The Story of You Pt.2: The First Letter from China

The Story of You, Part 2.
Jay K.

Ep.8 The First Letter from China

I had a hard time naming this episode 8, because I have so many different thoughts to write in this episode. I will start with the blocked blog issue. So as you guys know I used w*rdpre*ss blog before and I didn’t know that it was the main blog that was blocked by Chinese government. The Great Firewall of China actually exists. I was really shocked and annoyed at this fact, but I guess I have to accept that this is c*mmunist country. I don’t know when this blog will get blocked.

Big Brother’s watching me! I am sure my room is also wiretapped somehow (pretty positive about it). So no more f word (freed*m), p word (pr*test), d word (dem*cracy) and other words in my blog. I cannot write about them; I am not kidding guys. It is really interesting that I am actually living in a country where the freed*m of speech is bluntly restricted. I hope I can keep using this blog and doesn’t get caught.

[My tourguide in front]

[bicycle cab drivers]

I will now move to the second topic. I took the placement exam on Monday and it was pretty hard. I was placed at the level 5; the lowest level is 3 and the highest is 11. I was a bit embarrassed and humiliated by my score although I pretended I wasn’t. I took two years of Chinese. Although I wasn’t the best student in the class, I never got a single B in my Chinese classes. Some girls who also studied Chinese for 2 years got into higher level.

I don’t think that the test was accurate; however I accept the fact that my Chinese isn’t as good as others who took 2 years of Chinese. The placement exam reminded me of the time when I first came to America. I was enrolled as a sophomore in high school. I took classes but didn’t get credits for them because it was the almost end of the academic year. Three out of six classes were English classes. They were called ELD class (English Language Development) also as known as ESL. It was for students whose native language is not English.

Even in that ELD class, every one’s English ability was different. Some were better than others. I remember that before the class starts students freely hang out and talk to each other, but when the class starts, most of students sit in the middle of the classroom and open their books while other students sit in the corner and turn on their computers. I was one of them who were using the computers to learn English. On the computer screen, it shows a picture of an apple and asks what it is. To be honest with you guys, that was humiliating to me. I really wanted to sit in the middle of the classroom and study with other friends. I finished that ridiculous computer program in three days and I moved to the middle of the classroom.

[tea]

Today, someone asked me of the secret of learning the language fast. I think there are many of them, but one is humiliation. It is humiliating when you can’t speak the language, which everyone else can speak. My goal is to become a level 11 student at the end of this summer or become better than them. Also, my final goal is to take a regular college-level class at Peking University. I will do it, because I don’t want to be embarrassed.

(Two days after I wrote this part, I decided to move to level 9)

I will move to my last topic. Today, we went to sightseeing to the Houhai area also known as Old Beijing. It was the first city tour since I got here. It was really interesting and fascinating to walk around the small alleys in Beijing. We also went to the price Gong’s magnificent garden. I took lots of pictures. Nonetheless, I am not trying to talk about the today’s tour nor the beauty of the city. At the end of the tour, we took boat on the Shisha Lake. In the small boat, a local guy rowed the boat and a lady played Chinese traditional guitar. It was really nice to relax on the boat listening to the beautiful music.

[The guy who was rowing our boat; he is really strong]

I thought that it would be nice if everyone can ride on this boat and listen to this music, but on my second thought, if everyone rides on this boat, who will play the music and row the boat? Someone has to row and play the music for others. Who wants to do that? Why not everyone can enjoy this life? Is it because we have so many people and so many people are different? Then if there are only two or three people on earth, will they be happy? Is there a way to satisfy everyone? I was thinking about these things and before I come up with an answer, the boat returned to the starting point. I hope I can find the answer at the end of this journey.

I need to stop here although I have more things to say, because I have my first class tomorrow at 8am. It will be the starting point to become a level 11 student and to find the answer to my questions. Talk to you guys soon.

In the next episode, I will talk about meeting the “dead” Mao and the Forbidden City.