WorldTeach China Summer: Quotes

Coming to Terms

- Erica Brown

July 23, 2006 (about the half-way point of the summer program)

Today was, by far, my best day in China. I had a great day teaching, so that's part of the reason why. When I watch my students get excited when I come into the classroom, and when I see their eyes light up when I teach them something they find interesting, and when I act goofy and they laught with surprise and delight, it's such an uplifting feeling; it gives me a sort of giddy high. Teaching is such a rewarding thing, because you feel like you can truly make a difference in someone's life.

I also feel good today because I have become comfortable and even content with many of the elements of Chinese culture - even the parts that have confused and sometimes irritated me in the past. My favorite part of the culture is the sincerity and non-pretentiousness of the people. Generally, people do what they want and say what they feel and act however they feel moved to act, without worrying about what others may think. One of my favorite examples is the love shown between same-sex friendships here. If two girls are close friends, they will walk around holding hands, and if two guys are friends, they will drape their arms around each other, sit on one another's laps, or hold hands. No matter what the age difference, if they are close, they show their care for the other person by touching them affectionately. It's so different from America, where showing that kind of affection is instantly labeled as queer or strange. It's refreshing to see friends unabashedly portray their care for each other.

Another example that I hate to admit that I've accepted is the spitting. Since I've come here, the spitting has continually disgusted me, because when I say "spit," that doesn't just mean that occasionally someone might get a bug in his or her mouth and delicately spit it out; it means that all day, everywhere you go, people are constantly conjuring lugeys from the depths of their lungs, coughing and gurgling to hawk up an extremely productive lugey, and then spewing it loudly and forcefully from their throats. I've said several times that the spitting is one thing I'll never get used to, but it's recently come under my veil of acceptance and understanding for the Chinese culture…the people get junk in their throats and lungs, so they spit it out…all of it, and then some. Simple as that. :-)

One last example is the genuine innocent curiosity of the people, and their frank way of satiating their intrigued minds. In other words, I've come to terms with the staring. I ran a few miles around the track on campus today; as I ran, a woman's two young children watched as she hung out the laundry, and every time I ran past the kids would should "Hallo!" "Hi!" "Bye-bye!", etc., and when I'd shout a greeting back at them, the mother's laugh matched the delighted squeals of the children. When I finished running I sat down next to the track and stretched for about 10 minutes. As soon as I laid out my towel and sat down, a 30-ish looking woman skipped over, gave me a huge smile and thumbs-up sign, and hopped onto the ground right next to me. I laughed and said hello, and she giggled and said something in Chinese. I gestured that I didn't know Chinese. We exchanged the simplest things we could must in the other's language – I asked her name and told her mine, and gave me a hearty "hallo." When she realized that we couldn't say much more than that to one another, it was no problem and there was no awkwardness. She was perfectly content watching me stretch for the next eight minutes, and flashed me a big smile whenever I looked at her.

China is free of so many of the la-di-dah charades that Americans often put on, and it's extremely refreshing and liberating.