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| Tiger Hill in Suzhou |
This
overall winter study abroad experience has really helped open up my personality.
I really felt like my adventures living
in China have just begun even though the short-term program has come to an end.
We had to say our good-byes to the newest best of friends that we have bonded
with from China. The experience of being abroad has helped me gain so much cultural
knowledge and independence; it was an important life skill to pick up during my
short-term stay at SHU (Shanghai University). Not only did I get to spend a
great deal of time socializing with the students from the program, but I was also
able to find out more about myself and how each student’s individual traits and
personalities were different from mine. What I will truly miss most about
Shanghai are the yummy, inexpensive bakery foods that they have and eating the
tasty kumquats (a type of golden orange)
that they sell. I will miss the thrill of living with cultural differences in China and
the sense of being a part of the community - especially having the experience
of trying out new exciting activities when living on campus. I had fun meeting
study abroad students from different countries and other CUNY students who had
personalities completely different from mine.
We managed to connect with each other in so many ways. This amazing
dorm-life experience and the freedom to travel in groups gave me the
opportunity to explore the highlights of the cities with my peers.
During
my time in Shanghai, I experienced culture shock to some extent. I greatly underestimated what it would be
like in China because I felt that it was going to be similar to Chinatown in
Manhattan, NY. The biggest difference
was the dialect. Instead of speaking a mix of Mandarin and Cantonese like they
do here, the average person in China only spoke the official Chinese language,
Mandarin, with little to no knowledge of English or Cantonese. The bathrooms
were completely different; the majority of the public restrooms do not provide
western toilets. Many of them would have something called a squatting, and
people in China believe that the system is cleaner than western toilets and
more efficient because it does not involve any contact with toilet seats and
reduces contamination of germs and bacteria. Also, what is strange about the
eastern toilet system is that the public restroom and dormitories in China do
not provide toilet paper, so bringing toilet paper with you is a must.
Another
factor that caused quite a bit of a culture shock for me was ordering food at some restaurants in China. I faced challenges with restaurants that did
not include pictures on the food menus and instead had everything written in
characters with not a single word of English. Using the prior knowledge that I
had, I recalled from memory from what I used to order from New York and hoped
that they offer it there. Not only that, but also since I was able to speak
with them in Mandarin, I managed to ask the waiter or waitresses what exactly
that I would like to order or what was listed on the menu regardless of the
characters. Outside of class, we went on field trips to visit the silk factory,
Volkswagen car factory, and the Coca-Cola factory. In the silk factory, we saw
where the silk was derived and how those were used to make quilts. In the
Coca-Cola factory, we observed how Coca-Cola glass bottles were being recycled
as well as how plastic bottles and other resources were conserved in order to
protect the environment.
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| Coca Cola Factory |
What
surprised me the most during my stay was the limited heating system used in the
classrooms and especially in the dormitories. The greatest challenge for me was
making it through the freezing night with a limited amount of heat available in
my dorm. The school imposed rules and
regulations that do not allow the use of heaters or other electrical applications
because the could potentially cause a fire. Thus, the only way to endure the
cold throughout the night was just simply wrap yourself in more layers of
blanket.
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| Silk Factory in Suzhou |
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| The group at Tiger Hill |
When
it came to academics, the mandarin intermediate course was very intensive,
especially for me. This was because my teacher felt that I should be provided
more work than other students in the class since I grew up with the advantage
of speaking fluently in mandarin regardless of my reading and writing
background. As a result, my teacher was much tougher on me individually as a
student and expected higher standards. Unlike the other students, my teacher
introduced me to more out of class assignments. She challenged me to expand my
essay length, read a daily newspaper, and tested my comprehension on the main
idea of the passages that I read although I could barely read most of the new
characters encountered. In the end, however,
this heavy-duty work greatly boosted my Chinese vocabulary knowledge and
reinforced the grammar structure of the way I currently speak. It was a
desperate struggle at first, but I managed to pull through and learned many new
commonly used characters. Having a language exchange partner to practice
Chinese with also greatly enhanced my learning experience. As a result, the
preparations in the classroom, the exposure to the cultural environment, and the
practice with my language exchange partner all allowed me to excel in Chinese
within a relatively short period of time and definitely helped me ace the final
exam in Chinese despite the tremendous amount of work assigned to me. In the
end, I learned a lot from the exhaustive course. I was able to read and write
proficiently, enriched my fluency in my heritage language and still had a great
time.
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| Entrance to the Coca Cola Factory |
In
the end, the program really did help me with my personal and professional
goals. Not only did study abroad make me more mature and independent; it also allowed
me to think outside the box while utilizing the knowledge that I already had in
order to adapt in a new foreign setting. It made me pick up new knowledge and language
communication skills much more quickly, and I know this will help me in my
profession. I strengthened my ability to
adapt and be proactive, and I developed courage to take control of my new
responsibilities handle them in a timely manner. These skills are especially
relevant to the job setting. Now I know
that I can rely on myself and adapt to change regardless of the situations
encountered. By having this international study abroad experience in China, I
can demonstrate myself as a globalized citizen when applying for the
opportunity to teach in a foreign country in the near future.
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| Tiger Hill |
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| Classical Gardens at Suzhou |
I
also learned an important moral lesson during my experience in study
abroad; I have learned that you will need to learn how to stand up for yourself
if you feel that something is not right. If you are traveling alone, learn to
trust your instincts. If you feel that you are truly not comfortable with
something, have the confidence to speak up for yourself because no one else
will. Even if you are not the type of person who does this normally, you must
take the initiative to rise up out of your comfort zone and not be taken
advantage of by other individuals. Be sure to evaluate what is best for you, no
matter what other people’s opinions are. Do not accept their words and judge or
put yourself down easily by what other people think of you, because only you
know yourself best. This is the true
value of study abroad - utilizing your own thoughts and learning to think and
act independently. So my advice is to
learn to trust your own instincts, build your confidence level, and do not give
up so easily when finding your way. You will travel in groups, branch out of
your comfort zone, but you are not obligated to become involved in any
activities that you are truly do not feel comfortable with in order to fit in
with the group. These are the challenges and decisions that I faced on my
adventure of studying abroad.
Hope
y’all enjoyed my blog!
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