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A CHINESE/AMERICANEXCHANGE

Guo Mingjing, one of two exchangestudents from Beijing Middle School inBeijing, China, studied for a semesterat The Sidwell Friends School inWashington, D.C. this past year.During the first year of this newprogram, two students from Washington,D.C. studied in China. While atSidwell, Guo Mingjing took courses inbiology, art history, beginningcomputer, and writing. He returned toChina at the beginning of January inorder to begin studies at BeijingNormal University. Before he departed,he shared his thoughts on what he hadlearned about the United States withAnthro .Notes editor JoAnne Lanouettewho also teaches at The Sidwell FriendsSchool

.

Q: What knowledge did you have aboutthe U.S. before you arrived?

A: Surprisingly little. My father is aprofessor of Classical Chinese litera-ture, had studied in Moscow, and hadbeen to Hungary. My mother taughtChinese at Stanford University duringtwo summer sessions. I came to theU.S.A. to experience another countryand to gain the friendship ofAmericans.

What surprised you when you firstarrived?

A: People are more friendly andinformal in the U.S.A. It isimpossible in China to say "Hi" tostrangers. When I first went to themailbox here, strangers said "Hi" tome. When I took a dog for a walk, Imet another stranger walking a dog, andhe started talking to me. That is muchharder to do in China, and, of course,dogs are forbidden in the cities.

I was also surprised by escala-tors—just the fact that stairs weremoving— and I was astonished by thenumber of cars just as visitors to

China are awed by the number ofbicycles.

At first I could not believe thatstudents would stay inside to studywhen they had grass and benchesoutside. In China grass is confined toparks; people do not have front or backlawns. But it is also more than that.Maybe I am influenced by my father , butI see nature as a source of intellec-tual stimulation—I think and writebetter when I am outside.

Q: In our conversations, you havementioned that you have discovereddifferences in sports and culturalvalues between China and the U.S. Whatare those differences?

A: People do not exercise as much inthe U.S.A., and that is obvious even inthe fact that so many Chinese bicycleto work. I hope that maybe the Chinese

can learn from America's mistakes, andif we have a wise leader we will notdecline to a nation of physicallyunconditioned people. In China sportsencourage health, friendship, andnationalism, whereas in the U.S.A.sports seem to support commercialbusiness success and enjoyment.Although we have no sports facilitiesas good as in America, everyone inChina is active in exercising. Everymorning, many people are running, whichmakes the school playground verycrowded. You can see the old peopledoing Maiyiquam . The youths practiceWushu, and the kids are doing theirgymnastics. Chinese people regard goodhealth as the most important aim ofsports. Once during a Chinese nationalmatch, there was a race and one playerfell down. Another player stopped atonce to help him. China is a countrywhich has old customs of modesty,friendship, and kindheartedness

.

America is full of youthful spirit; ithas more exciting business—movement,risk, and good dreams. But too oftenAmerican sports seem more like fightsthan friendships.

Q: How did your experience in a U.S.high school differ academically fromyour experience in a Chinese highschool?

A: In China the middle school (Junior13-15 and Senior 16-18) generallyoffers Chinese, English, math, politics(including economics and philosophy),physics, chemistry, history, andsports. Each student has to take allthe courses; no choice exists. We haveclass six periods a day, six days aweek. You can imagine how hard Chinesestudents must work since we havehomework in almost every class . Everyday, much homework is heaped on thestudents , and they must do all of it bythe next day. Students respect theirteachers, and the classroom is a placefor lectures, reading, and writing.The Vice Premier heads the EducationCommission and decides on thecurricula. All provinces have the same

textbooks and the same exams forapplying to the universities.

In the U.S. I have found much morelaboratory work and the importance ofbiology. I think biology is importantfor the future. Biology was a wholenew world for me. In all my classeshere there was much more discussion andmore emphasis on thinking for yourselfthan in China. The teachers andstudents seemed more like friends.Students also have more choice incourses, and they seem more active andmore independent than Chinese students.

Q: As you have gained fluency inEnglish, what differences have younoticed between the English and Chineselanguages?

A: I think Chinese characters are moredifficult than English words. InEnglish it is easy to read out thewords just by looking at them. But youcan't know most of the pronunciationsof the Chinese characters only bylooking at the shape of them, becauseChinese characters have changed fromthe pictures thousands of years ago.

On the other hand, Chinese grammaris simpler than English grammar.English grammar has many differenttenses; Chinese students often get veryconfused with them. Because in Chinesewe have no tenses, we just use the sameadverbs such as "yesterday," "now,""the next year." These adverbs arealmost enough to express the differenttenses.

Another important difference is

that the verb is more important inChinese than in English and thepreposition is more important in

English than in Chinese. In Chinese,to describe the motions of a finger, wecan find scores of verbs. Each verbhas its own lively meaning. Verbs aredifficult for foreigners to master.The same thing happens to Chinesestudents with English prepositions. We

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often make mistakes with prepositions,such as when we say, "He will leave toNew York" instead of "He will leave forNew York."

Q: In your four and a half monthshere, have any Americans asked youpuzzling questions?

A: Many people have asked me, "Do theChinese have any freedom since theCommunists?" Americans think that witha communist form of government a personcan't have freedom. That is just nottrue.

I have noticed that many Americanstake care of their private lives but donot take care of their public lives. Iwatch the news every day on television,and there is so little information onthe rest of the world unless thecountry is involved with the U.S., likeLibya. In China the TV news coversmost all areas of the world. IfAmericans want a good future, they mustknow more about the rest of the world.