A Day in the Life of a Student in China

By Josh Friedman

My host father's morning hawking and spitting ritual wakes me around 6:30 a.m., just in time for basketball practice. I hop into my blue and white Middle School #2 jumpsuit, grab a bite of Chinese pastries, and heed my host mother's daily warning to put on my jacket. Then I'm off on my one-speed Flying Pigeon.

Biking in this city is incredible, pedaling along with the masses. It is a crisp Beijing autumn morning, and the older generation is still doing its taijiquan exercises. In just fives minutes I arrive opposite the school gate, but it takes another five to cross the bustling street.

After locking my bike in the School Year Abroad (SYA), www.sya.org/index.cfm, designated parking area, I join my Chinese teammates in some lay-up drills. The music blasting from the loudspeakers surrounding the soccer field only increases the pace of practice. We are all proud to be part of this team, to represent our school. At 8 a.m. classes start, with Chinese History, my favorite of the English-language classes. Today, having just returned from our weekend excursion to Taishan and Qufu, the hometown of Confucius, we discuss Confucianism. At lunch, in the SYA cafeteria, I have a delicious egg and tomato dish with rice. It helps prepare the mind for an afternoon of Chinese language classes.

I take Advanced Chinese until the end of the school day. Today we study 10 vocabulary words, making sentences with them to learn their proper usage. Our teacher goes around the room and checks our pronunciation, but the other male in the class and I cannot say the "c" sound correctly. We try almost 10 more times before finally producing "ts," as it should be said. It is a humbling experience, but the challenge of the language drives me to learn more.

After Chinese, in wushu class, after we have perfected four new moves we are dismissed, and after battling the cold air on my bike, I return to the warmth of my host family.

A bag of White Rabbits, my favorite Chinese candy, is waiting for me on my desk. My host family has gone so far out of their way for me. I do homework for an hour before it is time for dinner, the biggest meal of the day. Tonight my host mother has made dumplings, her specialty. We all take our time eating and discussing our plans for the upcoming National Day holiday. Not until the very last dumpling has been eaten do I go back to my homework. My host brother soon comes into my room and helps me with the stroke order of today's characters.

Finished with my work, I can now spend the rest of the night with my family. We sing along to our favorite Chinese song, Da Zhongguo, or "Big China," as it roars from the television. A little later, my host father eagerly goes over the latest NBA scores with me and then my host brother challenges me to a game of darts. Since I returned from school no English has been spoken and I have realized that the best way to learn this language is by continually attempting to speak it and carefully listening to it. But my Chinese becomes jumbled for I am tired, and tomorrow morning will be here soon. And with tomorrow, the adventure continues.

JOSH FRIEDMAN, a student at Georgetown Univ., spent the 1997-98 academic year in China, with School Year Abroad.