How far will I go to improve my Chinese?
How about hopping around in a potato sack in from of a hundred of my Chinese classmates :)
At the Harbin Institute of Technology (HIT) the process of
joining a student organization is not for the faint of heart. Based on my
experience in the US, joining a student organization involves adding your name
to an email list and attending a mass meeting during the first week of classes.
Not at HIT. If you can figure out which club does which activity at the massive
exhibition of passionate club leaders explaining their goals and missions in
rapid fire Chinese, you schedule yourself for a series of interviews where the
clubs will decide which students have the appropriate qualifications to help
their club succeed. Like everything in China, there are always many more
applicants then spots. It felt like I definitely should have brought my resume.
I decided to go with Latin dance and the HIT Green Union. Dancer
and Hippies, how intense could it be? Wrong. Let’s start with the Dance team. At
my home University, The University of Michigan, our dance team starts every
semester with a massive BBQ and a series of free lessons where we try to make
dancing seem as fun as humanly possible. We try not to scare anyone away by
overwhelming then with the technical material that is essential to succeeding
as a competitive dancer. The HIT Latin Dance Association took a very different
approach. Our first meeting was a three-hour lesson during which we analyzed
and drilled fundamental rumba technique. No music, no dancing with partners,
just intense focus on foot position hip rotation and spine alignment. The
teacher lectured us on the importance of dedicated practice and attention to
detail. Then he lined us up and we critiqued each other’s technique. The
attitude towards criticism in China is completely different from the US. For
example, telling the person across from you in class that his rumba walks look
completely weird and wrong is considered helpful rather than rude. This was
definitely not the Latin dance party I was expecting, but also explains why
Chinese dancers have ridiculously amazing technique.
The Green Union, an even more formal organization than the
Latin Dance Team, not only has seven different sections, but a grueling and
competitive set of interviews for those interesting in joining. This is very
different from my experience at the University of Michigan Student
Sustainability Initiative, where we were constantly revamping our recruitments
strategies and bribing new students with free food and promises of instant best
friends. I chose to interview for the elementary school teaching section of the
Green Union, since this would allow me to integrate with the local Harbin
community. The first interview consisted of a panel of six board members drilling
me about my experience with student environmental organizations and my ideas
for successful teaching methods and classroom activities. This sounds
completely manageable until you remember that a month ago I could barely
introduce myself in. My Chinese is very basic, so the interview was a delicate
game of trying to guess what they were asking and pairing it with any relevant
vocabulary I could remember from class. There were definitely several questions
that went completely over my head, but unlike Americans who like to avoid
letting the awkward foreigner stumble over the same question for five minutes,
these students just kept going with the same question until I answered
something that somewhat satisfied their requirements.
Next, they gave me ten minutes to prepare a ten-minute mock
lesson including a presentation, discussion questions and a game. No pressure, just a bunch of Chinese kids waiting for you to mess up. I
then had to teach this lesson to the whole executive board which consisted of
about twenty pair of eyes insensibly following my every move. As if this wasn’t
giving me grey hairs already, they thoroughly evaluated and discussed my
strengths and weaknesses directly following the lesson. They also asked me to
do a self-evaluation, so here it it. Pros: I’m still alive. Cons: This would be
a lot easier if I actually understood what was going on. Again, like the Latin
Dance Team, what struck me most about the Green Union was their direct approach
to criticism and unwavering dedication to quality and thoroughness.
So why join a club in the first place, when our foreign student program already
offers us a full schedule of way too much homework, wonderful cultural
activities and extra curricular classes? I would say the biggest reason to join
is to take everything our teachers have taught us and put it to the test.
Our Chinese roommates and teachers are wonderful, but they are also experts in
understanding butchered Chinese, saying things in multiple different ways until
you understand it and being patient. People will speak quickly,
with incomprehensible Southern accents (if you were a foreigner in the US,
would you understand a Texan??), and ask you rapid fire questions that will
make you want to run as far away as possible and/or cry. Also, there’s nothing
like teaching kids for improving your language skills. I can’t wait to see what
they think of my American accent.
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| Focused Green Union peeps trying to win an important race |
What is my advice to foreign students around the world who might
want to try joining a student organization at their local university? If you’re
like me, and have very little experience in the local language then there will
be many many many difficult moments where you have absolutely no idea what is
going on. But this is a wonderful thing for your language level. Simply being
immersed in the language and the culture is going to increase your cultural and
language comprehension much faster than even the most efficient afternoon of
studying in your room. If you do decide to supplement your study abroad experience with
student organizations, do it with an unwavering sense of humor. This is the
most important tool you can use. See the video above of me jumping around in a potato
sack at the Green Union Sports Competition as an example. Do I look ridiculous?
Yes. Am I the only person in the whole club who isn’t magically amazing at jump
roping tricks? Also yes. At the
end of the day, no matter how seriously everyone takes it, it’s just a club.
