US student feels closer to Chinese community

First Person | Seth Griffin

Editor's note: Seth Griffin, 25, from Alaska, studied Mandarin between 2011 and 2012 at Xiamen University, after completing his undergraduate degree in the United States.

I decided to study Chinese as an extension of my undergraduate major in the US, which was Literature. I felt that learning Chinese was a valuable tool that would enable me to better understand the world.

When I was a child, almost everything in my house was "made in China". So, I was very curious about this place where my clothes, pencils, notebooks, shoes and almost everything I used in my life were being made.

When I was 16, I worked at a restaurant owned by a man from Fujian province, and came into contact with a bit of Chinese culture. I thought it was very mysterious. I decided when I was in college that I wanted to study in China.

My university in the US did not offer Chinese language classes, and there were almost no Chinese people in my town, so I was unable to learn the language. I went to a used-book store and the library to find books about China and the language, but it was too difficult to learn on my own because Chinese linguistics are so different from English. There are so many rules and concepts that differ between the languages.

Then in 2009, I attended an exchange program at China's Sichuan University during my third year of college.

It was my first time living outside of the US, so it was very important for me. Looking back, I realize that if I hadn't attended some basic classes in Sichuan, it would have been almost impossible for me to learn Chinese, and I probably would have just given up.

The class taught me some of the most basic things that I needed to know, like how to look up Chinese characters in a dictionary, and how to pronounce the four tones. That was crucial.

I studied Chinese for two semesters at Xiamen University and have been living in Xiamen since, using my free time to work on my own projects, like writing.

Actually, I was unaware of the scholarship programs offered to the US students. So I paid for all of my tuition using money that I earned working in the US.

My biggest achievement during my stay in China would probably be passing the HSK 6 exam, after taking Chinese language courses and teaching myself Chinese for three years.

My Chinese isn't excellent, but it's beginning to become good. I'm pretty fluent until the conversation becomes extremely complicated, or is about a topic I'm not familiar with.

I've visited about two-thirds of the country and traveled in every way possible, including a bicycle trip from Shanghai to Xiamen. That was pretty cool.

I'll be leaving later this year as my visa is expiring. I'm not sure if I'll return to the US, because I'd like to see more of the world. At the same time, these years of study have sort of connected me to the Chinese-speaking community.

Seth Griffin was talking to China Daily reporter Zhao Xinying.