Monday, July 31, 2006
After several months of on and off planning, I finally have an arrival date in Shanghai. I’ll be flying in on August 20, to begin training for my job teaching 7-10 year olds. The whole process has been something of a leap of faith, really. Trying to organize things with people who live on the other side of the world—who were waking up on Friday when I was eating dinner on Thursday—requires trust and patience. I’m very glad that it all came together, and I thank anyone who has read me here and the people at TalkdaTalk for their help.
This blog was mainly conceived as a cultural exchange that focused on the difference between American and Chinese students. The idea was for me to talk about my specifically American college experience, something about which it was assumed my Chinese readers would need explanation. The trouble is the American college experience, upon just a few months’ reflection, is a more complex thing than I could hope to explicate in just a few blog posts.
What has been more on my mind lately is the sad state of our international situation. The news lately, if you have been following it, has been alarming. It’s an old joke that the news is always negative (tragedy sells papers, after all), but it seems like more so than usual lately. I can’t pick up the front page of the New York Times without seeing a headline about rapid global warming, conflict in Iraq, conflict in Israel, nuclear proliferation in Iran and North Korea. On days when all four of these concerns are in the paper at the same time, I begin to wonder if the crazies professing an eminent Armageddon are perhaps on to something.
It’s no secret that countries that have strong economic ties with each other—countries that have realized it is in their mutual best interest to remain friendly—have a much smaller chance of fighting each other than two countries who have no economic entanglements. I can be confident that America will never attack China because if it did America’s economy would collapse.
I’m less interested in economics, though, then I am about the larger idea that exchange creates entanglements; and that entanglements aren’t always a bad thing. It’s nice to think that the movement in China to learn English (and the corresponding movement in America to learn Chinese) will have other than purely economic effects. If we speak each other’s language, we can read each other’s book, and understand each other’s ideas and cultures on a much deeper level.
East and West have never understood each other very well, perhaps even when their relations were good. Now that peace between the cultures is essential to the survival of both, perhaps a greater understanding will grow. An almost organic consequence of our increased exchange. It’s a clichéd hope, but who knows, maybe its time has come.
Friday, July 07, 2006
There always seems to be just a little more to do than I think, or else
there isn’t much to do but I feel like taking full advantage of my free
time and just relaxing. Lately, work at my magazine has been keeping my
busy during the week, and a series of events, from a reunion at Vassar
that I had to help out with, to a rare chance to have dinner with a friend
of mine from Oxford whom I hadn’t seen for almost a year, to the Fourth of
July, has kept me away from my computer for any extended time.
Not long ago, we had Reunion Weekend at Vassar. Roughly 2,000 alumni,
ranging from 27 to 97 years of age, Came back to the campus to meet up
with old friends and reminisce about their time as undergraduates.
These kinds of events are of great importance to American colleges.
They get very little funding from the American government, so their
budget is largely determined by how much money graduates give back
to their school. Reunion weekends and other such events are ways for
Vassar and other colleges to show their graduates that they are
putting Alumni donations to good use. The college makes a special
effort to keep the alumni happy and to keep the campus looking tidy
so those donations will keep coming.
Part of the effort, of course, is making sure that all of the alumni’s
needs are taken care of, so me and virtually every other person on campus
that weekend who was not there for a reunion was enlisted to help make
sure things ran smoothly. Overall, I had a much better time at the
reunion than I thought I would. It was inspiring to see that so many
people from my school had gone on to be successful in so many different
ways.
Chinese college students might be interested to know that American
colleges invest much of their alumni donations in the construction of new
facilities. So even with new funds coming in to colleges all the time,
tuition stays around $40,000 a year for the top private colleges. That’s
about CNY 319,680 according to www.xe.com. I wonder how much Chinese
students pay a year for college, and what happens if a talented student
cannot afford college. In America a financially strapped student takes
out loans for college that he has to pay back later, but in my experience
most other countries do it differently (and better!).
Lastly, it’s incumbent upon me as a blogger from the US to China to
mention that last weekend was the Fourth of July, when Americans
celebrate Independence Day. The Declaration of Independence was signed on
July fourth 1776, but maybe you knew that already. (It always amazes me
how much people from other countries know about American History, while
most Americans tend to know next to nothing about even their own history
let alone that of China or England.)
Americans celebrate the holiday in true American fashion: we barbecue
hotdogs, hamburgers, and steak, and we watch fireworks. We didn’t invent
any of these things—I believe it was actually the Chinese who invented
fireworks (correct me if I’m wrong)—but we have used them for our own
purpose with great effect.
I was actually in Washington D.C. on the Fourth, visiting my girlfriend.
Appropriately enough for our current administration, the fireworks show
on the National Mall was something of a bust. It was a cloudy day in
Washington. For those who went early and staked out a spot directly under
the pyrotechnics, it was no doubt spectacular. But the rest of the city
had stayed home, hoping to avoid the crowds and watch the show from a
nearby private rooftop. Most of these erstwhile firework appreciators had
their views obscured by clouds. All that was left of the show was bright
flashes behind the clouds, like colored lightning in a rainless storm.
Tuesday, June 06, 2006
It’s official! I’m a college graduate. I now have a B.A. (Bachelor of Arts) in English from Vassar. In America it's called an “undergraduate” degree. Graduate degrees include Masters Degrees, Doctorates, and Law and Medical Degrees. But you have to have a Bachelors Degree before you can get a Graduate Degree.
All I can say about the ceremony is that it was hot. Not hot like "amazing," but hot like...hot. I don't know what summer is like in Shanghai, but in the Northeast of the U.S. it's not unusual for the temperature to be in the high 80's Fahrenheit (high 20's Celsius) with 80% humidity or above.
I once read a speech by Alan Simpson, the former President of Vassar College who noted the irony that for all the literally thousands of pages students write over the course of their education, their college only gives them back one piece of paper to signify their job well done. I understand what he meant. The ceremony, and the piece of paper I received during it, couldn’t help but be a bit anticlimactic. In America, especially for members of the middle class and above, a child is expected to graduate from high school and college. In some sense, I feel I only did what I was supposed to do, which makes my graduation seem like less of an achievement, less of a cause for celebration than perhaps it should be.
At the same time, because there are so many college students in America, they make up a class all of their own. Often they are easily identified by non-students by their dress and their manner. It is not a bad thing to be a student—most adults are openly nostalgic about their own time at college and so they treat students well—but there are parts of the student image that I am happy to be finished with. People assume that students are na?ve, and that, since they are not working full time, they are leaching off of society and their parents. At the end of four years I feel I am savvier than I was when I started school, (though I still undoubtedly have much to learn about adult life) and I am anxious to be contributing to the world outside of the academy and making my own living without my parents’ help. My Bachelors degree signifies more than my education. It means that I am (hopefully) ready to assume a whole new set of responsibilities.
The biggest change that comes with my graduation is not the two letters after my name, but the change in lifestyle. I, like most Americans, have been going to school nearly my entire life. I went through kindergarten, then six years of elementary school, two years of junior high school, four years of high school, and four years of college. Every June when the school year ended, I knew that in 3 month or so I’d be headed back to school. It’s a whole different mindset now.
The fill the upcoming void in their lives, some of my friends searched aggressively for jobs in the United States that they could start immediately after graduation. Some succeeded in finding employment and others did not. The American job market has certainly seen better days, especially for inexperienced workers straight out of college. Another popular plan is to spend the summer at home (living with parents free of charge) to save money for an Autumn move to a large city where they will begin a job search. I am taking a different track, working at my college for low rent over the summer to save money for my time in Shanghai.
Thursday, May 25, 2006
Long time no blog. That’s because I’ve been writing final papers for my classes at Vassar. I had 4 papers and a project due in two days; even when you have prior notice that the deadlines are coming and your professors are understanding enough to give you an extra couple of days, that’s still a lot to do in a short time. Meanwhile, I will officially graduate on May, 29. Until I actually get on a plane in September, I’m going to continue working at the Vassar Quarterly and thinking about the next step of my life. Next stop, Shanghai.
Since I decided to move to Shanghai this winter, I’ve been paying attention to the way the American press covers China. In particular, the NY Times, the “newspaper of record,” as we say on the East Coast, has lately been covering China with surprising intensity. Just a month ago the cover story of the Times Magazine was about Google’s decision to move into China. This week, the Times Magazine ran a story about the troubled construction of the new Olympic Stadium in Beijing. In between, the paper ran stories about the Rolling Stones’ first visit to China and made particular note of President Hu’s stop at the White House. (Apparently, our President Bush first wanted to meet Hu in Texas, at Bush’s ranch, but Hu demanded an official state reception on the White House lawn.) To me, this increased coverage in the most important daily newspaper in America says two things. One, China is a significant world player, and two, Americans are starting to realize it.
A friend of a friend that I was put in touch with, an American from New York City living in Shanghai, told me in an email that people who visited were surprised at how “normal” his life there was. What he meant was that Shanghai had all the amenities that Americans expect out of life. I wasn’t surprised to hear him say this, but at the same time I wondered if the whole city was up to the level of middle class America or just a small part of it?
It’s a fascinating question for me as I try to develop my expectations for the place that I’m about to go. It’s certain that China is growing economically and it seems to be the consensus that along with that the culture is also changing some. But I wonder what the people on the streets of Shanghai will be like. Will the majority of them be poor or middle class? Will most of the city be totally modern or only a few select neighborhoods? Will the average Chinese citizen realize the strides that his nation is making in the international community? Will I be as free to say what I want to say and do what I want to do as I am in America? Those are just some of the million questions I have, questions that I can’t answer until I see for myself.
Monday, April 24, 2006
The weather here in Poughkeepsie could not be worse. Just as spring had come, and temperatures reached the mid-70's (fahrenheit) earlier in the week, it's now back down in the high 40's and raining. We haven't seen the sun in this part of the country for three days. But it's a good excuse to sit down, sweatpants on, and write another post.
Something I didn't talk about last time in relation to Vassar is the way that we pick our classes. Vassar is a little different from most schools in that we are completely free to choose whatever classes we want to take. Most schools have more requirements for their students, so that students spend a good part of their time taking classes that they have to take, whether they want to or not. At Vassar, we are almost always in classes that we have chosen, just because we think they will interest us.
There are good and bad sides to this. On the good side, you feel very empowered to make the most of your own education at Vassar. It is as though they've handed you the keys to a brand new car and you can take it wherever you want to go. On the other hand, because our chooses are limitless, it can be a daunting process just to select classes. Everything looks good and there are literally hundreds to choose from! Plus, if you pick a class that it turns out you don't like, you have no one to blame but yourself.
We select out classes online, through a registration program. It's actually very simple. Before I got to college I used to hear horror stories about registering for classes. I think online registration has made everything much simpler.
Once we have our classes, it works just about how I suspect school works all over the world. We get our schedule and we attend class sessions. The professor instructs his students through lecture and discussion, and he gives them assignments to do when they are not in class. I've had classes that met twice a week for three hours each time, three times a week for an hour each time, and once a week for two hours. It varies according to the needs of the course. The most common schedule is to meet twice a week for an hour and 15 minutes each time. We take four classes at a time.
If you add up what I've said so far, you will realize that American students aren't actually in class for very long. If a work week is 40 hours long, the time that we spend in class is only a fraction of that. What do we do the rest of the time? Well, we do our assignments, and we have fun. More on that soon.
Monday, April 17, 2006
It's exciting to be here, and to be participating in this. There's so much to say I'm not sure where to begin, but I think the best way to use this blog is as a tool for sharing information--a way for me to learn about you and you to learn about me--so to start I'll give a fuller introduction of myself, and we can begin getting to know each other.
I'm a senior at Vassar College in Poughkeepsie, New York. 'Senior' means I am in the final year of my studies. In the beginning of May I will officially finish with my work at Vassar and they'll give me a degree--proof that I've done all of my work in good faith. I majored in English, so I've spent most of my time here reading great British and American Literature and criticism of that literature.
I was born in Simsbury, Connecticut, a town of about 30,000 people. Connecticut is the third-smallest state in the country. Simsbury is a two hour drive from Vassar. In this area of the country, we drive almost everywhere we have to go. Though gas prices are on the rise it is still much cheaper, and more convenient, to drive than to take buses or trains.
To prepare me for Vassar I went to Simsbury High School, the public school in my town. Public school means it is free to attend for students and funded by taxes. There are also private schools in my town. Private schools require that the students (or the students' parents) pay tuition. Some private high schools are as expensive as college tuition!
Vassar is a small liberal arts college. Only about 2600 students are enrolled and all of them are undergraduates. the label 'liberal arts college' means that there are no graduate programs at the institution, and it has also come to mean by convention that the courses at a liberal arts college will be more theoretical and abstract in nature than the courses at a university. For example, you cannot learn to become an engineer or a computer programmer at Vassar, though you could take classes in mathematics, computer science, and cognitive science. If a Vassar student wants to become an engineer or an architect, he or she probably needs to continue on to another school where they can teach you those things.
That's not to say that a Vassar education isn't valuable--it is. Because the school is so small, students get much more attention from their professors than most university students do, and because the courses (and the students) are not totally focused on an immediate practicle result, the Vassar student's mind is generally more free to explore creative ways of thinking about a problem than a typical university student's is.
I should also say a quick word about Poughkeepsie, New York. When you hear New York you may automatically think of New York City. That's quite natural. Even in America when we say 'New York' we usually mean the city. Economically and culturally New York City is the most important place in America. But New York State is actually quite large. There is a lot of farmland in New York state, not to mention the beautiful Niagra Falls way up north near the Canadian border. Anyway, Poughkeepsie is an hour and a half away from New York City by car.
As I write this, I'm sitting in Vassar's library. The building is about 150 years old, but it's been remodled many times since then. It's full of long wooden tables for reading and writing, but it also has many computers and is equipped for wireless internet service. Vassar's library is large for a college of its size, though it is by no means the largest college library in the country. Every college and university in America has its own library, and they definitely vary in size.
There's so much more to say about Vassar, but I have to get back to work. Soon I will write more--about what we do for fun here, and about how classes work. And I also want to talk about my Junior year at Oxford because British colleges are very different from their American cousins. In the mean time, please leave me comments and questions. I'm afraid the difference between universities and liberal arts colleges might be confusion. I want to know about Chinese libraries, and how colleges work there. Or maybe some of you have been to New York and want to share your experiences. Or I can trade you some New York City stories for some Shanghai stories.