among several other performances for China Night. My friends and I opened the show with the Mulan song, “I’ll Make a Man Out of You,” in Chinese. We tried to add dance moves to it, but our teachers told us to focus on the singing because, according to the teachers and the ACC field director, we all 唱得很棒（sang extremely well). She even added one more really popular Chinese love song called “看过来.” Apparently we sang so well that we could knock out a sufficient rehearsal for this song with just four hours before the show. (Ahem, I think we students would all beg to differ seeing as though we originally spent most of our Mulan rehearsals focusing on coming up with awesome masculine poses/gestures instead of finding the right key for the song.) Either way, when performance time came, the audience loved it.

My next performance was part of the larger performance by the second-year students. The first section was a rewritten version of a Chinese sitcom called “贫嘴张大民的幸福生活.”It was hilarious watching this be performed and was also really interesting because my teachers basically wrote most of the script, however, coupled with a two-day lesson on this sitcom (one film-focused day of class and one textbook-focused day of class) gave me a good sense of what Chinese comedy is like. For the most part, sarcasm is really difficult in Chinese because it’s a tonal language, so you can’t really inject your own tonal inflections into Chinese and expect to be understood. I think this is actually a privilege English speakers share that many tonal languages like Chinese and some West African languages lack. Nevertheless, sarcasm is difficult to pull off in Chinese. Future Light Fellows, if it’s your first time to China, you’ll want to crack jokes with classmates or teachers or Chinese friends, and they will just stare at you and take what you say seriously. So, be careful. Haha. Remember to laugh after you make these kinds of jokes, then they’ll realize you’re kidding…

What I learned about Chinese comedy and humor is that it is filled with rhetorical questions (or 反问) and very blunt (or 直爽) comments or insults. Although there is no room for the ever-so-pleasant sarcasm that shows itself most often in SNL skits, I can still appreciate Chinese comedy for its differences. For example, they can use words with similar tones to crack jokes. During one part of the skit, the brother of the main character invites his foreign girlfriend over who speaks really poor Chinese. She offers the mom what is supposed to be a“漂亮的表“（pretty wristwatch）, but she actually calls the mom a “pretty [insert harsh swear word that involves females and dogs].” Get it? Right. Chinese humor is very very direct (and indirect at the same time). That’s why I like it.

My part in this larger performance was to mock a few of our second-year teachers in a skit about Chinese class at ACC. It was so so so funny. The teacher’s were all good sports about it, and even helped us make fun of their teaching habits before the show. We made sure to let them know after the performance that “我们讽刺老师教学的习惯是因为我们想开他们的玩笑，而且是因为我们想对老师表示感谢。“(We mock our teachers’ teaching habits because we want to make fun of them and also because we want to show our thanks to them.”)

Me and Eve. She goes to Smith College and put on a hilarious mockery of Jiang Laoshi during the show. Miss you, Eve!

Me and Wu Laoshi. He was one of my favorite teachers and was very chill pretty much all the time.

All in all, China Night was a success. Even though there was very little time to finish homework thoroughly and practice for performances all in one week, I think ACC students and teachers pulled together to make it an awesome event. My major issue involved the organization of the event. Students officially informed the ACC Office of their performances two days before the show which gave people not much time to polish their performances. Regardless, it was a ton of fun, and I’m feeling really mushy inside because we only have one more week of ACC…

北京平民

Hi all,

Here's a set of random photos that I've finally had time to upload to my blog. This set is called "Beijing Common People." Enjoy.

Guy races down Guanghua Road on his bike at 5:30am. I was getting breakfast off campus this morning. I wonder why he was rushing.

Landscaper watering the grass outside the Bird's Nest. The upkeep of the stadium is still pretty good after two years.

This boy was the cutest. He was pouting because he was tired from walking so much. In the photo, he is stomping away from his parents. 小皇帝吗？很溺爱吗？

This is just one of the several photos I have with people from Beijing. She insisted on standing in the middle.

A pathway in one of the Hutong's of Beijing. In Old Beijing, this is where wealthy families lived. However, its current residents are among the poorest in Beijing.

This day was very cool and pleasant, so this guy took advantage of the free air conditioning outside. He woke up shortly after I took this photo, so I snapped it just in time.

One of the waiters at one of my favorite restaurants prepares for opening. They serve Northeast Chinese-style food.

一清二楚

The lines in Beijing are absolutely ridiculous. During lunchtime, especially if I go to a fast food restaurant, is approximately half-block—guaranteed.  (“Beijing blocks” are my measure word for distance/length in China because Beijing blocks are long, and I’m not accustomed to using the metric system.) But although the length of lines here are intolerable, the wait is worth it because the food is always delicious.

Last Sunday, I took my good friend Morgan to the Badaling Great Wall. She has never been to China before, let alone Beijing, so I offered to take her there to see it. On the way, we waited in a long line for a train to Badaling, but the tickets were sold out by the time we reached the window. The next option: public bus. We hopped in a taxi and rode for about twenty minutes from Beijing North Railway Station to the Badaling Great Wall bus terminal. While we searched for Bus No. 919, we encountered a huge line of people. (This one was about 4 “Beijing blocks” long.) Almost immediately we were overcome with frustration and annoyance, but it was a beautiful day (blue skies, white clouds, pleasant winds) so it was the most ideal time to go to the Great Wall. We dragged ourselves to the tail of the line, often glaring at the people in the front of the line enviously.

We got to the Great Wall, climbed it, took pictures—the whole bit. But on the way down we saw a sliding car sign. We followed the arrows into a bustling crowd of people pushing and rushing toward a single hole carved into a gated window. This was the line. After we aggressively pushed pass little children, got tossed around by their stressed parents, and had our feet maimed by others’ heavy steps, we finally reached the window. I didn’t have the chance to see the ticket salesperson’s face; I just put the 60RMB inside the window and yelled “两张票!”(“Two tickets!)  After receiving the tickets, I climbed over a nearby fence to avoid the dangerous crowd behind me. An American guy turned toward me, sweat dripping from the tip of his nose, and said: “Over 5,000 years of civilization and they can’t stand in a line.” Although I was surprised to here him say this, overwhelmed by the stress of purchasing my ticket, this statement seemed so true and so clear to me at the time. Were the Chinese really civilized?

What changed my mind is the realization that in the stress of a moment like boarding a train or waiting for food in China, it is really easy to oversimplify the problems I encounter here. For instance, to answer the question why so many people stuff themselves into fully-occupied train cars or why drivers don’t often stop for pedestrians, I used to have a similar opinion to this American tourist: that the Chinese are uncivilized. However, as China becomes more and more commercialized, integrated into the global sphere, and rises as one of the world’s new superpowers, I don’t think it’s fair, let alone accurate, to say that Chinese people are “uncivilized”. I’ve realized the problem is double-edged. On the one hand, China is thriving economically at record paces. But on the other hand, China’s growth coupled with overpopulation breeds such stressful transportation situations. During rush hour, it is impossible to catch a taxi somewhere, especially if you aren’t going somewhere close. Taxi drivers earn much more money by making more short stops then longer ones during rush hour. You guys already know the story of Adam and I getting to ACC; the reason we hopped in the car with a complete stranger is because we couldn’t haul all over our luggage to campus from the train station. It was just too far.

The problem with whether or not the behavior of Chinese people is not a question of whether or not they are civilized. The American tourist’s attitude, as well as my own previous assumptions, depicts a narrow-minded perception of the daily lives of Chinese people. I appreciate that the Light Fellowship tries to alleviate this stereotyping of East Asia by giving Yalies the opportunity to explore the language and culture of this region. 所以，和以前比，我现在对这个情况了解得更清楚。(So, I now understand this issue more clearly than before.)

儒家的教义 （The Doctrine of Confucianism）

Okay, so China has been really awesome and really fun. Every day is filled with new experiences and new realizations not only about myself but about China as well. For instance, two Sundays ago, I went to visit the Confucius Temple where emperors taught Confucianism to the smartest kids in the country at the time. One of Confucius's most famous quotes translates to something like "In a group of three, at least one must be a teacher." I gather his philosophy in this quote is that we are all one another's teachers and one another's students, so we must mutually learn from one another. That seems kind of obvious, but in reflecting on this quote and then thinking about the current educational system in China, I see it differently. Confucius’ teachings aren’t so easy to apply to the contemporary world. For instance, in order to get into college every June each Chinese high school student takes the same college entrance exam that determines where they can (and sometimes will) go to college and what they're major will (or should) be. These kids spend their entire elementary, junior high, and high school careers preparing for this single exam; it determines their entire lives. 

Now, although it is a very fair method because everyone has the same standard to achieve; however, this is why many Chinese students lack social skills and work experience; they often don't seem to be interested in things other than studying. It’s not because Chinese kids don’t have interests other than studying, it is because they haven’t had the opportunity to find their hobbies. Modern China has, in many facets, completely misconstrued the meanings of Confucius' quotes. For instance, his theories on filial piety and other forms of social order were used to establish stability in ancient empires, but now are used to keep order in society, thereby causing women's rights, human rights, and other social issues to run rampant. Okay, enough about sociology and politics. I'm done. I’m teaching a course on the influence of world religions on Chinese society tomorrow, this is just a bit of practice. I'll let you know how it turns out in the next blog. I'm so nervous!

放松一下

Note: Blog should have been posted Thursday, July 22, 2010, but the Internet here sucks.

My blog is kind of short this week, so I am kind of taking it easy on you guys in terms of blogging this week. Nothing that interesting has happened aside from preparing intensely for midterms. However, there is a dim light at the end of the tunnel. Before the second half of ACC begins, we all have the opportunity to take a trip to Datong or Luoyang. Because I don’t want to miss out on the Shaolin Temple and martial arts, I signed up a couple weeks ago to go to Luoyang.

Right now I am on top of the world because I just took the last part of my midterm exam and am feeling good. They were pretty difficult, but I think my time spent preparing was efficient and effective so I’m expecting good results. The only thing that disappoints me a bit is that our vacation to Luoyang is a mere three days. One of those days is spent on a train traveling to and from Luoyang and the other two days are spent sightseeing and what not. Either way, it’s nice to get the chance to 放松一下 （relax）， because any Light Fellow can tell you, finding that time is really difficult. I’m excited to see what real kungfu is all about. Next time I write here it’ll be all about my trip! I’m hoping to have a blast!

不好意思

Hey folks,

I really apologize about not posting too many photos on my blog. The reason I've been lacking photos is not because I despise snapping shots of my daily encounters with the friendly citizens of Beijing, but it is because I left my camera in Chicago...at home...on top of my bedroom dresser. What a great place to leave it, right? Well, thanks to Adam I've had the chance to photograph many of the things I've wanted while here. I've been too cheap to purchase my own camera because most cameras in China are the same price they'd be in the US, and I figure since I already own one, why purchase another? I'm just going to stop being cheap and get one soon. And by soon, I mean tomorrow or Wednesday because we have our mid-program field trip this weekend. I'm going to Luoyang, which is revered as the most intense (and the best) place to learn martial arts. Anyone heard of the Shaoline Temple? Yes. It's near (or in) Luoyang.

Anyway, here are a few pictures I'm going to steal from Adam. For the next couple weeks, I will have my own new camera, so I will post pictures more often.

We sneakily snapped a photo of this cute kid playing in a World Cup playpen in Wangfujing.

Ew, the Beijing belly...speaks for itself. Lifting up the shirt in the baking heat of the Beijing sun is popular among most men here. It drives the ladies nuts. (Note: I intentionally made this picture larger. It has a larger impact on the viewer.)

Is it because President Obama is becoming a socialist? We may never know.

Subway at the Great Wall. I have yet to try Subway in Beijing. It's definitely on my to-do list!

This is the security guard I mentioned in a previous blog post. He followed us around until I spoke to him and then I asked for a picture. Hehe.

Frustration

The most frustrating thing about studying at such an intensive language immersion program is that I rarely have time, even on the weekends, to get to know Beijing. I spent most of my time preparing for class or in class. Even on the weekends, I have worked so hard studying throughout the week that I occasionally prefer sleeping in my bed and don’t want to travel too far away from campus. It is frustrating having the capital of China, Beijing, at my fingertips and not having many opportunities to enjoy Beijing. It’s also quite overwhelming because there’s a lot I want to do and accomplish here aside from studying Chinese. I want to make Chinese friends, visit the museums and popular historic sites, try many kinds of Chinese dishes, etc. However, with only weekends to explore Beijing I don’t know how feasible, or even possible, such activities are during the program.

I visited the Military Museum this past Sunday; it was awesome. I could read a lot of the information, or at least get the gist of the exhibits, which were mostly in Chinese. It was also interesting seeing the ways in which war and the military are portrayed here. And on the most fundamental level, I was introduced to revolutionary Chinese military weaponry. However, none of the exhibits provided much information about post-Cold War military affairs, which is what I am most interested in. Adam and I ran into a guy that asked us what was our impression of the museum. We didn’t know how to answer, so we just said the statues were cool. He replied that he most enjoyed every aspect of the museum, and it gave him pride in the Chinese revolutionary army (which today has expanded into the People’s Liberation Army, or the PLA), and is the fighting force that brought the Chinese Communist Party, or CCP, to power. I wish I had more opportunities like these to better understand Chinese history and culture.

For future Light Fellows, keep in mind that you can book your tickets for an early arrival before your program starts or leave China later than your program. I came earlier, so I got a chance to see Beijing before I came, but won’t have time to travel to other cities. I also only came a week early, so there’s still a lot of Beijing I have yet to see. You’ll want to get out during your programs, but unless you sacrifice studying for getting out more (which I think is fine if you feel you retain the material well. I don’t retain material unless I spend lots of time studying it). But this isn’t just a problem I have. Almost every student in ACC feels the same way. The more rigorous Light programs are quite demanding and give you limited opportunity to practice speaking Chinese and to go sightseeing, so you have to force yourself to get out on the weekends when you’re extremely exhausted. Also, one weekend is so not enough to see everything Beijing has to offer. In order to make the best use of your time here, I think it’s best to arrive earlier and/or leave later so that you have the opportunity to 了解中国文化 (understand Chinese culture). I don’t think you can successfully say you are fluent in Chinese until you thoroughly understand the culture as well.

Stares

Some people stare and smile, some people stare and frown. Others stare and snicker, while others just stare. I’m still exploring some of the nuances of why many Chinese are astonished to see an African-American in China. My summer in Shanghai wasn’t filled with many of these encounters. However, the funniest one was when this old guy at the Forbidden City stroked my arm. I felt really awkward at first, but then relieved by his harmless curiosity.

In Beijing, lots of people stare at me. Although our Chinese texts constantly reiterate that Chinese is 现代化 (modern) and 不落后 (not backward) I find that hard to believe when so many of the 1.3 to 1.6 billion citizens here have never seen or heard an African or African-American—except on TV. I think the modernity of Beijing is linked more closely to China’s rapid economic development than it is to the open-mindedness and exposure of its citizens. Either way, I respect the gradualist openness of not only the Chinese government, but also the curiosity of individual citizens. Here’s a list of the encounters I’ve had with Chinese people so far. They are in no particular order; this is the order in which I thought of them. Some are funny, and some are not so funny. Rank them yourselves J

1. I’m standing on the subway train headed to eat Beijing Duck with some Yale friends who were also in Beijing. While swaying back and forth on the overcrowded train, my phone rings. I squeeze my hand between the rugged, hairy Chinese thigh pressed against my gym shorts and grab my phone. I squeeze it back through the hairy crevice and pick up the phone: 喂？(Hello?) The moment I said hello in Chinese the two guys in front of me shot looks at each other and dropped their jaws. I bet they were thinking: 那个黑人会说中文？我大吃一惊！（That black person can speak Chinese? I’m so surprised!) I finished my conversation—yes, in Chinese. (This has happened at least five or six times now.) I wouldn’t say these encounters are directly related to me being black, but the combination of being a foreigner and a black person both make this experience unique and interesting.

2. I went to interview the manager of a small cigarette shop just around the corner from my university. Not only was he surprised that I could speak Chinese, but he was also surprised that I didn’t want to learn Kungfu like Will Smith’s son in the new Karate Kid film.

3. While sitting outside at a bar in Sanlitun with a friend, Liz, and her high school buddies, we were approached by a very enthusiastic Chinese guy with a microphone. Trekking slowly behind him was his cameraman. They were interviewing foreigners to get their opinions on the World Cup Finals. As a joke, when he asked me where I was from in Chinese I responded that I was from Ethiopia (Hana, if you’re reading this you should be proud J.) He then proceeded to ask me a few questions about the political and economic gains and losses for South Africa. He also insisted that Ethiopia bordered South Africa, and when I corrected him he replied, “Doesn’t matter. Africa is Africa, right?” Ouch. So, here’s the funny part. He wanted me to sing and dance. He hopped around like a monkey and asked me to do what I think meant “tribal dance” or “traditional dance.” I laughed immediately and told him I wasn’t actually from Ethiopia, and that I was actually born and raised in the U.S. It gets funnier; he asked me to “rap-a,” which I gathered to mean rap. Jeez, at least I got a chance to be on online television.

4. A baby pointed at me in the mall and said, 妈妈，他不好看。他不好看。(Mom, he’s ugly. He’s ugly.) If you ask any of my friends, they will tell you I think every Asian baby is cute. This one was an exception J

5. I went to the Military Museum two days ago and was followed by a security guard. When I say followed, I mean as I looked at exhibits he would stand between me and the exhibit and stare. I finally decided to talk to him. I simply said “Hello”. He pointed at his arm. “Umm, is he going to try to touch my skin? Not again.” I thought. Then he asked was I from Africa, and I gave him the usual spiel about how I’m an American.

6. People take pictures of me and are not discrete about it at all—not one bit.

7. Some of the cab drivers in China are very talkative and curious; others are either uninterested or quiet for whatever reason. On the way home from Sanlitun last Saturday, I talked to a cab driver about whether he thought Holland or Spain would take the finals game. Then we discussed where we were from. He was from Hebei province, but I didn’t catch the city he was from. When he asked my nationality, I offered him the opportunity to guess. He immediately guessed that I was American. He then proceeded to tell me his distinct impressions of Africans and African-Americans. He thinks African-Americans tend to have lighter skin than Africans. This is true. He also thinks Africans have terrible personalities and that they are not friendly. This is probably not true. He thinks Africans only use Chinese among themselves. This can’t be true. Otherwise, for what purpose would they be learning Chinese? He thinks African-Americans are more open and tend to talk to him in Chinese more often than Africans. Ok, if that is true it is an awful generalization. Chinese people, because of limited exposure to other races, tend to generalize whole countries and entire races based on a single person’s actions. Wrong. I guess it’s ironic that my blog post sort of follows a similar logic. Are all Chinese people very curious? Probably not. Whoops.

8. My language partner, a Chinese graduate student studying English and American culture, asked me my interests when I first met her. I listed singing, dancing, hanging out with friends, politics, traveling…and then I had a mind block. I paused. But fortunately I didn’t have to pause any longer after she finished the list for me. 篮球 (Basketball), she said. Wow, I thought.

9. I hear this phrase a lot on the street, especially if I’m in a crowded, tourist-friendly area. 看到那个黑人.（Look at that black person.)

10. If I’m with friends who are white or Asian, Chinese people will often just practice their English with me. They’ll say “Hello” or “How are you?” Apparently, my friends just aren’t interesting enough.

11. The Silk Market has several floors of merchandise for purchase. It mainly attracts tons of foreigners. I went there with Adam, and we were bored and just going from floor to floor meeting some of the salespeople, trying to get to know them while they insisted on asking us to buy fake shoes, cameras, iPads, and high-heels. Taking the escalator from the third to fourth floor was quite a long ride. When I finally stepped off the final escalator step, a purse saleswoman greeted me enthusiastically. She said,  “Hello Kobe, need a purse-a for your mom?” That’s Kobe Bryant, LA Lakers player, to those unfamiliar with the NBA.

语言实践

After surviving my first week of class at ACC, I think I can safely say my Chinese has not only improved a lot in just this one week, but also I am excited to do it all over again seven more times. I’ve already described the daily structure of class at ACC, but Fridays are different. As part of yesterday’s 语言实践 (language and culture practicum) activity my classmates and me had a scavenger hunt after our weekly exam. From CUEB, we were given directions to a huge shopping street called 王府井 （Wangfujing）. And although it was easy to get to by train, hunting down 美食代广场 (food court) drove us insane. It was a crazy experience, though. The goal of the language practicum is to get us out there, using the vocabulary we learned from the week, speaking with 真正的中国人 (real Chinese people).

Tangent on train shenanigans: Aside from the familiar crowded, hot, personal space-deprived Beijing subway mayhem we are all familiar with, on the way to 王府井 I encountered one young guy who got on the train and grabbed the rail above my head, leaving his armpit resting right in front of my nose. That afternoon, I learned that many Chinese don’t wear deodorant. As a matter of fact, our ACC program handbook advised us to bring our own deodorant because “it is every expensive and difficult to find in China.” Maybe that’s why this guy’s armpits smelled terribly…for ten minutes. I guess this is my newest question I want answered: “Why don’t that many Chinese people wear deodorant?”

Immediately after exiting the subway station, we walked through 王府井 and came to a pretty short three-story building squashed between other small shops selling all sorts of traditional Chinese art and electronics and snacks. We followed a sign that read “Food Court on the bottom floor.” We ended up finding a food court there, but there were no teachers. “What?!” This actually made no sense to us since the title they’d given us on the instruction sheet matched the name of this place. We asked the service staff there, and they said 王府井 was full of food courts. “Eh...?” What were we to do?

My partner, Harry, and I followed their instructions to the nearest food court. Our instructions sheet said this food court mainly sold Chinese snacks—by Chinese snacks they meant things like 龙虾 和 青蛙 (scorpion and frog). The first spot only sold fast food. This second food court was outdoors and was just across the street from the first one. They sold Chinese snacks, but not the strange snacks like frog and scorpion. They sold candy, yogurt milk (which is delish-us by the way), and tons of fruit and vegetables. This food court was more like a local market than the typical American-style food court. But Harry and I thought this market was the right place, since we had run into two other groups from our class who also thought this food court was the right one. We still had one problem: no teacher. The other two groups waited for our teachers to show up. Harry and I thought our teachers should be much easier to find, so we tried another mall called 东方新天. We went there, scanned all three floors, even the basement floor containing a food court, yet still no teachers. While down there, we did see a store selling strange snacks like scorpion and frog, but we scanned the outside of the store and still didn’t see them. At this point, we were two hours into this scavenger hunt, anticipating the sun would show us no mercy when we stepped outside, we wandered out the doors of 东方新天 feeling defeated. How were we supposed to find our teachers? And if none of our classmates could find this food court, why did they give us this assignment?

As we stood at the center of the square, staring back at the entrance of 东方新天 bewildered, a nice group of Chinese people offered to help us. “Ex-cuse-a me, where are you go-ing?” We replied that we actually had no idea because we had literally been to all of the food courts in this area. We were hungry, we were tired, it was hot...but we still needed to find the food court in order to complete the assignment. (And to get free lunch from our teachers. J) Somehow we conjured the strength to head to the fifth floor of a mall about a ten-minute walk away. Ten minutes walking in the scourging Beijing sun felt like hours and hours and hours to me by that point.

Once we arrived at this huge mall, Harry had some doubts about whether its food court was the right location. I told him that we should still try it though, then I dragged him up five escalators until we reached “The Food Republic.” It appeared to be the right place because just like the first location, the name of this food court in Chinese was 美食代广场. However, the problem was that they didn’t sell snacks cooked from weird animals. All the food looked like delicious, authentic Chinese FAST food, not SNACKS. We looked around on this floor for our teachers and ended up encountering all of our classmates sitting at a table together. We were the last ones to arrive, but anyway...SUCCESS! I mean...FAIL! Our teachers weren’t here either. Everyone just ended up at the wrong spot together. LOL.

We waited for them to arrive and tried calling them, but they didn’t answer. We finally got a hold of them; they returned one of my classmate’s calls. Apparently, they were at the 美食代广场 on the basement floor of 东方新天. Harry and I looked at each other, both of us now in exasperation because we had already been there. It was certainly our mistake though because they said they were waiting for us at a table INSIDE the food court. We figured they would be waiting for us outside the mall entrance or outside the food court. COMMON SENSE FAIL! But I don’t know whom to blame: ourselves or our teachers. Either way, the language practicum turned out really well. It was certainly a fun learning experience.

Our teachers spoke to us, figured out where we were, and rushed to come eat with us. They let us order whatever we wanted, especially if it was a traditional Chinese dish. We spent a good hour and a half talking amongst one another with our teachers, getting to know them and them getting to know us. It was a really warm, sappy moment for me. You know that really awkward feeling when you cross the line from just that teacher-student relationship to teacher/friend-student/friend relationship? Yeah, that’s what I felt. Our Chinese teachers are real people. They’re young and at the prime of their lives. For many of them, teaching foreigners, especially American students, at such a highly selective program like ACC is an honor for them. (It also looks good on their resumes, especially in China. Teachers are more highly respected in China than in the United States.) But I’ve discovered this experience is so much more than that for them.

When I picked up my first test grade from my box yesterday evening, I surprisingly encountered a small piece of notebook paper folded neatly into four even squares nestled beneath my test. I nervously unraveled it; I didn’t know who it was from or what it said. It was a letter from one of my Chinese teachers letting me know she was leaving the program because she had a “more successful opportunity” elsewhere. After only one week, I’ve built a close relationship with this teacher, and I will be really sad to see her leave this Tuesday. This is an example of how highly ambitious and motivated ACC teachers are. They not only care about us learning Chinese, but they care about us as people as well. I think having a support system that stems from new friends made at ACC along with support from your Chinese teachers is important as well. Both have helped me successfully take advantage of this awesome opportunity. Sorry, another sappy tangent...She ended the letter giving me her cell and her personal email; she told me to contact her anytime.

My main point is that studying abroad in China is just as rewarding for these teachers as it is for us. I’ve realized that they spend tons of time studying how to teach foreigners. It’s not as simple as them learning English. They also need to have some understanding of the culture. I think knowing that they put in so much effort just pushes me to work even harder here. Stephanie Rocio mentioned in a recent blog post how HBA teachers skipped their graduations to work at HBA. That’s amazing. I feel our Chinese teachers—regardless of the program—are looking for more than work experience and higher credentials. The letter I got from one of my teachers, Gao Laoshi, shows the same display of downright kindness. And no matter how cheesy or cliché it sounds, they have good hearts.

I look forward to getting to know my teachers even more now—not only through scavenger hunts and other language practicum activities, but through making even more of an effort to become fluent in Chinese. When I do, I can fully express myself to them, showing my gratitude for their kindness and their generosity thus far. I think it’s the least I can do, and I think it’s the least other Light Fellows can do, to return the favor.

My First Day of Class

I just finished my first day of classes at ACC. They were really interesting, and I am excited for how much I will improve while I'm here.

Most of the Light-approved programs structure their curriculum the same way. This past Saturday, I signed a language pledge stating that I will only speak Chinese for the next two months. On top of that, we have four hours of class every weekday. Here's the general outline of a regular class day:

8:00-8:50am
This is the big lecture class (7-9 students) where we begin every morning with a quiz on the day's lesson. The quiz is as follows: First, we write down the pinyin and characters for 2 vocabulary words, then we write down a vocabulary word based off clues given to use by the teacher, and last we write down two long sentences full of vocabulary words. After the quiz, we go over the new words and sentence patterns from the day's lesson.

Here's what we covered in our big lecture class today (You can't really see what it says. Many of you don't read Chinese anyway, haha. The point is that we covered a ton of Chinese in just fifty minutes:

9:00-9:50am
This is the small lecture class (3-4 students) where we get drilled in the previous classes new words and sentence patterns. There's a ton of repetition of the teacher's speech. The most fulfilling aspect of this class is when you are able to produce your own sentences using the news words and sentence patterns.

10:00-10:50am
This is a discussion class (3 students) where we discuss an issue with one another. The discussion is observed by the teacher who rarely interjects into the conversation. It's a nice time to get to know your classmates using formal grammatical structures (instead of the bad Chinese spoken amongst one another outside of the classroom). For example, today we discussed the best American city to study English in. We debated about whether New York, Middlebury, or Chicago is most suitable for learning English abroad. Also, you use this time to use the new words and sentence patterns from the current lesson to communicate.

11:00-11:50am/12:30-1:20pm/1:30-2:20pm
This class is a one-on-one discussion class with the teacher from the discussion class. They talk to you about various things. It's practice with conversational skills. They also record in our "mistakes notebook" any words or phrases we tend to mispronounce often during the one-on-one session. This is a nice time to get to know the teacher as well. I wish I could more clearly and accurately express my thoughts during this session because all of our teachers have awesome stories to tell. Also, you use this time to use the new words and sentence patterns from the current lesson to communicate.

Here's more: Monday through Wednesday we cover lessons from the text. On Thursday we cover lessons from a listening CD. Then on Friday we are tested on the week's lessons. Apparently each day's classes is equivalent to a week's worth of language study at American universities. But I think the pace of the classes is very manageable. I don't know why but Yale students got placed in second-, third-, and fourth-level Chinese. One L4 Yale heritage speaker placed into fourth year. Another L4 heritage speaker from Yale was placed into second-year Chinese. That's strange. I placed into second-year Chinese, which is a bit frustrating because I did really well in second-year Chinese at Yale this past school year. One non-native speaker from L4 got placed into third-year and two others from L4 got placed into second-year. Either way, I know most of the vocabulary and sentence patterns from second-year. The problem I have is with production. If given a test on our vocabulary and sentence patterns, I can do well because the test gives me time to think and reproduce the material learned in class. However, when I'm speaking Chinese with natives and people from Beijing on the street, it's hard for me to think quickly enough to sound fluent. I understand most of what is said to me, and I can get around Beijing pretty well on my own; however, when the time comes for me to have an EXTENDED conversation (or to keep a conversation going), I have problems. I think that's why I'm in second-year Chinese. And if that's the case, I don't mind. Not only will my test and homework grades be really good because I've already learned the material, but I'll also be able to start to improving my speaking skills. I will begin to PRODUCE Chinese in a real life setting (outside the classroom), which I haven't had the opportunity to do since studying abroad in Shanghai two summers ago. I like the emphasis on SPEAKING and producing Chinese at ACC. I think all the Light-approved programs share this emphasis; that's why studying abroad in Beijing is so crucial to successful language study.

塞翁失马

Sitting and reflecting in 北京文化公园 (Beijing Cultural Park).

塞翁失马 is a Chinese idiom (成语) that means something along the lines of ‘life is a cycle of good and bad luck.’ Chinese idioms are popular expressions used by the Chinese; I like to think of them as parables. Many exhibit a very positive outlook on life while others exhibit a more pessimistic view of life. Either way, you can learn a lot from these idioms.

My four-day adventure with Adam before the start of ACC (Associated Colleges in China), my Mandarin immersion program, was full of experiences with ‘good and bad luck.’ Like the Chinese idiom 塞翁失马 teaches us, every negative experience in our lives turns into a positive one (and so on). Here are two things that have happened since I arrived in Beijing since Sunday. Observe how they apply so well to 塞翁失马 .

I arrived in Beijing around midnight this past Sunday, drenched in tediousness and jetlagged. All I wanted to do was rest. But although it was practically Monday morning when I caught the taxi to my hostel near Tiananmen Square, the driver was extremely vigilant and nice. He wanted to know where I was from. He wanted to know where I was studying in Beijing. He wanted to know me.

Since meeting him, I’ve met tons of other Chinese people who are happy to get to know me just as much as I am to get to know them. Chinese people are so genuinely interested in the lives of foreigners—whether it be at the Silk and Pearl Supermarket, in a taxi, on the subway train, in a restaurant, or walking down the street. Their kindness has made me so much more comfortable and confident in my Chinese language abilities. Also, it has solidified my love for the generosity and benevolence of the Chinese.

I was afraid the hostel would either not exist or be unsafe. Turns out not only did the hostel exist, but it was clean and safe as well. The interior décor reminded me of a traditional Chinese home with a beautiful garden, lamps, and Asian-style furniture. Some modern flair was even added to make it suitable to its most visited guests: Westerners.

Tangent: While on the topic of Westerners, the night I moved into my hostel I met this really mean guy from Germany. He looked cool and was nice to everyone else, but I think he had something against Americans. He basically snickered in my face when I introduced myself and told him where I was from. But I realized I came to China to meet Chinese people. Whatever qualms he had with the United States were overshadowed by the awesome travelers of all ages that I met at the hostel.

For you prospective Light Fellows, definitely take the opportunity to travel around China before or after your immersion programs. Hostels are a safe, cheap housing option for short stays around China. Check online reviews of different hostels in order to determine whether it’s safe for you to live there. Do your research.

On Wednesday I went to Old Beijing (老北京). I stumbled upon this old city brimming with foreign tourists, popular coffee and fast food chains, traditional Chinese architecture, and various souvenir shops. Wandering through this area is apparently a target for Chinese salespeople to swindle tourists. I’m not exactly sure whether I was cheated or not, but I’m now much more aware of my interactions with Chinese salespeople in touristy areas. I met a middle-aged guy who said he worked for IBM as a computer engineer and his younger sister who was an English teacher. Both of them were from Xi’an and had never been to Beijing before. Adam and I shared our experiences studying Chinese with them, the places we’d been in Beijing during previous trips, and a whole host of other topics.

We spent a good amount of time walking and talking with them until they stopped us near a fancy teahouse in Old Beijing. The guy claimed he had read about it before and had always wanted to visit it. Many Chinese go out to fancy teahouses to meet friends and family, so it seemed like a great cultural experience. We were all led to a nice VIP-esque room with space just for the four of us; we conversed a lot more, delving deeper and deeper into one another’s lives. For example, I told them Adam’s ACT score, and they now know he’s a genius. We ended up trying Chinese red wine and ten different teas—from fruit tea to Buddha tea to jasmine tea. It was an awesome cultural experience. However, the reason I sound a bit skeptical about the whole thing is because when we got the bill it was 1860RMB. The guy went downstairs to pay with his credit card while Adam and I, once regaining our consciousness after realizing we’d drank $150 worth of tea, perplexingly grabbed our wallets and counted out 930RMB. (We supposedly split the bill with our tea guests, but we’ll never know.)

Some time before we head back to the U.S., we’ll return to Old Beijing and see whether that man and woman are still trying to swindle people. We won’t beat them up, don’t worry. We just want to know whether we got cheated or not. Apparently many foreigners get swindled this way. If you plan on visiting China, don’t fall for it! There are tons of genuinely kind and awesome Chinese people who will not take advantage of you. Take the taxi driver I described above, for instance.

Yesterday was another intense experience. I would say that it was probably 塞翁失马. Adam and I left the hostel around 4:30pm to get to the foreign students dormitory at the university where we are studying this summer. We crossed the street and waited for a taxi. And then we waited for a taxi. None of them would pick us up—even the vacant ones. After forty minutes, we decided to leave and ended up walking about four long blocks to Tiananmen Square. (In Beijing, blocks are really long.) I think the taxi drivers didn’t want to pick us up because it was rush hour and we had our luggage for the entire summer with us. The drivers assumed we were going to one of the airports in Beijing, which would have made them lose a lot of money.

We walked and walked until we finally reached Tiananmen. When we got there it was impossible to catch a taxi. We were standing on 南池子大街, which is like six or seven lanes wide. We stood there for about another forty minutes, mostly resting, but also trying to figure out how to get to CUEB (Capital University of Economics and Business) by subway. Two Chinese guys must have sensed our bewilderment and came to our assistance. We finally found the subway directions. Now we had to drag our luggage through the Beijing subway system.

There are between 1.3 and 1.6 billion people living in this country. It was an “interesting” trek. We had to let one train pass us up because it was way too crowded. The next train was just as crowded, but we barged our way into the train car with our luggage. Fewer and fewer people left the train at each stop than entered it. There were three Chinese guys standing behind Adam. Apparently someone had their hands on his butt during most of the train ride. I accidentally rolled over a woman’s foot. Another woman pushed her way onto the train and fell on my big luggage case—then she yelled 哎呀! I learned not to bring anything but my self onto a Beijing subway train. I also learned that everyone wants to get home—no matter how dangerous it could be. Being in the midst of Beijing’s street and subway traffic is such a huge adrenaline rush. And it can be frustrating at times, but what type of public transportation isn’t? At least that’s the way I’ll see my future trips on public transportation in Beijing for the next two months.

So we exit at an intersection that turns out to be one of the busiest and most difficult to find taxis. People were running and scurrying all over wide multiple-lane streets. It was quite insane. I saw two public buses crash into each other—no damage. But traffic moved on, and so did both bus drivers. Adam and I stood near an island on the corner of one of the streets and waited for a taxi. We probably could’ve walked to the university, but we didn’t know how to get there from the train station. No taxi stopped, of course.

However, a really nice lady was waiting for someone to pick her up and was nice enough to give us a ride to CUEB, since it was so close to the train stop. She stuffed us in the back seat with two huge dogs and my big luggage case. The dogs, Ricky and Bobby, were really nice. Bobby licked all over my shirt and my face. He licked my hair (my head is practically bald right now). He stepped all over my legs. Ricky huffed and puffed and panted in my face. His breath smelled really, really bad. But this story is塞翁失马 because after all those issues with finding a taxi, we ran into a nice lady who gave us a FREE ride to the foreign students dormitory INSIDE the university. It was probably an inconvenience for her, and we did give her a small gift to show our appreciation because she wouldn’t take money.

Like anyone spending an entire summer in a foreign (and when I say foreign I mean non-Western) country studying the native language at an intensive immersion program like ACC, I felt really nervous on the way to this campus. I also felt really intimidated when I was awakened by my roommate, Kris, who had arrived while I was sleeping with quite proficient pronunciation: “我让你起床了吗？” (“Did I wake you?”) Although that’s a fairly simple phrase to comprehend, it was 6:30 in the morning, and I was impressed with his Chinese language skills. I just stared at him as I realized that this program was filled with other highly motivated students like him. I know this experience will be an awesome one. My classmates all have multifarious academic experiences with Chinese and are at various levels. But we all have one thing in common: we want to reach fluency. I’m excited to study around and to study with some of the brightest Chinese minds in the world. (I say ‘in the world’ because some of the students are international students at American universities like Georgetown, University of Arizona, etc.) There’s no reason for me to feel nervous. And, as the Chinese would say: “别着急.” (Don’t worry.) I have the support of many of my ACC classmates (who are awesome by the way) and ACC teachers (who are also awesome by the way).

塞翁失马 has defined my experience in China so far. Not only have I found it a suitable description of the past four days spent on my own in the massive landmass that is Beijing, but it will also help me handle the ‘ups and downs’ that accompany studying abroad. For prospective Light Fellows, 塞翁失马 has helped me cope with the frustrations that tend to damper my study abroad experience, which on the whole has so far been remarkable. I know that when things go awry, there’s lots of good luck waiting around the corner for me.

Here are some photos from the past week:

A handsome mannequin displays a nice outfit in Jack Jones in Parkson Mall.

No need for a caption here. This photo speaks for itself.

Buddhist monks sightseeing at Tian'anmen Square.

Special thanks to my high school Chinese teacher, Ms. Lu, who corrected my chengyu in this blog.

Anticipation

Hey folks,

I’m currently at a stop in Seattle right now waiting on my nonstop flight to Beijing. Adam Fishman and I have been flying since 9:00am CST from Chicago all the way to Beijing. We have an extensive layover in Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA-TAC for any of you planning trips to Seattle soon). It’s about seven hours to be exact. In the meantime, I’ve been searching the most random topics on Google and YouTube. I won’t be able to access them in China. Adam, on the other hand, is studying for his placement exam right now. As you can see, he's working hard already. For others of you who study Chinese, you know his pain.

Either way, taking such a long trip has been so much more fun and much more survivable with a friend along.

I’m excited to return to Beijing; it’s been two years since I was last in China. I still remember the delectable taste of Peking Duck, the unforgettable journey up the Great Wall, the crazy fun of bargaining for cheap products, and the awesomeness of Chinese karaoke. Beijing is also one of the best cities in China to practice Mandarin, the official dialect of mainland China, so I look forward to speaking to natives as often as possible. Regardless of how nervous I may feel, I think opening up and forcing myself to speak is the best way to attain fluency. The last time I was in China, I spoke a ton of English. Since then, I’ve spent two long years studying more of the language; I hope to be more comfortable when speaking and to eventually reach the point where I’m thinking in Chinese. Yes, that’s an ambitious goal, I know. But after reflecting on my previous summer in China, I want to let my guard down. I want to take full advantage of the fact that I’ll be living in Beijing to enhance my language skills.

What I remember the most about China is the stares. I studied at East China Normal University in Shanghai, and the Chinese are generally quite surprised to see me there, let alone speak Mandarin. I had some great cultural exchanges with the Chinese as an African-American in China. Many of my stereotypes about Chinese families were immediately withdrawn after I made Chinese friends. One of my friends, Matt Zhou, loves basketball and hiphop. When he first met me, all he wanted to do was shoot hoops and talk about Ludacris. Most Chinese people stared me down—all the time. While taking a photo of some friends at the Forbidden City, a really old guy stroked my arm. My teacher at the time told me he’d probably never seen a black person before and was checking to see whether my skin was paint. A couple hours before, I ran into a group of children from rural China who wanted to take pictures with me because their visit to Beijing was the first time outside of their villages. They welcomed me to their country with open arms. It was a great feeling. While issues of race in China are definitely not difficult to avoid, I see these issues not only as a way for the Chinese to satiate their curiosity with me, but also as a way for me to embrace my elevation to celebrity. J These encounters are some of the most memorable, and often the most humorous, cultural exchanges to me.

In anticipation for what is to come in Beijing, I am both nervous and excited about being back. I’m most worried about Chinese class every day; I hope I quickly catch-on to the material and enjoy my instructors. There’s one thing that I know for sure, however: that I will have another awesome China adventure. The food, the transportation, the people, the shopping, and the music are all things I’ve missed so dearly. I am certain that when I step off the plane, I’ll feel at home again.