Nanjing, China 南京

I ate smelly tofu for the first time here...

It's been almost a month, so I think it's about time I made a new post. It's been about a three weeks since I've arrived in Nanjing, and I have been having an amazing time. Studying Chinese has proven to be a lot more difficult over seas, but it's been great studying with all the students in the CIEE program. We have about thirteen students in the program who are all here for a variety of reasons. I've been making new friends on a daily basis and making an effort to continuously break out of my comfort zones in order to make my experience here as enriching as possible.

Just like Rhodes, I sleep a minimal amount, but I'm finding that I have a lot more time to dedicate to studying. On the first day of classes we were all required to sign a language pledge. The pledge pretty much states that we are not allowed to speak English from 8 am to 8 pm Monday-Friday. I'm not gonna lie....it's rough. On the first day I struggled an immense amount, but as the week progressed I began to start thinking in Chinese rather than English. The language pledge is meant to force us to begin thinking in Chinese, force ourselves to learn words we commonly use everyday, and to engulf us into an active Chinese lifestyle as a foreign student.

That's not Nanjing....

In the past few weeks I've already completed more than I could ever imagine. I believe my Chinese proficiency is well in its way, but it's still nowhere near where I want it. It's an uphill battle, but I'm loving it. I'm studying at Nanjing University and I find it to be an amazing campus. The building I'm living in is the international students building. Everyone from all around the world is living under the same roof. It's pretty amazing to see so many nationalities mingle amongst each other and attempt to find common grounds through the utilization of their secondary language.

Where the Chinese at?

As far as making new friends are concerned, I feel as if I've become a lot more outgoing and have made an effort to make new friends on a daily basis. It turns out that a majority of students who study abroad in China are from South Korea. It's kind of funny because right now I've made more Korean friends than Chinese friends. They speak to mee in English, Korean, and Chinese. Whenever they do not know an English word they will use Chinese, and if they do not know the Chinese word they will use Korean. It's pretty cool because I cannot speak Korean, but I can understand Korean better than I can understand Chinese, and to make things more confusing I can speak Chinese better than I can speak Korean. We fully utilize all three languages in order to communicate. I think it's pretty awesome if you ask me. In China I've tried my best to have more pride in my heritage and make it very clear that I am an American born Korean. When I came to China I changed my first given Chinese name to my Korean name. Using similar characters with the same meanings I was capable of keeping my Korean name. Every Chinese and Korean friend I made knows me as 张永彬 (Chinese) or 장영빈 (jang-yeongbin in Korean). The Korean friends I've made said they can help teach me Korean so in return I can teach them English. So far everyday has been an adventure here and I have been loving every minute of it.

Hi there!