仙山云海

3 years in us---------------DAI ZHEN'S INTERVIEW

COM major. Taught English in China. “I can't remember, let's see....probably like 14 or 15” learned engl while in elem school before I come to united states I could not have a really good conversation with american student. For me it was not really good learning”. All chinese students have to take an english test. Didn't have many opport to talk to eng speaker.

 

What made u decide

when I grad from coll I don't want to go to work...want to learn more, want to learn more about other culture. That was big idea. Thought about studying major in german, finally chose to study in united staes. “I couldn't speak german at all, but could speak american a little.” knew more about united states. “The language was really important.”

 

why choose mc?

Search some college in us from the internet. Tuition fee was good, gpa requirements were not too high. “but if feel like everything is just good for me. I heard about miss when I was a little boy. I heard about civil war, miss river. I knew that to touch miss was the center of american culture. I had hear that it was agric state. My major was communic., so culture was important to me. I didn't want to study in CA, because it was multicultural.

 

Was miss like u expected?

Yes. “Green stuff. I like tree, grass, flower. I like natural things. Miss is really beautiful. For miss coll I saw nice people...made a lot of friend here. People helped me  a lot. Couldn't speak good english, but they really helped me.

 

Process:

       The whole process took around two months – june & july of 2006

1.       sent info to only MC

2.       MC sent offer from grad school - august

3.       had to go to american embassy in china. “they asked me a few questions like why do you go to united states. After go through this process, they said “you pass”. I said ok.

4.       They gave me visa & passport

 

 

“Before I come to the united states I didn't travel to any other country.”

“You know the plane is not really s table they zig and zag, so when the plane do that if eel nervous. Couldn't sleep. I watch movie and listen to music but still nervous. 24 hour trip. Need to transfer to several city. Needed to transfer to tokyo and dallas.

 

“I want to go to united states. My parents and I make this decesion together. Told my father I didn't want to work, but wanted to continue to study.  My father said, “I support you all the time”. “I always support you, whatever you want to do.” “The money question, I travel a lot of

 

“I went to almost everywhere in the u.s.

 

First views of the U.S.

Girl named Chiny met me. She come over to me and ask a question like, are you an inte student trying to go to miss college. I said “yeah” so she took me there.

How did u start to meet people

Arrived at 12:00 am. “I was pretty nervous actually.” “First friend was a chinese guy named oscar, chinese “Sunyu”.

Went to international center next day. Told me I was in New Men's.

 

Did american food surprise you?

“thought it was going to be like kfc and mcdonald's. There's a lot of them in China. I thought American people just eat fast food.”

“It's not true, I just don't like american food at all.”

What's different?

I like spicy, salty. But american food is sweet and a lot of fat, like french fries and pizza. I just don't like that kind of thing.

What did u like?

Steak, cooked differently in China

BBQ, cooked differently – we use different sauce

“I like sweet tea more and more. Chinese people don't put the sugar in the tea. They put tea leaf in water. Use hot water.

 

“Ice cream is not a chinese traditional food. I think  lot of young people believe that the best ice creama comes from American countries.”

 

 

Social Identity

American culture is lot differently

stereotypes

“That's complicated. For me, pauses and rubs hair. “That's hard” “you know, for me america was pretty developed, modern, powerful. Like superpower country of the world.

I heard about that from my friends. They said american people just do their own business. American people are more independent, they try to achieve a goal. They describe everything directly. In my culture when we try to say something, we try to do it indirectly. When we try to do something, we focus on cooperation.”

“I like american movie, noticed there was always one guy who could defeat everyone by himself. Many Chinese movies would never do this.....they call friends help. “We do not have big roles in movies like Arnold Swarttzenator.” “we have superhero, but he still need other people's help.

“When I got here, I found out that american students really like to talk. They laugh very loudly. They talk really loud in classroom and ask professor really weird questions out loud.

 

Chinese classrooms are silent. “No one speak, no one.” It is hard to even whisper. Prof will say “no discussion.” when the professor say “any questions”, that's when we can speak.

 

When I study in china, the prof would walk in in the morning and say “good morning class” we would just stand up and say “good morning teacher and bow. He would say sit down. When the class is over, he would thank the teacher to show our appreciation. “Ever monday we would listen to a broadcast that would say stuff like Dai Zhen missed a class, so the school decided minus 10 points. They would say it in front of everyone, students and faculty. Sometimes the teacher wouldn't even know and would suddenly say “dai zhen, leave the class. Sometimes they didn't even say where to go. You know the reason, you didn't even have to ask why.” I think because the point is really important to her. The reason that every class have points is related to teacher. School will say, “we really need to re-evaluate your teaching ability.” Why are your points so low. Teacher would talk to parents and say “your son is a troublemaker. He just late for class.\

 

“If we're late, we have to....the classroom always closed. Have to knock and say “report”. “It's kind of like a word like “sir” to let everyone know we are outside.” Prof will say “come in.” I will walk into class and say sorry. He will decide whether or not stay in class or go to office. Sometimes ask reason. Most of time, he will say go to office. Being sick was NEVER an excuse for being late.

 

“He will say, I feel sick too. If you feel sick...what if tomorrow other person come to class and say  I feel sick too.”

 

“The school require that every student wear a uniform. But, I didn't like uniform. I forgot one day.

I said “it's not your business.” “you're just a student. You are not teacher. You cannot do that.”

“I really hate this kind of rule. If I walked in with your kind of hairstyle or mine right now, they would tell me to go home.

 

“But my high school was a really good school. Everyone is good. I got a really high score in middle school to go there and I got permission to go there. They have middle school section and high school section.

 

“Oh that's definitely true. When american student say, I work hard, that's not compared to china. We have great student population, so there's not enough room for all those students. Only the best get in.

“If college in heaven, then high school must be hell” for students in china

 

 

“Language was the biggest problem for me. I cannot take good notes and when teacher describe a definition or theory, I sometimes lose what he says. Now, I'm getting much better. Sometimes cannot understand another students restatement of what teacher said. “when I do research paper, had a lot of grammatical problems.” now vocab and grammar much better than before.

“Have trouble finding real chinese food. Just try my best to eat all of my food in U.S. Eat pizza everyday, because it's better than most other food.”

 

“I like Applebees, McAlister's. I hate fast food.”

“Don't have sweet tea at all.” “But I eat a lot of american food in china.”

 

How are women expected to act in china in public?

Traditional view: Keep silent and elegant. Dress up very nice. They talk smart and try to be knowledgeable. “They repect their grandparents. They are supposed to respect.  When they talk to old people, use a lot of informal language. They say “hello” in very respectful way. It's all about the tone. They really care about what's going on about their family.

“Chinese culture is changing. In asian time (100-200 years ago) one guy could have many wives.

Good cooking and housework, that's changed. Let me emphasize, girl always needs to respect old people. Non traditional – guy and girl considered equal.

 

“China is a country of respect. All Asian countries focus on that. We are dominant cultural circle in Asia.

 

Trad guy – respect older people, expected to take care of wife and kids. Have responsibility for whole family. Able to solve tough problems. Guy needs to protect wife. Expected to take care of parents and grandparents. “They live with their kids when they retire.”

 

 

China is 5000 years old.

“I think United States grabbed the technology from all over the world. That's why this country became so powerful, so quickly.”

 

 

Never ask really unrespectful question. Salary is a really sensitive question that depends on how close relationship is.

 

 

Traditional chinese food

Noodles, rice, dumpling, tofu. “If i'm eating in a restaurant, the cook will cut food before they serve. We don't use knife to cut food. Chopstick spoon.

Don't put ice in drinks.

“China is becoming very affected by America. For example, Coke. I drink Coca-Cola for over 20 years. Sometimes you have to ask for the ice. “They just don't often serve that.” “A lot of young people like it though.”

 

Chinese people drink a lot of hot water. Never put ice in the tea. We boil water, have a really different water system. We cannot drink directly from faucet. Put chemicals in water. The reason we boil water is bec water system cannot kill ALL of the microorganisms. We buy a lot of bottled water.

 

Use subways. We have subway and public bus. Now, people can buy cars. “Car is useless for my family. Both my parents and I don't know how to drive. We have a pretty advanced transportation system, our subway system is much better than new york city and los angelas. However, road system is about the same as New York City. Beijing is a huge construction area. It's building up very fast. Sometimes, I have trouble recognizing certain streets because i've been in u.s. Too long.

 

One child policy

Because we have a great population, chinese gov thought it would be big problem for our society. Every family just have one baby. Now they have changed it a little bit.....If i'm an only child and she's an only child, you can have two kids. If you have more than you pay fine.

 

“In asian times, every chinese family preferred a boy. Now, it's different. I've been to a lot of places in China.....there's a lot of girls. But in the poor areas, they still prefer the boy, because boy means money, but being a girl is not.Sequoia National Park Natural background   Cycle of lifeMoro RockClimbing!   EnjoyPathfinderSherman tree(2700 years old...) Coyote!! Hi,there! Baby bear!I wish I were a sequoia tree...Respect...Inside of a sequoia treeSurprise!

 

 

  

                    I'm quite sad and angry recently.The reason I know is the reason I don't wanna say here. There is no way to make me calm down.So,I decided to have supper with friends at Vicksburg. It was a wonderful dinner that kinda lets me forget those of nightmares. By the way, I heard about my buddy said that never believe all the thing I said when we were eating. Interesting! I'm not suppose to be a funny liar. It was something or somebody changed me. I wish I could turn back time and I would redo many thing,even I know that's impossible...Jocky looks like my older brother...He is five years younger than me actually...I've no clue what Jessi was doing,but it looks like she used some magic moves and tried to blow Jocky's mind.It did work,u know! But it blows her mind too...

Jenny Hall of Mississippi College was under the cloudy sky on Friday, Oct.16, 2009. This was the time before storm. There are lots of storm during Fall in Mississippi. New men's-------The place where I've been living for three years...One years later,where are we gonna stay?Jocky is gonna be a model husband.He can do it much better than me...Jessica said this one looks like a bad guy from Japan...Yeah~~I'm bad!!This is the girls suppose to be...And this, is the girls really is...

                      U know what,don't believe what they said. They don't know what kind of man u are...