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Letter from Boston

Chinese Department

By MASAKO YAMADA


中国語学科主催のパーティー

雅子さんは、ボストン大学大学院で物理学を専攻していますが、教養と交友関係を広めるために、大学院の勉強以外に学部の中国語の授業も取っています。中国語を勉強し始めて4学期目になるのですが、最近初めて中国語学科主催のパーティーに参加しました。

I notice that most of the graduate students in my department take only physics classes and hang out with other physics students, which sometimes strikes me as strange. I've always liked hanging out with different types of people. As an undergrad, I spent a great amount of time reading literature or playing the piano but nowadays, I feel almost guilty whenever I spend a lot of time doing things unrelated to physics. But then there are things called "guilty pleasures."

One of the activities that I'm enjoying right now is Chinese lessons. They don't take up much of my time, but I admit that I still feel embarrassed whenever I go to my adviser to discuss my academic plans. It's awfully hard to justify taking Chinese. However, I feel that I need this extra class in order to feel balanced. Not only is the subject matter interesting, it's also an opportunity for me to get in touch with nonphysics people. I'm gaining insight into the undergrad population at BU as well.

The students in my Chinese class are not typical of the BU population although they might be considered stereotypical. Many people associate the BU campus with a large number of Asian students. In fact, the student population is over 70 percent Caucasian and slightly more than 15 percent Asian or Asian-American. However, in my class of 20 or so students, only one is white. The rest are Asian. There are ABCs (American-born Chinese), Taiwanese, Cantonese from Hong Kong and overseas Chinese from countries like Malaysia, Vietnam and Macao. There are Japanese and Koreans as well. BU is well-known for its large Asian population. Wellesley had a huge Asian population as well, but the difference is that many of the BU Asians have foreign citizenship, whereas most of the Wellesley Asians are Asian-American. There is a huge difference in lifestyle and in mentality between the two, and I feel as if I'm a part of both sides.

Although I've liked my Chinese teachers, I've never found the department to be particularly warm. I'm in my fourth semester of Chinese and I just attended a department-sponsored party for the first time. Such school-sponsored events and get-togethers with professors are very common at Wellesley, but I guess it's harder at a large school like BU. This event was actually very loosely structured — the teachers brought some food and drinks, put a Chinese movie on the TV, and spread out some Chinese calligraphy tools. I enjoyed chatting with the teachers and the other students. It's one of the only opportunities I've ever had to speak with them outside the classroom setting.

At this party, there were a total of five white students, and indeed, they stood out. I asked them how they felt, and they all seemed to enjoy poking fun at themselves as the minority. It's very difficult for these students, who have no background in a Chinese-based language, to keep up with the Asian students, who do, but I think the department looks upon non-Asian students warmly. Indeed, I saw the teachers go out of their way to talk with those students. My current teacher, Zhou Laoshi ("laoshi" means "teacher"), was telling them that it took her two hours to fry the spring rolls for the party. They all seemed very impressed.

I spoke with my first Chinese teacher, Kang Laoshi, at this party. I was surprised that she remembered me so well, since so many Asian students take Chinese. They must start looking the same. I spoke to her briefly about what I am studying. I've been the only graduate student in my Chinese classes, and I think the teachers find it interesting to hear why I'm taking Chinese. I told another one of my teachers, Zhang Laoshi, that I'd attended Japanese schools in New York as a youngster. He told me that he was almost sure of that before I'd told him, partly because of the way I speak English (a bit more formally), and partly because of the way I write Chinese characters (with a bit more structure).

The food was mostly gone by the time I got there, and the beer they served was warm Budweiser, but I had a good time talking about nothing with people who I probably will never get to know well, but who, I suspect, see more in me than I will ever know.


Shukan ST: Feb. 27, 1998

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