My major itself has been shaped by my experiences with CE. I am majoring in International Studies and East Asian Studies, so the countries that captivate my interest the most are China, Japan, Taiwan, and the Koreas. This has not always been the case! For the first two years of college I found Europe much more enticing and focused my studies there. That all changed once I joined CE (although I still need to visit Ireland!). My first partner was in the summer. She was a girl from South Korea and she introduced me to Korean food and some cultural differences that she noticed between Americans and Koreans. I became much more aware of "little" things like body language, eye contact, and how horribly fast I spoke English, slurring all my words together. My friends still remark to me that they are amazed I tutor English when even they cannot understand me sometimes...
My conversational partner my junior year was from Japan and helping her practice her English was my first prolonged (one year) experience working with an international student. From her my knowledge of Japan expanded exponentially, moving beyond commonly known-about things like Nintendo (which I love) and sushi (which I also love). By the end of the year, I knew that I had an interest in visiting Japan and learning Japanese (which is sadly still TBA). Today, my former conversation partner and I are still in contact—writing letters (that’s right, with stamps and all—the old fashioned way) to each other about where our lives are heading. As a wee child I regarded Japan as a mysterious and near-mythical place and I knew very little about it beyond my avid interest towards things like Nintendo and Godzilla (or Pokemon cards with Japanese on them). Now that I have friends there and have actually visited Japan (albeit only for five days) I have a much more realistic and less nerdy interest in Japan...eh actually it's still pretty nerdy.
Japan:
My “conversion” to Asia was fully completed that summer, when I went to China to teach English to children in a cram school. There I spent a significant amount of my free time studying Mandarin. I found it much more engaging than French (the language I had previously studied) although I wasn't really sure why. It was just fun and different. Upon my return to Wisconsin and my studies, I received a new CE partner--a grad student from China. My new partner, although a student in physics, was very interested in international politics and was eager to talk me about China. He and his wife are also qualified to be Chinese teachers, so I was able to consult them with questions about Mandarin (which I had frequently). Over time, meeting with him and his wife multiplied my interest in China (and the love of its food). One year ago I looked at spicy food with disdain but now I love it (minus the heartburn)! Although I had left China thinking that the foreign language I truly wanted to learn was yet to be found, by the end of the year with my Chinese tutee Mandarin was back on my plate.
Me in China:
As another consequence, I took (and still am taking) many more China-oriented classes in History, Political Science, & Sociology. Lastly, French has become a thing of the past (desolé, mes amis français) and I am now enrolled in Chinese. One of my favorite hobbies has become annoying my American friends by speaking to them in Chinese and annoying my Chinese friends by constantly berating them with questions about Mandarin.
In this new year, I have gone full circle. My new tutee is from South Korea again and now that I am much more interested in East Asia I look forward to learning as much about it as I did for Japan and China.
w00t,
Until next time.
-Michael
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