China

Being Back in School in over 30 years

By Jin

When I graduated from my university in China over 30 years ago, was anybody able to think I would take class at a school of the United States in the future? Nobody. But it happened in fall of 2021 with help of some people. Let me tell you what’s going on.

I admit I was frightened by the number of Covid-19 deaths, which was increasing fast in the United States every day during an outbreak of the pandemic in spring and summer of 2020. I decided to move to Olympia, where my husband and I probably could go to a hospital more conveniently if we needed. When I got the brochure of SPSCC in mailbox of my new house, some idea thrilled through my brain. What was my English level now? Why didn’t I go back to school to study English? Except for English, I had gotten good grades when I was a student. I hardly ever used English after I worked. I had known my English was very poor. However, English had started to play more and more important role in my life recently, so it looked like it was not going to work if I didn’t use English as I used to.

My husband helped me to make an appointment with Nicole to test English. In fact, my husband finished the beginning of these emails for me because I didn’t know how to write a complete sentence with correct expressions. Then, we drove to SPSCC on time. I almost got away from the classroom that day even if Nicole said I was able to become an ESL student of SPSCC. I felt I wasn’t worthy because I almost couldn’t listen clearly to what they said, spell correctly some simple words, even speak the simplest sentence such as “How are you?” Studying English in school was too difficult to me, a person who was over 50 years old, and I wanted to slip away. But after we were back home, my husband notified my family that their old mom has decided to study English again in school. At once, my son sent me a pink gift card from Amazon for buying pen and notes. My daughters called me and repeated my words, which was to get out of your comfort zone and rise to the challenge, what I had usually said to them. My husband cleared his office and bought a new laptop for me in a short time. Even my dad who was over 80 years old, also encouraged me from China to hold the rare studying opportunity.

Facing my family’s support, I seemed not to be able to say aloud that I want to give up. But in my ear, there was a weak voice that still said you might not meet the requirements of SPSCC, so you might not to study in school. When I wanted to get cold feet, two people completely dispelled my idea of giving up. One person was Heather who was my instructor of ESL Level 4. I was surprised when I answered Heather’s call. Heather asked me if I had been sure to take class and if I had any questions to ask. Heather also suggested to me that I take communication class to practice speaking. The first time that the teacher first contacted the students and gave them helpful advice was strange in my life. The other one was Nicole who was a staff of SPSCC. Nicole emailed me to ask if I needed a computer to take class online; and if I needed, she was willing to help me to apply. I was a little surprised. In my memory, the students went to school for studying just was students’ own things, and students should prepare almost all supplies by themselves. The studying in the United States seems some different with my experience. I was really interested in how to work at school.

With my family and some friendly people’s help, I have studied English at SPSCC three quarters. I am finishing all ESL classes and preparing to take pre-college classes. I am even looking forward to being a history major student. Now, although my speaking and listening skills need to improve a lot, I have confidence to make time to practice. With a lot of support, step by step, I believe that I will get close to my goals on the long way of studying English.

Life is the Greatest Teacher

By Jun Liu

What do you think of when you hear Bill Gate’s name? Do you just think of his amazing wealth? What do you think of when you hear Edison’s name? Do you just associate Edison’s name with the invention of the light bulb? Of these examples, exactly how many people think of the arduous work behind these achievements? How many people can see the great persistence behind their countless accomplishments? Life is a giant stage. Facing the gifts of life, we must have a pair of eyes to discover beautiful scenery! Life is the greatest teacher because there are many profound life philosophies hidden in many small things in life. Just as only those who have experienced poverty know how to be diligent and thrifty; only those who have experienced failure can know how to cherish hard-won success; only those who have experienced who have suffered from illness will always remind themselves to cherish life.

The perception of life comes from life itself. I remember during my junior year of middle school in China, I participated in a 100-meter sprint test that was conducted in groups of 3 people. The benchmark was that if we sprinted the entire 100 meters within 25 seconds, we could get full marks. During the test that day, I and 2 other girls stood on the starting line together prepared to sprint. When the whistle blew, I took off running. I was in the lead all the way. When I saw that the finish line was just a few meters in front of me, I did not run any faster, I did not even think about running faster at all; I thought I had already won. But things are unpredictable, just a few steps from the finish line, one of the girls, unexpectedly, passed me. My heart filled with regret, and it stung deeply. At that time, I was reminded of the tale of the tortoise and the hare, I was that arrogant hare. I got 27 seconds on the sprint, and I could not get full marks. I was very upset because I knew I could be faster, but I did not try my best. This event had become a regret for me.

I have been burying this matter deep in my heart. Fortunately, time flies, and in my senior year of high school, I got a chance to make up for this regret. It was the 40th anniversary of our school, and the school held a large sports event. At that time, I signed up for two competitions, the long jump, and the relay race. With the lessons from my junior year of middle school, I became calm and not arrogant. The long jump competition was arranged on the first day of the sports event. Each participant was allowed to jump three times and the best distance of the three would be your score. One of the girls performed very strong at the beginning. She did well in the first two jumps, while I made mistakes in both of my first two jumps. When I jumped, my center of gravity was not stable, and I took a small step back for the first two jumps. Many spectators were whispering that the winner must be the girl that did well on the first two jumps, in spite of this, my mood was not affected. When the final jump finally came, I adjusted my mental state, stood in the pre-run, and then started to slowly accelerate towards the jump line. When I jumped, I stood up perfectly this time with no foot back. I got first place and won the first gold medal for our class.

The regret I had in my junior year of middle school had always motivated me. The second day of the school sports event was the running relay race, which I had been looking forward to for a long time. Each team consisted of 10 girls. I was placed as the 5th runner by the teacher. When the competition started, the first runner in our group was last. Not necessarily because she was slow, but because she was wearing a pair of fancy, 5cm, high heels. When I glanced at my teacher, his face was full of disappointment. Fortunately, the 2nd girl on our team caught up a little, and we were not last, but the 3rd and 4th team members did not get closer to the other competitors. There was still a considerable distance between our team and the team in first. I looked at the other teams’ members who were running past me. I stood anxiously at the designated position and waited for the fourth teammate to run to me. I kept a good posture, leaned down, and stretched out my hand waiting for the baton from my teammate. I caught the baton from my teammate and chased after the opponents who were ahead of me. The wind whistled around me, and I passed one…… a second……. and then a third runner……… One by one, I was getting closer and closer to the fastest competitor. At that moment, I remembered the 100-meter sprint from my junior year of middle school and the regret I had. I ran as fast as I could, and finally, I passed the opponent who ran at the front, and I lengthened the distance between me and her. Not daring to relax, I challenged my limits and ran with all my might toward the next teammate. With a loud shout, I successfully handed the baton in my hand to the sixth runner on my team. At that time, the teacher ran toward me, offering me a bottle of water. I saw the teacher’s happy expression and the enthusiastic applause and cheers of the audience. After I caught up and surpassed the other competitors, our team led the way and won first place. This earned us the second gold medal for our class.

At that moment, my regrets were gone, and instead, I was thinking deeply about life. The past is vivid in my mind, and I will never forget the little things in life that inspired me. In life, no matter if we are ahead or behind others, we should not become arrogant or be discouraged. Do everything with a positive attitude and do your best because when you do your best, you will have no regrets. What we must do is to constantly improve and surpass ourselves every day.

Freedom of Religion: A Cultural Difference

By Lori Liu

“Are you a sinner?”  This is a question I ask myself every day. Most people in China will feel strange if they are asked this question. Most people in China don’t think that they are a sinner. Most people in China will walk away if you ask them.  Atheism is the official religion of the communist party in China. Religion is oppressed in China.

Freedom of religion is a basic right of the people in U.S. It is guaranteed by the Constitution. People of every faith live in United States and many came from countries where they are persecuted. I came for freedom for my daughter. Our life was good in China, but I saw freedom and knew it was the best for her.

I did not know God personally, but I met a lady who did when I lived in Canada. Her husband was a pastor. They brought me to a church where people were very kind, friendly and happy. Most of them sang hymns with arms raised high. I had never been to a church. I felt a big difference about religion at that time.

I was taught that ”At the beginning of human, nature is kind” when I was a child. This was from a very important person, Yinglin Wang, who wrote the book ”Three Character Classic”. This constructed the foundation of theory of thought of Chinese. It impacted people’s thought generation after generation. So, people in China only know that ”You are a sinner” is defined by the law.

People were able to go abroad and came to U.S. after China underwent a huge reform and opened up in 1979. People started to know the Bible and to go to church. Most of them became Christian. I was the same, because we realized that natural human rights were liberty and equality. The Bible gave the truth. However, religion is oppressed in China now because of the need for an autocratic system.

My daughter is lucky. She lives in U.S. She has freedom of religion in U.S. Not only can she go to church, but also goes to a Chinese church. She got baptized at Olympia Chinese Christian Church on Easter. Her answer about the question ”Are you a sinner?” was ”Yes! I am.”

How Chinese Wedding Parties are Different from American

By Jinying Xiao

Chinese wedding parties are different from American. First, in China they wear a red traditional dress meaning good luck, in American instead they wear white meaning purity. Second, there are different way to thank the parents. In China the groom and bride kneel in front of the parents and grandparents to give thanks for raising them, in America brides dance with their father. Third, they also give different gifts. In China the eldest family members gives them gold jewelry to bless them with wealth and happiness, couples in American are gifted with different items for their new life from friends and family. In conclusion, Chinese traditions to wedding compared to American traditions are different to each other.

Moving to the United States

By Sen Yao

When I first arrived in America, I almost got lost in the airport. Because my English was not good. I couldn’t understand all the signs. At first, I just walked around and kept looking at the signs. After twenty minutes, I was a little nervous. I asked a stranger how to take the airport bus, he was very kind and enthusiastic for showing me how can I get there.

Finally, I arrived at the airport bus station. However, the bus that school had booked for me didn’t appear at that time. I saw an older driver was getting in his car, so I asked him how can I get on the bus and told him my situation. He brought me to the bus reception soon. After checking the timetable, the front desk staff found that the bus I was supposed to take was the next day. It turned out that when I filled out the school’s student arrival date form, I ignored the time difference of about 16 hours between China and the United States, so that’s why I couldn’t get in the car on time. Later, the front desk staff was very helpful to help me change to the earliest bus that I could take that day.

At the end, the old driver said to me “I wish you successful studies in the USA.” I was very grateful to these people who helped me that day. They made me feel the kindness and warmth between people of different countries. It’s an unforgettable experience for me.

Cultural Differences Between the US and China

By Esther Yan

There are several cultural distinctions between China and America. These cultural contrasts have shaped the two countries’ traits and styles. They will also have an impact on the people of both nations’ thinking and conduct. One of the cultural distinctions may be seen in people’s everyday conversation. Their differences may be summarized in three points.

First, individuals in China are not skilled at utilizing body language to show friendliness and connection. In America, though, individuals constantly utilize body language. When I first arrived in the United States, I saw that everyone utilized emotions and limbs to assist them to communicate themselves when they spoke. But before I arrived here, when I was in China, we could only guess what they were saying by the form of their lips and the tone of their voice. And, in China, we have relatively little possibilities for physical contact with others, and we also don’t have such behaviors very often, except with extremely close individuals or under unique conditions.

Second, it is critical for Americans to look each other in the eyes when communicating. However, in China, individuals occasionally avoid gazing into the eyes of others in front of superiors, leaders, or professors in order to display humility and respect. For example, when Chinese youngsters do something wrong, they will avoid looking straight into the eyes of adults to inform them that they have done something wrong in order to demonstrate humility. However, because Americans value honesty more, they will look each other in the eyes more directly in this instance.

Third, in social interactions, Chinese and Americans approach individuals differently. If they know the name of the individual, Americans will call that person by name immediately. Add Mr. and Mrs. if they truly want to be taken seriously. However, in order to express respect and familiarity, Chinese people approach new acquaintances in a variety of ways. If they appear to be the same age as themselves but older, they will refer to them as their elder brother or sister. If they are the same age but younger, they will refer to them as their younger brother or sister. They will address them as uncle or aunt if they appear to be the same age as their parents.

China has a lengthy history, which has resulted in a more traditional society that values heredity and group ideals passed down from generation to generation. And since the United States values individuality and independence, freedom and democracy are vital to its culture. The above three aspects illustrate these variances in daily communication.

Chinese Hotpot

By XiaoJiao Zhang

Hotpot for Chinese is not only a meal, but it is also a good way to socialize. Chinese love to keep most food at high temperature, so that is one reason why hotpot is getting so popular. Chinese also love to share food. Nowadays, a new version of having hotpot includes different eaters. For example, vegans with meat eaters or non-spicy eaters with super spicy eaters can all share the same pot in a hotpot restaurant. Hotpot has a unique pot that is divided into two parts or three parts or nine pots, which is flexible for specific eaters to choose which pot is for vegans only or non-spicy eaters only. Some restaurants even have more than 30 kinds of sauces for customers to choose from, so more and more people choose hotpot. In recent years, people celebrate their birthdays in hotpot restaurants. Some companies choose hotpot to thank employees for some extra work. Some parents set up dates for their children to meet in a hotpot restaurant. It is so much fun eating hotpot. I highly recommend having a cold coke on the table while having hotpot; after a few bites, drink some coke! This is a perfect combination of meal and social life.