If you're reading this, that means that after 9 long weeks abroad, I'm finally back in the comfy confines of my own room, sipping tea, streaming Spotify, and probably writing this blog post at half past 2 am (which, after checking the clock, I actually am). I can't believe that my summer has flown by so quickly and that after spending 2 months abroad in a totally new country, without the supervision of my parents might I add, I'm back home with only 2 weeks left before I go back to Yale to start my sophomore year of college. I've been able to see a couple of family, friends, and acquaintances already, and (not surprisingly) the first thing that they ask when they see me is,
"How was China?"
Now, under normal circumstances, we're out in public and our encounter is basically fleeting so I only have a couple of minutes tops to think of a description to totally describe the vibrant, complex, and transformative experience I had in China.
...Which is easier said than done.
I usually end up saying something really lame, like, "It was awesome!" or "Amazing!" and stand there trying to pick from the thousands of details flittering around in my brain to sum up what a life-changing experience this summer has been, but words usually fail me and I end up stumbling over my - now - broken English trying to grab haphazard memories of China and piece them together into a coherent story to tell in around 3 minutes.
Therefore, after much practice, I've now crafted the perfect answer to this question...which unfortunately I only know how to say in Chinese. Basically, it's: 这个暑假在哈北班，我遇到很多丰富，精彩的经历，让我有一个很难忘的回忆。可是如果你让我用一个词，一个经历来概括我哈北班的经验，我无从选择。Roughly translated, it means, "Out of the many brilliant experiences I've had in China, I can't use just one to sum up my time in China."
...Which immediately after hearing, people usually ask me which experience specifically has given me the deepest impression, but I don't mind because that question makes the initial question much easier. There are definitely memories that stand out in my mind, ranging from talking to friends while strolling around the Summer Palace at sunset to dancing and singing KTV with my fourth year class and our teachers my last day in China. The more I think about it, the more other shards of my memory fly to the front of my mind, such as getting caught in a rainstorm while in the 798 Art District and having to duck into art shops to escape the rain and finding amazing hole-in-the-wall art places to humming "I'll Make a Man Out of You" while climbing the Great Wall. Not to mention the entire week I spent at Shaolin, which is an experience that I will definitely remember until the day I die. There are also little things, like having study groups in the 4th floor cafe in the 食堂, to having karaoke/movie marathons in my dorm until 3 am to making McDonalds/KFC midnight runs. My school life at BLCU is so, so different from my school like at Yale, and as much as I definitely enjoyed being a 北语 student for 2 months, it was definitely something that I needed to adjust to.
I guess now would be the appropriate time to talk about my thoughts on HBA, i.e. the curriculum, the homework, the workload, etc for those future Light Applicants wanting to know about the program as a whole.
In my opinion, I think HBA is probably the best Chinese program in Beijing. The teachers are all fantastic - they end up becoming not just your teachers, but also your friends (like, seriously, we still stay in contact via a massive WeChat group that everyone talks on everyday). I've never met a group of such patient, kind, hilarious, adorable, and passionate group of people willing to get to class at 8 am everyday to deal with my horrendous 声调 (tones) and 睡眼惺忪 (bleary-eyed) expression every day in class. Two months under their wing and I've definitely seen an enormous improvement in my Chinese.
For example, when I first came to China in June, I boarded the Air China plane nervous as hell because oh crap I'm going to a brand new a country where I'm basically illiterate and can only use kindergarten-level vocabulary to communicate with the people literally I'm so screwed and my suspicions were confirmed when the sweetest Chinese couple who sat next to me initiated a conversation with me that I only understood 45% of. Hurdle two was when I also didn't understand a big majority of what the air hostess was asking me and ended up having to let the couple help me with any communication. When I landed at the Beijing airport and spotted a kid who I thought vaguely resembled a Yalie, my first question (out of desperation) was, "Do you speak English?" Now tell me that isn't just sad.
About halfway into into the program, I gradually learned enough vocabulary to raise my comprehension skills to about 75-80%. I turn on the TV in my dorm every single time I come in and sometimes take 15 minutes or so to just watch something random and see if I understand anything, and 7/10 times I can get a fairly good gist of a news report or plot of a drama. If you told me that I could do that back in June, I wouldn't have believed you. Apart from just teaching me vocabulary, grammar, and idioms, my dear teachers also taught me how to just be confident and how to not let my nerves consume me when I talk to other people in Chinese. Thanks to them, I left Beijing having made friends with the 服务员 in the 六道口 shopping mall (who give me shopping discounts, yessss), 北语 students, and even strangers who I've met on the street and who are fascinated that I'm a (Chinese/sometimes Korean looking) foreigner. I left Beijing basically understanding how to navigate the bus and subway, how to 讨价还价 (barter/bargain), how to even sing a couple of songs in Chinese, but most importantly, how to communicate with others in a completely new language.
Apart from the teachers, I think the best aspects of HBA are the sheer amount of activities that they plan out for its students throughout the program. There's a 兴趣小组 almost every Friday that will take you to cool places in Beijing depending on if you want to go shopping, try cuisines, go to parks, or see tourisy places. This year there was even the overnight stay in 承德 after we saw the Great Wall, as well as many other Saturday trips.
A typical day at HBA starts at 8 am, where you go to "大班课“ (Lecture, 7-8 students) for two hours, then "小班课" (Grammar Review, 3-4 students) for another two hours, break for lunch, then one hour for "单班课" (One-on-One with a teacher). For me, HBA was definitely intense and pretty hard. I guess this has to depend on your level when you come in, because I was only year 2 at Yale and was placed into year 4 at HBA, so I skipped an entire year in Chinese (which sounds impressive, but it's actually pretty inconvenient since I lacked an entire year of vocabulary, grammar, and idioms to build on) so I had to work extra hard to try to catch up to a lot of my classmates (read: I was an idiot in class for about 2 weeks). Eventually I learned enough of 3rd year vocabulary and grammar from listening to my classmates speak to understand what the hell was going in class so that definitely made life go much more smoothly.
Looking back, however, I will say the material was very challenging. The homework and tests were actually pretty easy, it was just reading/preparing a new lesson and learning about 60 new characters everyday that nearly killed me. They seriously aren't kidding when they say HBA is an intensive language program. I pretty much only got around 5-6 hours of sleep everyday, which is even less than what I got back at Yale, and that is saying a lot. There have definitely been times where I've dozed off in class because of just lack of sleep (and coffee).
I understand that since the program is only 2 months, and since they need to cover an entire year's worth of Chinese in two months, everyday has to be new material. However I don't think I absorbed as much information as I could have/wanted to at HBA. I found that a lot of times, it was literally too much information for me to absorb in such a short time, and I would only commit a majority of the grammar/vocab to short term memory (save for a few favorites) and forget them the next day. For example, at this point, I could totally discuss with you political ideologies and politics (你觉得政府应该做什么？。。), cultural differences, and even novels, short stories, and plays, but I'd need at least like 15 minutes to find the grammar, vocab, and idioms that I know that I've learned but can't actually recall. Because of this situation, I will opt to totally retake 4th year Chinese at Yale this year (which is what I want to do, if scheduling works out) to reinforce what I learned over the summer. The daily schedule is pretty intense, and it doesn't really leave you any time to go out with friends or go shopping during the weekday, but I definitely did both those things because I didn't want my experience to be limited to my room or the 4th floor cafe. The experience is definitely dependent on what you put into it, but HBA is a fabulous program, and I would definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a Beijing program. I've become such good friends with so many people at HBA that they really do feel like family. Studying at HBA has also definitely made me want to come back to China again through another language program/internship in the future as well as continue taking Chinese at Yale.
Aside from purely learning about the Chinese language and culture, being abroad also teaches you so many things about yourself and how to become more mature as a person. This was my first time that I was abroad without my parents, so I had to rely on myself to delegate expenses, time, and effort in my every day life, and constantly doing that every single day has definitely made me more confident and mature in running my life in general. I would hands down recommend anyone to have a study abroad experience at least once in college because it is not just an educational but also a spiritual experience. If there was anything I regretted during my time in Beijing, it would be not taking enough opportunities to explore the city more. Granted the main purpose of this trip was to increase my Chinese level, but don't let that restrict you to just your dorm room every day. I started taking afternoon trips after class to nearby shopping areas and sometimes even taking the subway to somewhere new to see more of the city and have more interactions. One of my favorite memories is going to the 六道口 shopping mall one afternoon by myself and basically being fluent talking to all the shop keepers and hearing their stories and sharing my own. Other than that, I have no other regrets and on the whole am very satisfied with HBA.
On another note, here is the (long-awaited) video my friend Ben Martin and I made of our week-long experience at the Shaolin Temple for HBA's Social Study Program in 2015. Hope you enjoy!
If you want to read a more in-depth description of my experience in Shaolin, I already have a blog post dedicated to it right here: http://from-doughnuts-to-dumplings.blogspot.com/2015/07/diary-of-wushu-kid.html
I hope you enjoy the video and the post, and if you're a potential HBA student/LF student trying to figure out what program to choose in Beijing, please consider choosing HBA and Shaolin - yes it's strenuous and difficult but the amazing experience, friendships, knowledge, and even philosophy that you get out of this trip make it (in my opinion) the most meaningful 社会调查。Not only do you train your body, but you also train your mind.
I've about come to the end of my last China-related blog post for the summer. Being in China for 2 months has given me growth in so many different fronts, from confidence to the Chinese language to maturity, and I know I've made friends that will last me a lifetime. I will never forget this experience, and this small taste of China has inspired me to come back in the very near future to continue my investment in learning Chinese and understanding Chinese culture. So, on a bittersweet last note, here are some (not all, mind you) pictures of my favorite memories:
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| Not our entire 4th year class, but a majority - this was taken after our 北京之夜 "Beijing Night" performances |
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| Celebrating with our teachers after 4th year won the tug of war! |
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| Group picture at a 兴趣小组! |
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| Cheesin' with our teachers again :) |
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| More adorable teachers! |
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| This was after our graduation ceremony and we were free to speak English again! |
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| 4th year group picture at the Forbidden City! |
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| Sanam's birthday at The Summer Palace :) |
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| Our failed jump on the Great Wall |
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| SHAOLIN TEMPLE 2015 |
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| Shaolin family forever :') |
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| 798 Art District! |
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| DUMPLIN' MAKIN |
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| Much thanks to my friend for letting me mess up your face |
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| Our last day of class :( |
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| Our 4th year 北京之夜 "Beijing Night" performance |
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| Our Shaolin 北京之夜 "Beijing Night" performance |
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| Selfie time after the performance! |
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| The very last night, eating dinner with the teachers... |
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| ...and going dancing and doing karaoke! :) |
For now, so long China! You've treated me so well and given me an incredible experience on your ancient soil. I might see you again next year either in Shanghai with another Harvard program or in Yunnan learning about Traditional Chinese Medicine. As the Chinese say, "顺其自然" or "let nature run its course." We'll see where my feet take me next year - 下一次见！
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