Gowing Up

Today is my fifteenth days of my summer vacation in my grandparents’ farm house in Nei Jiang located in the south west part of China. This is my first left from my hometown of Chengdu city. The day before yesterday, a local postman delivered a remittance advice notice sent by my mother from Chengdu. This was not cash, but just a money remittance advice notice. I did not know how to change this to cash which I need to buy a train ticket back to Chengdu next week. The postman told me that I needed bring this remittance advice notice to the local post office in the town center within seven days to withdraw money.

 

But where is the town center? Where is the post office? I’ve never been to the town before, and this made me feel worried. I asked my grandma for help. I was very pleased with grandma who said my cousin would be back from her college tomorrow, and she could take me to the post office to get the money. But I did not see my cousin back the next day. So, we waited another day, still not seeing my cousin back. Early this morning, my grandma said me, ” Today is the last day for you to withdraw the money. It seems to me I have to let you go to the town to get the money now.” My grandma’s words made me feel gloomy because I was afraid of to do this by myself. Then I heard my grandpa said to me, “My darling, you do not need to be afraid. I’ll draw you a map, this is about 10-mile round trip. You are young, and can walk faster than me. So quickly go and quickly return.”  “But grandpa, can you make a phone call to ask my cousin when she will come back?” I said. Grandpa smiled and said to me: “We do not have any telephone, in order to find your cousin, you can only go to the town center post office to send a telegram.”  “What?” — My eyes widened looking at grandpa and grandma. I said to them, “I have never been to the town center! I do not know where it is!  What if I am lost? Or in case I would be bitten by a dog? ”   My grandma comforted me and said, “If it is a dog, do not be afraid, do not run! Because if you run, the dog will know you afraid of him, then he will chase you too! Grandpa and I are all getting old, we could not walk to the town center with you. However, I’ve told you that if you get lost, remember ‘under your nose it is your path!’”  “Ah, I remember it.” I replied to grandma. I looked outside the sky was clear, the sun had not shined on the roof yet. I said to myself, “There is no other choice. Go, have a try!” Then I said to grandma and grandpa, “Well, Ok, I’ll try!”  Then, I took my grandpa’s handwritten road map and money remittance advice notice with me, and started out on my journey to the town center.

Looked at grandpa’ map, I knew the town center probably is in the south direction. I began to walk on a small field path in this farm land. I passed through some corn fields, and sugar cane fields. The sun was shining in my head, and made me I feel thirsty. Then I had a good idea to help myself. I looked around, and there was no one around. I hid into a sugar cane field, and enjoyed eating a cane as a short rest afterwards.  Then I continued to move forward. After a while, I suddenly found that the small path along the sugar cane field discontinued.  I did not know which direction I should take now, and even grandpa’s map did not mark this sugar cane field. I tiptoed and looked around, there was not a single person I could ask for help. I was lost. What should I do? I asked myself, “Can I go back?” “No,” I said. “Can I go ahead?”  “Yes! But how?” I was anxious and felt my palms were sweating. I turned around looked at the sky and tried to ask sky to help me. I unexpectedly saw a puff of smoke in the sky, it seemed that the smoke was from a house people were cooking. So I walked toward the direction of the smoke, after a while I heard the dogs barking, and I know there were people living there whom I could ask for help. But I was afraid of dogs, so I stopped and did not dare to walk near this house. Just as I was caught in this dilemma, I saw a boy carrying bundle of sugar canes walking to the house.  I hurried and shouted to him: ” Hey! Hey! Where is the way to go to the town center?” The boy heard me, and he called back, ” Go to east across the sugar cane fields, then go down to the south through a large Shrine, along a fish farm!”

I thanked the boy and followed his direction to the east across a sugar cane field, go down south through a large Shrine, and along the fish farm. Suddenly, I saw some people going in the same direction. I sped up my pace, and in a short while, I caught up with these people. Some of them had their shoulder poles carrying fresh fruits and vegetables to sell, some rode their bicycles with children, and some of other rode on their donkeys to the town.

I followed the crowd to the town center. The town center was very busy, people coming and going, a lot of good-looking, delicious foods and merchandise. However, I couldn’t play here, because my task was to find the post office to collect the money as soon as possible.  I walked slowly in the crowd of town, and kept looking for the sign of post office. Suddenly I saw the “China Post” a big dark green sign hanging on the top of a building.  I was so happy! I went to the post office, and saw a lot of people waiting in line in the post office. I hurriedly followed up with the last person, and waited for an hour.  Finally, I got my money from the post office!  I put the money carefully into my pocket then walked out the post office feeling great.  I looked up at the sky, the sun already started downhill, but I saw more and more people coming to the town.  I asked a young mother with her baby beside me what was going on tonight, she said the town would have an open-field movie! That was why many people and even people from neighboring town also came with their family, and friends for this the open – field movie.

Now, I felt that my stomach rumbling with hunger. I hastened to a small vendor in the street to buy a pancake, then stood on the side of the street to eat my pancake and watched groups of people walking to the outdoor movie field. I thought it would nice I could go to the movie as well, but I could not, and I had to rush back before it became dark.  I knew that my grandma and grandpa were waiting for me. So, I started on the way home. I followed that fish farm, passing the big Shrine and walked with my big steps.  I took a look back from time to time, the town center was becoming far away. In a distance, I seemed to hear the sounds coming from loudspeakers telling people to find their seats to sit down. I guessed that the movie was about to begin after dark. I told myself, “Hurry up, do not look back!”   Then, I hurriedly walked toward my grandparents’ house.

I crossed the sugar cane fields, corn fields, and walked quickly on the small field road. It seemed to me that the road back home was much easier than the road to the town center. I did not know how before I finally saw the roof of my grandparents’ house ahead. Suddenly, I felt that I started to understand the real meaning of growing up.

Hello from Yunlin！

Hello!
This is Yunlin Zhou, B.S. in Health Studies, Monmouth University (MU). Currently, I am studying for my master degrees in Asia Study in Teaching Chinese Language and Culture at Seton Hall University and Corporate & Public Communications (CPC) at Monmouth University. I am a Chinese-American, English is my second language. I have taught Mandarin Chinese for 8 years at Monmouth Chinese School at Marlboro, NJ. Currently, I am teaching Mandarin Chinese at Ranney School for K-12. I am a mother of two and live with my wonderful husband. I love cooking and always eat home-made food. I do not like to eat outside unless I have to. My goal is to use my blog to link more people from different countries and share with each other stories about our languages, cultures, heritages, struggles, and successes.

 

 

 

 

 

I would never forget my first cultural shock in the U.S.

When I came to the U.S., the first American I spoke with was a black male, a U.S. customs officer. When it was my turn to go up to the window to meet the officer, I was very nervous. I handled in my passport with a small white card through a high window, the officer picked up my documents and looked them over very carefully with no words and no facial expression.  Then suddenly, he said to me: “Did you bring any food?” I had no clue what he was talking about. I did not understand what he said. I stepped on my toes and tried to find some help. He repeated to me the same question: “Did you bring any food?”  But I still could not catch the words from his fast speech. When he saw me was scared, he used his right hand pointing at his mouth and yelled at me “the food, the food!” I suddenly understood what he was asking. I shook my head quickly, said to him “No, no…” The officer smiled, returned my passport, and then let me enter the gate.

I would never forget this earliest lesson in the U.S. that I learned was the language. I am really thankful to that customs officer who gave me the reason to learn English first, then teach Chinese second. I also need to say that the officer’s smile or I should say his gesture to the mouth save me from that embarrassing situation. What is the secret behind this story?  I really did not know, and I did not need to know at that time.  But, when I became a Chinese teacher, all those past experiences came back to my mind and helped me to form my thoughts on how to become a good teacher.

When I look back on this scene at the customs gate, I can sense the influence of sharing culture and language in communication between different nationalities of people.   From this story, as this simple word “吃”= “to eat” related to “food”. From the Chinese “吃” you should see that there is a picture(radical) of the “口”= “mouth”. That is why I got the idea from the officer’s gesture pointing to his mouth and related it to “food”. It seems to me, there is a power of communication, but sometimes we do not feel it, or we miss it and even misuse it.

My story about how I became a Chinese teacher at Monmouth Chinese School (MCS)

My story about how I became a Chinese teacher at Monmouth Chinese School (MCS)

From the fall of 2016, I will start my 7th year of teaching Chinese language at Monmouth Chinese School.  Almost half of my students are not from Chinese background families, and the other half of students are American born Chinese who prefer speaking English to Chinese. I figure this is not a really easy job to teach those students to learn Chinese on the first day of my class.  From my students’ home works, exams and class participation, I can see that the barriers for them to learn Chinese are not just they do not speak Chinese at home, or they do not study hard enough, but their cultural barriers.

It is not his/her fault. They are all born in the U.S., they grow up with western culture here. The MCS administration, my colleagues and parents are all worked very hard trying to keep students interested in learning Chinese, and to help them to reach a high level of Chinese proficiency. But, some students will start to drop out the Chinese school at their 4^th-5^th year of Chinese studies.  I feel that as a bilingual teacher, language and culture are truly interrelated and significantly affect the learning and teaching Chinese as the second language.

I grew up in China. My first language teacher was my nanny who came from a very poor region with a certain language expressions that fit her identity. When it was time for dinner, she always told me “吃饭了，吃饭了” (come to eat, come to eat).  It showed that having food to eat was so important. It seemed to me that my nanny was sending me a message: “If you did not hurry up to eat, the food would be gone.”  But when my mom said to me: “吃饭吧，吃饭吧”（let’s eat，let’s eat）which showed my mom’s politeness and her position in the family.

I think language and culture are deeply linked together just like twin babies both born by their mother who is their particular society.   When I realized this last year, I started to tell my students: do not feel this is a Chinese class, just feel that this is a drawing class!  Each Chinese character is a picture of its culture.  This special relationship between language and culture is significant because the language we speak reflects the culture we have with our personal identity, such as our ethnicity, gender, age and social status.  I felt that once my students started to realize this relationship, they started to ask many amazing questions, such as in Chinese writing, why do people use small circle “ 。” as the period?  I told them circle “。” symbolizes the completion of doing things. Then, they all have a clearly picture of circle “。” in mind, and never forget to put it at the end of each sentence.

I would love to share more stories about how to teach Chinese as a second language with you next blog. Please browse the most resent MCS Newsletter that edited by me.   Please send me you feedback because I really need your support to help my school to get more students and train more bilingual and talented persons for a better communication in the world.  Thank you!