Chinese culture is an elegant and colorful culture, its traditional and artistic style effectively capturing the attention of foreigners, giving it significant worldwide influence. Even before I chose to take the Chinese class at the beginning of middle school, Chinese culture had always been a topic of great interest. Learning about Chinese practices and history was a very thought provoking experience in my childhood, due to the vast differences, and similarities, between my more westernly inclined culture, and the Chinese one. All this, plus the promise of Chinese food and Chinese restaurant excursions, convinced me to take Chinese class.
This decision ultimately had a huge impact on my growth and my life over the course of the next three years. Chinese class became one of my favorite classes, in which I got closer to a lot of people that I wouldn’t have talked to without the class. Together, we stressed about assignments, helped each other study for the dictations, and solidified our bond as a class. Most importantly, I learned a considerable amount about the Chinese language and culture, including aspects of writing, calligraphy, celebrations, people, food, and a lot more. Suddenly, everything Chinese had stopped simply being a topic of interest, but had evolved into an active part of my life. The interactive aspect of the class has always been an amazing way to translate what we had learned about in class into real life, with Chinese celebrational assemblies that we took part in, trying and making Chinese foods and pastries, to the best of our abilities, and writing traditional Chinese calligraphy for celebratory purposes made this possible. A huge part of this was when we interacted with a school in China over video call. A series of zoom meetings helped us practice and implement our language skills in a practical way, speaking with native speakers our age. Even if their English was admittedly a lot better than our Chinese, it was still a very effective learning experience for us.
With all this in mind, when the opportunity came for me to sign up for the school's Chinese class Taiwan trip, there was no way I could miss out on the opportunity to join in. The Taiwan trip was easily the best part of my summer. Bonding with very good friends, as well as becoming a lot closer with other people, including people from other grades, was definitely a highlight of the trip. Not to mention all the spectacular activities and places we visited everyday. We would wake up in the morning, hurry to pack everything back into our suitcases and to make sure we didn't forget anything, eat the hotel breakfast as fast as we could, and load our stuff onto the bus, ready for our next destination. Everyday we would visit a new city, as well as the historic site in the area. They would always be an elegant display of natural beauty, as well as traditional historical architecture, a stunning combination, showing the near perfection of the tourist destinations in Taiwan. The trip really changed my view on Taiwan, a place I had little to no knowledge of prior, and of Chinese and Taiwanese culture.
Now that I have finished middle school, all these wonderful experiences and memories have not left me. I fully recognize the importance and benefits of learning Chinese, and for this reason, I decided to continue taking Chinese in high school. For me, middle school was just the beginning of my Chinese educational experience. In high school, I am expecting more of the same interactive and colorful activities and insights into Chinese culture and practices. Observing the Chinese mastery and level of the students in the grade above me, I am very optimistic and excited about this new 9th grade school year in Chinese class that I am stepping foot into. I am so grateful for this opportunity to learn the Chinese language and culture, and all the amazing experiences that it brings. I hope my Chinese level can get better and that I will be able to comfortably communicate at a decent level in Chinese with other people, something that really fascinates me. In conclusion, over the course of the last few years, Chinese culture has been an enormous part of my life and part of who I am as a person and as a student, through Chinese class, and I am very grateful and excited for what there is to come.
