My Language Partner

Hooray! My friend Ben, who is the graduate student assistant for our program, has found me a language partner! My language partner’s name is 陈文佳 and she is an English major. Because she is studying English, she likes to be called by Olivia, which is her English name, like my Chinese name, ai wu.

Olivia is only a freshman and this is her second semester at Beida. She is originally from Tianjin, the third largest city in China, which I actually visited a few weeks ago. She is an English major and although she speaks English very well, she still claims that I can help her just as much with her English as she can help me with her Chinese.

Olivia and I met at the library because I needed help finding some books for my communications independent study. Because we will not be getting our own library cards until next week, Olivia was nice enough to help me get into the library. The library here is pretty amazing. Not only is it beautiful, but it’s huge and modern (very much unlike AU). Olivia helped me find my books and even checked them out of the library for me on her library card.

After I got my books, Olivia and I walked around campus and chatted about our interests in both English and Chinese. We both enjoy reading, movies, and theater. Olivia’s favorite book and movie is Gone With the Wind. She told me she has watched the movie over and over again. Olivia has older siblings and I was able to tell her all about my sister. Like me, Olivia really likes school. She told me that she is taking 13 classes this semester and that each one meets for two hours a week. She wants to study abroad in the United States and get her masters in English. She has already started to study for the GRE and she is only a freshman! Olivia also told me all about different clubs she has joined on campus and recommended some clubs for me to try. I really want to join the martial arts club. I think it will be a lot of fun!

Olivia and I also had lunch together in a cafeteria on campus. Olivia took me to her favorite restaurant on campus, which I hadn’t found yet. It was really good! We talked a lot about different kinds of foods. She told me that her favorite food is rice, which is the case for every Chinese person I have asked. Olivia thought it was so strange that in the US we eat sandwiches for lunch almost everyday. She was also really impressed with my chopstick skills. I was really glad that my game was on today so I didn’t embarrass myself, but Olivia did tell me that she tried to eat Italian food with a fork once and found it incredibly difficult. I told Olivia that my favorite food is Mexican food, which she has never tried before. I think that one day we are going to eat Mexican food together in Wudakou.

After lunch, Olivia came back to Shaoyuan to see pictures of my family and friends from home. I was able to explain who the people in my pictures were to Olivia in Chinese. I was really proud of myself! Olivia was really excited about the picture of me, Jessica and Christine in Times Square on Christmas Eve Eve. She recognized Times Square right away and told me that it is her dream to spend the holidays in New York City!

Olivia was really surprised by how nice our dorms were. She also lives on campus with some other English majors, but she said their dorm is not carpeted and that they have four girls living in a room the size of mine and Marie’s. Her room is also completely a girls dorms. The dorms for the boys are on the other side of campus. She also said that in her room, they only have a Turkish toilet (which we have began to call “squatty potties”) and that they have to go to a completely different building to shower. In Olivia’s building, they also shut off the electricity and the water and 11PM every night. I guess there are no such things as all-nighters in China. This really surprised me. Beida is the best university in all of China and is rumored to be the university with the nicest dorms as well. I can’t even imagine what the dorms are like at other schools in China.

Olivia had class in the afternoon, but we are planning to meet up again on Friday. On Friday night, Madagascar 2 is playing at the movie theater on campus for 8 kuai, or about one dollar. She is going to bring her friends and I am going to bring my friends and we are all going to see the movie together. It should be a lot of fun. Olivia and I are also planning to go to the Beijing Opera together before the end of the semester.

I’m really glad that I decided to ask Ben to find me a language partner. Finding a language partner is very common in China. I am Olivia’s first language partner and she is really excited to have an American friend. I am also grateful to have my first real Chinese friend as well.