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The bridge between two countries
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By Ayumi, Section Culture
Posted on Sun Feb 01, 2004 at 06:54:09 PM PST
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My dream has been studying abroad since I started to study English in junior high school. At last, my dream is coming true this September!! I decided to go to China to study Chinese for one year as an exchange student.
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I visited China the year before last September for the first time.
With our association "AIESEC" members, I went to China to visit Japanese companies and see Chinese "AIESEC" members. I cannot forget when we arrived at the airport, a lot of Chinese talked to us. They must have said about their illegal taxies. But I got great shock and fear. I could not understand any Chinese. I felt I was in the zoo. They did not understand what I said in English. Also I did not understand what they said in Chinese.
Then we found some Chinese young men hold cardboard written "AIESEC." When I found them, I was so surprised and glad. Of course we have never seen each other. But we belong to same association "AIESEC." Can you believe I have friends who have never seen me in the world? They link to me through "AIESEC."
I do not want to say about our association, I want to show you the relationship between China and I. As I said, I visited China and got a lot of friends. I feel something strange against my interest in China, because I did not choose studying Chinese as a second language in the university. Actually I have studied French when I was a freshman. But I realized that I have never seen French since I was born. And I felt funny. On the other hand, around us in Japan, there are so many Chinese. Somewhat Japanese have taboo against Chinese or Korean, I think. Besides, the increasing number of Japanese wants to go to Western countries. It is a little bit funny thing, isn't it? Japanese do not want to see close things. Some people might have bad images to Asian people. Sorry, certainly I was such kind of person.
However, through communication with Chinese people, cultures, and cities, I could understand "real China." I know very lovely things about China. In China, everything is much cheaper than Japanese products. Chinese dishes are more derisions than Chinese food in Japan. Chinese students are more internationalized than Japanese ones. Though we Japanese were hesitated about speaking English, they used English actively. I know Chinese can be divided two parts, developed and developing. I might have seen only "developed" side. But I can say that is real China I saw, not image.
I think if we have friends in a certain country, we cannot attack the country. If we do not know about the country, we might discriminate the person from the country. In the world, a lot of people pay attention to Japan, Japanese economy, technology, and so on. But I wonder how much we know about the other countries. In my case, I hope I can be like the bridge between China and Japan. The peace comes from interpersonal relationship between countries, I believe. |
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