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After reading Liu’s story, I felt depressed about his experience. I can understand his hesitation and the dilemma he faced. Before coming to the United States, I made the same decision, like Liu, that I must try my best to speak English with the native speakers around me, because one of the main reason that I chose to be away from my hometown is improving my English. I heard a large number of stories that it was not an easy thing for a foreigner to get involved in a completely different culture. Definitely, the language is the biggest gap.
Liu finally decided to live with Chinese, although that was not he wanted to do at the beginning. The same as me, I made more Chinese friends than Americans in this one month. Rarely do us have the courage to get fully involved in American’s conversation. Although I achieved excellent scores and enjoyed my campus life, I still got unsatisfied with my communication with others, even my roommate. The things I discussed with my roommate are all about daily lectures, exams or sports, but not the parties. What’s more, I have supper everyday with my Chinese friend and go out with them. The life with them accounts for the biggest part these days, which I decided to change step by step in the following time.
Three New Words
Excerpt: a passage selected from a larger work
Humble: cause to feel shame; hurt the pride ofPreeminent: greatest in importance or degree or significance or achievement
As far as I am concerned, nonverbal communication differs a lot between China and the United States.
First is the difference in gestures. Chinese make their little fingers down to demonstrate no good. However, Americans often put their thumbs down to illustrate that feeling. Also, teenage men in America usually do friendly punch when they meet. On the contrary, Chinese teenagers do not do that at all. They just greet each other with a simple ‘HI’. In addition, people in China never use the gesture of quotation. But in the USA, I can always see people use that gesture to indicate that they are quoting something.
Secondly, differences also appear in body space. People in China often stand closer by each other than in the United States, because American people pay more attention to individual privacy. But Chinese are more enthusiastic towards their close friends.
The reason why there are so many differences is that Chinese people are shyer than Americans in some aspects. In the United States, people greet each other on the road even they are strangers, which will never happen in China. The Chinese culture teaches us to be respect to others and be passive. In contrast, Americans are more open and aggressive.
Although a huge number of differences in nonverbal communications are between the two counties, the two countries still have some expressions in common. For instance, people all make their thumbs up to demonstrate their good feelings. Besides, the ‘V’ for ‘victory’ is used all over the world. So we can feel this world as a whole.
The first impression may lead to a wrong portray of someone, I believe, cause that really happens around me. Even I, myself, did draw a completely inverse outline in my eldership’s eyes.
It was my family’s tradition to have a big dinner together on some important days, such as the New Year’s Eve. Every member of my harmonious family participated in and shared others with the recent happenings or the worries they have. I was, however, always the quietest one sitting at the corner, eating my dishes without taking notice of other’s conversation. Besides, my answers to their questions were usually in short sentences. As a result, my image in their mind was shy, strange and not willing to talk with others. They even considered me as self-imposed. But the truth is that I am a girl who is considered to be outgoing and always ready to share my life with my friends. I am enthusiastic towards my daily life and not self closing at all. Why I performed like that at the dinner was that I was totally not interested in their conversations at all. We had different lifestyles which give rise to entirely distinct topics. Nothing could be found inside me that related to their topics was the point which they create a wrong portrait of me.
The same thing happened on my portrait of one of my best friends, Michelle Ni. My first impression on her was unconcerned about others and things happen around her. She disliked making friends with others. But one thing happened turned my thoughts round. It was at 5 o’clock after school. I was sweeping the whole class by myself when I suddenly found that she was looking at me. Then she stood up from her chair, got another broom and swept the class with me together. There was a great silence in the classroom except the sound of sweeping the floor. Although nothing was said, I felt her kindness and warm character. We become friends from that.
Concerned about these things carefully, I realized that sometimes first impression means everything as well as nothing. Only the truth beneath the first impression is the key I need to find out throughout my lifetime.
‘Yue, I don’t understand this character on the Internet’, my mother said loudly.
‘Oh, it’s a word that young people like me usually use to express our speechless feeling about something. It pronounced ‘ Jiong’. ’ I always taught her patiently under this circumstance.
As born after 1990, our generation is often considered to be impractical and self-centered in China. This characteristic reflects in lots of areas including the language we use. As the Internet technology develops more and more quickly, chatting on the Internet is a habit of my daily life. It’s common to me to use some words with my peers that my parents could not understand. It’s may be the generation gap, but it really did have great impact on my communication with them. The words and tones I speak to my peers will never be these I speak to my parents, for they cannot understand the things I am talking about or the exact feeling I am trying to express.
On the other hand, it’s impossible to me to use this kind of language in formal situations, because the language is informal and private or sometimes it has a heavy accent. It’s impolite and ridiculous to use this language when giving a speech in front of a large crowd of people. It’s just a rule that acknowledged by everyone for no reason.
Hello, everyone. My name is Yue Huang, which means ‘the yellow moon’ in Chinese. My birthday is on August, the 20th 1991. So I’m 18 years old. As a Leo, I’m confident and enthusiastic about my daily life. I come from Nanjing, China. My hometown Nanjing is a city which combines history and modernization. You can visit historical spot like the Tomb of Emperor Zhuyuan Zhang, as well as the skyscrapers all around the city. I have a happy family in Nanjing. My father is an engineer and my mother is a math teacher. Due to the one-child policy in China, it’s a pity that I do not have any brother or sister. In addition, I like to listen to music and play table tennis during my spare time. I am also interested in playing electronic piano and Rubik’s cube. That is me, a girl who is glad to make friends with you all.
