American girl deepens understanding to China on road
2015-10-10
A 24-year-old girl from the US who has just finished her year as a foreign teacher at Jilin University, in the city of Changchun, Jilin province, is always enthusiastic and curious about things in life, so she decided to travel to several cities in China, before going back home, and she decided to share her feelings with us because she likes the city of Changchun so much.
Danielle left Changchun to begin her journet in July with her Spanish boyfriend, and in a month they visited Hong Kong, Guilin, Beijing, Xi'an, and Harbin before returning to Changchun, and she has a lot to say about China.
"Hong Kong is a modern city, like a Chinese version of New York and with a mix of England, I guess. It is like major cities in the US and we do like it," she explained, then went on, "Guilin is beautiful and we enjoy the scenery along the Lijiang River and it's very, very impressive. And Xi'an is fun, it is very old, an absolutely awesome place that we love to go back to someday."
So, everything was perfect during the vacation -- except for the train to Xi'an. American trains don't carry anything near the passenger load that Chinese trains do and they scared her and she said she'll never take another train in China.
As for the people in different areas, Danielle said, "I think the people in the South are a little bit nicer, but at the same time not." She said that In HK, she and her boyfriend were treated like everyone else because there are lots of foreigners there, "But in Guilin it is very different. They seemed interested of us because we are foreigners," so Xi'an is the friendliest city in her mind. People in Beijing are also very polite, but, "It seems that people in Beijing are always hurrying to do their own business."
Danielle and her boyfriend take pictures on the Lijiang River, in Guilin. [Photo provided to ejilin.gov.cn]
Danielle holds an English corner for students. [Photo provided to ejilin.gov.cn]
When asked if she was making progress in her Chinese, she sighed and said, "To be honest, not much," then went on to explained that during her year in Changchun, every young person could speak with her by English, so she didn't have many chances to improve her Chinese. She said that it was a striking experience to go from city to city and hear different dialects, and explained, "I'm used to the Dongbei (NE China) dialect, but the words are very difficult for foreigners. It is strange when I go through areas with different dialects."
She concluded by saying, "I'd like to continue my study and become more influent in Chinese...if I can," then added, that her greatest achievement in China is not her travel. Her greatest achievement this one year in China is being a foreign teacher at Jilin University, and, "I prepare for class really hard, and when I make everybody laugh, and make everybody smile in my class, I think I have achieved success as a teacher. Because students are having fun and learning at the same time, and we are close, and that makes me feel like I have achieved a lot."
