English Corner

On Friday the Shanghai University English Club kicked off the school year with a Mid-Autumn Festival (Chinese holiday this last Monday) themed meeting. About fifteen of us foreigners attended, and we all had a great time conversing with the students.

Some notable points: I have never been asked whether I curl my hair every morning, but I was there. When a student ventured the question I instinctively laughed, but I guess given the context it was not that silly of a question; Chinese people do not naturally have curly hair, so if someone does they have obviously treated it. That hair would just form waves by itself is sort of a strange phenomenon to them—they were even more fascinated with Lucas’s hair, which is in the early stages of an afro.

The students I hung out with the majority of the time were also amazed that the ethnically Chinese students in our program were actually Americans. This has actually been a common theme wherever we have gone; people are astonished that although they are ethnically indistinguishable from everyone here, they speak, act, and dress as American as anyone.

A few of them were quite proud of their hometowns. I met a kid who was born in the city where green tea originated, and I met another who was from the same place that the material china, after which Westerners named the country, was first used to make pottery.

We also got to hear some Chinese myths, as there was a popular one that was relevant to the city of Hangzhou, which we were about to visit. It was about a snake goddess, who someone managed to make herself appear human, that fell in love with a man, but the two were forbidden to be together by the Budda (Or a buddhista? I’m not sure). She was than locked in a tower somewhere in the city, where I guess she still resides today.  We looked around, but couldn’t find her.

I have also never been accused of looking like Edward Cullen. To my shame, I was there.

It was a good time, and looks like it will be a great way get a better feel for Chinese culture. Hopefully as we get to know the students better, we’ll be able to have more substantial talks and gain some deeper sense of the differences and similarities between American and Chinese perspectives. I'm looking forward to it!