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Blue and White China
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​从丹佛到北京：我的中文历程

​From Denver to Beijing

My Chinese Language Journey

Studying Chinese at the University of Denver

As a high school freshman in 2013, I faced a difficult choice. Either I could sign up for Spanish I and spend the next two years studying Spanish, or I could chose to take Chinese. Those were the two choices. Most of the school took Spanish.

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I decided on Chinese. 

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I spent the next four years struggling through the basics of Mandarin Chinese. Our class size dwindled each year as the coursework became heavier and more difficult. At the end of my time in high school, I was one of four seniors still studying Chinese. 

I loved Chinese as much I hated it. It was impossible and frustrating, but the language itself was fascinating. I also loved learning about Chinese history, culture, and cuisine. The more I learned, the more I wanted to study abroad in China. I made that my goal. 

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The same year I enrolled at the University of Denver, I tested into the intermediate Chinese Language Class. 

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I was completely unprepared for the suddenly learning curve. College-level Chinese was an entirely different playing field. Instead of learning twenty words every two weeks, I was suddenly expected to learn twenty words every two days. I felt like I was constantly one step behind my classmates. 

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My first year of Chinese, I seriously considered quitting. Maybe four years of high school Chinese was enough, I thought. Maybe I can just stop here and be done. 

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Then I remembered DU's study abroad program. In just two years, I would be able to go to China for three months and immerse myself in a culture I had grown to love. 

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That thought alone pushed me along. For two years, I crammed for vocab tests, wrote and acted out skits, gave presentations, wrote short essays and journal entries, and even participated in oral contests. My Chinese skill gradually improved. 

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Below I collected some of my earlier Chinese essays. They are short and clumsy, but they represent a strong effort throughout my first two years as a Chinese minor.

Studying Chinese at Peking University

In 2019, I applied to study abroad in Beijing. I specifically chose the Language Immersion Program at Peking University, the most prestigious university in China. Our teachers had been hyping up this program for two years. They promised that our Chinese language levels would increase beyond anything that we could achieve in a classroom. 

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The Language Immersion Program focused entirely on learning Mandarin. Incoming students had to sign a pledge, promising that they would not speak English except for on the weekends. Monday through Friday, students would only speak Chinese. 

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It wasn't just speaking practice, either. Students on the Language Track spent about six hours every day just learning Chinese. One-on-one tutoring took up two hours of the day, and formal classroom lessons filled up the rest of the day, dedicating two hours to reading and writing lessons and two hours to oral lessons. After class, students went home and spent two to three hours on homework. 

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I loved it. It was incredibly challenging at first, and sometimes just communicating a simple idea seemed impossible. Then, after about a month of living Mandarin Chinese, something just... clicked. Every week I seemed to get better and better. I could recall vocabulary words faster, recognize text without having to look back at my text book, perform skits without a set script. It wasn't just the Chinese lessons that helped me improve. It was my day-to-day experience living with others who spoke only Chinese. Every time I ordered a meal, made a reservation, and figured out how to pay, my Chinese improved. Every time I bartered with a street vender or gave a taxi driver directions, my Chinese improved. Every time I struck up a conversation with someone sitting next to me on the bus or at a cafe, my Chinese improved. Bit by bit, I was learning.

 

My spoken Chinese improved the most, but my writing during this time also shows my growth. I am incredibly proud of the essay I wrote during my time abroad, and I am proud of the writing I produced when I returned to DU. I have included some examples of my writing below. 

© 2021 by Kathleen Burns. Proudly created with Wix.com

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