Part 4: Ending, and Beginning...

     With all of the Chinese people I began to talk to, there were two things I noticed about them. They were very proud to be Chinese, and also very curious about what life was like in America. What do Americans look like, what kind of food do we eat, how big are our normal houses (None of these questions are rude to ask)?

     The sheer curiousity of Chinese people to know what is outside of China impressed me. So often, Americans don't bother, or care about what happens in other parts of the world, so long as they have TV, Beer, a house, and relative comfort. In that way, perhaps Americans are selfish (or maybe self-centered)... of course, this is all generally speaking. Some Americans of course care very much about what happens around the world, too. 

     Remember also, that everybody that I was talking to was a person that was choosing to be curious about the world, by virtue of looking for language partners on the internet. Like any other nation, China still has people who just don't care about anything more than thier own little lives...but that wasn't my first impression during this time. (And my girlfriend pointed that out to me as I was reading a draft of my blog to her. 谢谢，亲爱的)

     And so it was, that with my new, but slowly building friendship with a chinese girl I began to share more of what my daily life was like, and what I was learning in my classes.

She began to share hers.

     Friendship grew stronger... so did my continuing interest in Chinese, and the culture...and it began to affect what I saw myself doing in the future, and what I wanted to learn. So, I began investigating, and found the public college in Utah which taught Chinese as a major. The result: the University of Utah, located in Salt Lake City....

     While there was another college in the state that taught both Mandarin and Cantonese, it was private, costing me at least 15,000 a year, as a result of not being a member of the religion. I'm not made of money (I don't have a lot of money to spend), so the University of Utah was also good for that. In addition, some of my family also lived in the area, in case I ever needed some help.

     I applied for financial aid, and tried to receive some help from the government. What resulted, was that I received a couple grants, a sizable scholarship, and some pocket-change. My tuition, in essence, was paid for in part by government and a private organization... I could never have been more grateful for the financial help I received (I want to give a scholarship in the future, when I am no longer in school...really, it helped me a lot). 

     Meanwhile, I was finishing highschool, and also graduating from college at the same time with an Associates Degree, and still trying to learn chinese during my free time, learning little phrases that helped in talking about events during the day, eating, drinking, sleeping, studying, etc. .

All of that was great... but how was I going to pay for my living at school?

Part 3: and the journey continues...

I found studypond.com...

     I think that is when I seriously began to  truly learn Chinese. Suddenly, having the opportunity to speak with real Chinese people, who didn't speak/write the best English, forced me to learn at least some very very basic Mandarin. 我 (wo) = I, 你 (ni) = you, and 他 (ta) = he/him/she/her. 是 (shi) = to be (copula verb, the closest equivalent of the "to be" verb in English). With that, I added a few extra vocabulary words, such as "xue sheng" (student), "mei guo ren" (American person), etc. Thus, I had some very, very basic vocabulary... luckily, the grammar was similar to English.

     For example: 我 (wo=I) 是 (shi=is/am) 美国人 (mei guo ren=American person). "I am American (person)." The same word order as english. Woohoo!

     With this, I find studypond.com, and it had some free lessons, as well as a "study partner" section, both of which I was interested in.

     The first person I tried to talk to, was a Chinese guy in Chengdu, who was an engineering student. He didn't speak English well at all, and I realized very quickly, that my very very tiny vocabulary and grammar wasn't sufficient to continue talking to him. We both became frustrated, and never talked after our second time. Strike one.

     The second person who I tried to talk to was a business lady in Shanghai, who said she was 31, unmarried, and wanted to practice her spoken English. When I tried to write in English, I she barely understood. Instead, she called me using msn, and we tried to talk. As long as I used very simple English, and spoke moderately slowly, she understood me. For me, with Chinese, I spoke terribly. My tones were terrible, and I didn't know how to properly pronounce the words. So, she helped me with my pronunciation, and corrected my tones. For that, I was grateful. However, I quickly got the feeling that she wasn't just interested in practicing language. She seemed lonely... I think she was looking for more than just a person to practice with, and I, being 17 at the time, was just a polite American kid :). Soon, she became busy with work, and began to miss our chat appointments. So, we fell away from our communication...I would like to think we both had a good, educational experience. She just seemed to be looking for more. Strike two.

     The third person I tried talking to, caught my eye with a picture of the side of her face staring at a computer. The look on the face seemed very determined, and that immediately looked both attractive and encouraging. So, I sent an email to her in both English and Spanish (she said on her profile that she was interested in Spanish, so I tried it.). She responded to me in both English, and all Chinese characters! (I, at this time, probably only knew 15 characters in total...it blew my mind). She said that she was a student, studying international business, and that she was excited to have an American person to practice her English with. With that, we began talking, slowly building an acquaintanceship. At first, we exchanged only very general information, and interests.

     I tried to use as much Chinese as I knew, but it quickly became apparent that she knew much more English than I knew Chinese, so that it happened we began to mainly use English. At first, I would give a definition for every other word that I used in English...slowly, though, I began to reduce the definitions, so that after two months, I would rarely use a definition, unless I thought that it was a completely new word. Still, she began to impress me with her views, ideas, and opinions. One thing that was fascinating, was when she would talk about her opinions of her own country... I began to see a different China, through the eyes of a Chinese girl. It was different than the news or movies in the U.S. would try to show it. The China she began to show me, made sense, was living and breathing, trying to heal itself, even as it battled different perceived sicknesses within itself. For the first time, not only was I interested in Chinese (Mandarin), but also the fascinating country and culture that spoke the language.

     Strike three... wait, there never was a strike three. Instead, I began to work hard to maintain the valuable relationship which I had accidentally come into, realizing before I knew it, that half my mind was beginning to live in China, the China as lived in through the eyes of this girl. 

And so, my journey continued, following an unexpected path. It was a path that began to change both my view of the world, and my plans for the future...