First Day of Classes

Hello again-

Today we got the great privilege of sharing the classroom with our Shaoguan classmates for the first time.  The classes included practical and spoken Chinese and Chinese calligraphy.  I had taken Chinese at UWEC, but for many students it was the first time learning Chinese.  The pace of the class today was very quick - they must want us to learn as much as possible before going back to the U.S.  I found the calligraphy very difficult.  It was hard for us to know what even makes beautiful calligraphy and what the Chinese standards are.  I would have to say, mine and many others looked similar to small children's finger paintings. Perhaps maybe our favorite part of the day was a quick kung fu lesson.  We will have 2 more lessons to learn a kung fu routine to perform at our farewell party.  Our farewell party with be a combination of performances from Chinese and American students and maybe some games and other party-type things.

This evening we got the chance to present some information about UWEC to anyone on campus that wanted to attend our presentation.  We talked about campus life, what the school system in America is like, and answered many questions from Chinese students.  After we finished, they all seemed interested in studying at UWEC.  They asked us many questions about how they can get visas and how much it would cost them to come to America.

After spending a few days with them, I hope that they have the chance to come to America.  One of the Chinese buddies, Kelvin, plans to work in Wisconsin Dells this summer.  They have a program that helps to place them in a job in America for a few months.  I believe that they pay for this program.  One thing I have found is that an expensive America is a boundary for students coming to the U.S.  Because things are often much more expensive in the U.S. and students would likely not have a full-time job to offset this different cost of living, it would be very expensive for them to live everyday life with only the buying power of the money they have earned in China.  I hope that there is some way this can be avoided or I fear only the richest students would be able to experience America.

My roommate, Kristine, and I talked tonight about how much we will miss all of the buddies.  Because we spend almost all day with our Chinese buddies, I think we can get much closer to them much faster, even with the culture differences.  I could not have imagined how much just a few people could teach me about a different culture in only 4 days.  It has truly opened my eyes.

I am surprised at how willing they have been to admit both the good and bad parts of their way of life.  I think often we are embarrassed or think it is best not to talk about controversial or political topics in order not to offend, but many of the students have talked very openly about their country and it's good and bad points.  I find that the deepest conversations I have with my buddy are about the policies of our two different nations.  I think they are very open to new and better ideas of how to do things.  I hope that we can be as open and bring back many new and better ideas to the U.S.

- Ashley Krautkramer, marketing major