Interview with Lee, a Graduate from

Interview with Lee, a Graduate from Harvard

Sure. First thanks for having me on the show.  My personal story is I’m an American. My first time of coming to China was in 1998. I spent three years in China. The first year I was in Wuhan, teaching English. Then I spent just over two years in Shanghai, where I was environmental consulting for a little while. Then I worked for a magazine down in Shanghai for one year.

What’s more about your Chinese learning experience?

When I first came to China, I didn’t really know much Chinese. I basically knew “谢谢” and “再见”. And I often confuse them. It really was when I got to China I started learning tones from a teacher. So I would go around my campus teacher, just going “mā, má, mǎ, mà”, all day long. So I basically started learning tones and a few things.

But I didn’t start learning Chinese very seriously until I attended graduate school (in Harvard) after my experiences in Shanghai.

You mean the tones are a little bit difficult for you?

I wouldn’t say the tones are difficult. It’s just a little bit different, because it’s a basic building block for Chinese. So you have to practice tones very 认真 about it to really get the basic stuff down.

I think your oral Chinese is really good. Besides practicing the tones, is there some other special ways you improve the oral Chinese?

There are two ways of improving your oral Chinese. And basically it’s just talking with people. But talking with people is never enough, because mostly people you talk to are Chinese, are qualified as Chinese teachers. You may learn a few new words. But you can’t learn how to speak. You have to compliment regular speaking with people. You have to compliment that by taking classes basically, with somebody knows how to teach Chinese to foreigners. I found that to be really really invaluable. It was only when I came upon my Chinese teacher at the 电影学院 that I really feel that I was starting learning Chinese, oral Chinese.

So you also learn from the daily life?

Yeah. I mean daily life is really important.

Do you often watch TV and some TV series?

I don’t watch TV series that much because it’s hard to understand what’s going on. I can read Chinese characters that go across the bottom of the screen for most of the shows.

It helps a lot in building vocabulary?

Most of the vocabulary I build is from reading.

You are also interested in Chinese literature?

Yes. I’m really interested in Chinese literature. I’m actually interested in literature in general. So I decided that I want to study China, the history of China. There is no better way than literature to understand the culture.

What’s the most attractive point for you?

I did my thesis on Wang Shuo. I like Wang Shuo’s post modern sort of stories. There is more classic writers like Shen Congwen, even like Zhang Ailing. She’s a little bit hard to read. But I still like what she is trying to do.

I read something like Han Han, which is a kind of good.

The next question is how did you overcome the difficulties of learning Chinese characters?

It just requires time. I spend two years without having them to work. I was studying Chinese characters. I spend an entire year trying to read. And I spend another year reading and speaking. You need to do it every day.

Do you think it’s important to learn Chinese from its origin?

It’s hard to say.

Do you think there are more and more people learning Chinese in your country?

There are for sure. Besides Spanish it’s the fastest growing language in America. Definitely Spanish is the NO.1. Chinese is NO.2.

Since you’ve chosen being here in China and also learning Chinese. Would that play an important role in your future career?

I hope it’s going to be my future career. It’s not just my career. It’s my personal life too. My girlfriend is Chinese. We hope to have a family. We speak both Chinese and English.

What’s more would you like to add? Any special feeling about life here in Beijing?

I’ve read a couple of good essays about Beijing. A lot of Beijing talk about Beijing, as like every night you can get a “special Beijing moment”. You know maybe in the fall. The leaves  are falling down. It’s like a beautiful weather. Like right now. Today it’s “Beijing moment”. It’s like spring time. The wind is high. But for me it’s actually the people. It’s like you see a person on the street. It’s just suddenly like you feel so familiar. You don’t know you feel familiar, but it just feels so familiar. Every night you see a person, maybe like an old guy who is old like Sun Yat-sen, like a kind of outfit on. He’s got a lot of culture. He’s been around for a long time. Or even like a young guy. You know sometimes it’s just a waidiren, a guy from other provinces. Moments like that for me are what’s special about Beijing. It’s the moment of seeing a person and recognizing a something very fundamental that you have comments with that person.

Excellent! Thank you!

You’re welcome.

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