I took part in my school's exchange program with China back in 98 (we also had one with the US and Australia).
I was 15 at the time and had been learning Chinese as my fourth foreign language for two years at that point (Latin, English, French, Chinese, Ancient Greek).
Chinese wasn't mandatory, but I was into Manga/Anime and I didn't want to go to evening classes for Japanese. So I took the Chinese class at our school, because I assumed it couldn't be too different.
And I got hooked. I eventually even went to University (TU) at the weekend to study with Chinese kids (we're talking mostly 1st / 2nd graders, but still :p).
Our principal approached me one day and asked, if I wanted to partake in our school's exchange program with Beijing's Wu Zhong (5th middle school). I was thrilled and honored, but didn't have the money.
My grandparents came to the rescue when I told them about it. They said, that it was a great opportunity to broaden my horizon and paid for the flight and gave me some extra cash.
So at the spring of 98 I went to Beijing to meet my exchange family (family "Yang"). They were originally from the South (Hang Zhou, I later went there to visit the family). And even though I'd never met them before, they made me feel like part of the family right away. We lived in a tall apartment complex at the 3rd or 4th highway ring at the 15th or 16th floor. Even the neighbors were really kind to me. I remember an old lady in the elevator of our building calling me "handsome" (not as flattery, but more as a nice gesture).
My buddy Yang Zheng was like a brother to me. He even had a similar English name to mine. And we both loved playing video games.
Thanks to him I discovered Neo Geo emulation, Virtua Fighter 2, QQ, Internet cafes (where I played my first rounds of Star Craft) and shady games/VCD vendors (real store front, but you just filled out a list and then collected your "items" outside in the backyard).
He was more into basketball, but still went out his way to take me to the backyards where the kids played soccer (because I kinda sucked at basketball, but was at least somewhat capable at soccer).
My Chinese dad (Professor Yang Yuanyi) lead an institute, that worked on modern Chemical products like skin care and advised the government on Chemical safety (from what I understood). My Chinese mom worked directly for the government regarding ecological matters (preserving nature etc). They were kinda upper middle class, because they had 3 rooms and their own bathroom, which wasn't super common at the time (I only learned that later when visiting other friends, who sometimes shared their bedroom with their grandma and had to use the communal bathroom).
And even though they didn't own a car, we had a really nice neighbor, who would drive us around in his black VW Santana. Thanks to him I got to see the outskirts, the further parts of the Chang Cheng, the lake, that provided fresh water to Beijing - and later we even went to Bei Da He, which is far up in the North.
I loved everything about Beijing and went everywhere on my bike. I discovered the massive number of tech shops around the 4th highway ring and even bought my first VHS player (which by the time was old-school for Chinese, who had switched to VCD/SVCD already and would soon transition to DVD).
And I loved going to school. To me it wasn't any different from any other school (except for the morning drill and the kinda mandatory Tai Chi). I sat in the back with the the more "slacky" students. We made fun of the teachers, passed notes around, snickered and ranked the girls.
And we all agreed, that Wang Ying was the hottest of them all. But even though we all tried everything in the book to get her to date one of us, she wasn't interested at all ("Why would I want a boyfriend, which would limit me to one particular guy, when instead I can have a whole bunch of really good male friends?"). Also, she had a crush on a soccer player (Owen Something, can't remember). So there was no chance in hell.
I also vividly remember the first time we went to a public indoor pool. After you'd proven, that you were capable of swimming, you could do whatever you liked. You could even set up a table and eat right next to the pool. Glorious times.
Oh, also our first time at Pizza Hut. Wang Ying was from a very traditional rich family, so she'd never used a fork + knife before. I couldn't comprehend how someone could actually struggle to cut out a piece of pizza, but the struggle was real, alright. :-P
In the summer we went to Hang Zhou, which has a ton of other stories attached (the train ride alone was an adventure, taking up a whole day/night). But I'll keep it short: the beautiful West Lake, weird unsweetened water ice, pagodas, bamboo forests, temples, hot tea and hot soup in the middle of summer after climbing the hills and sweating like crazy. Also, I'd dyed my hair black in an attempt to look more Chinese (I know, cringe, and the barber didn't get my decision, as pretty much all other customers would have loved to have blonde hair).
And at some point my Chinese family told me, that they considered me as a part of the family. "Whenever you feel lonely, don't forget, that you have a family here in China."
Yeah, I fell in love with the country and the people. I actually cried on the plane on my flight back home. Getting off at Tegel airport Berlin felt so small compared to Beijing.
I went back there a few more times (I even celebrated my 17th birthday in Beijing - at the ice rink). I even met my Chinese dad in Berlin a few years later when he visited/spoke at a symposium.
But over the years I have lost contact with all of them. Life gets in the way. A few years ago I almost contacted my Chinese dad, when I found out he had been to Germany to speak at another symposium. I received his current email address, but I never wrote a mail. I just wouldn't know what to write ...
What a story haha. You made me nostalgic from your own memories !
Thanks. Yeah, I could go on and on (like seeing Titanic for the first time in a small theater in Bei Da He - with a couple in front of me making out - so I had to be the asshole who was interrupting them constantly to get at least some parts of what was said in the movie). I got to relive some old memories, realizing that they were still clear as day after all these years. But I was on my phone - so I'd already typed for an hour or two (I never mastered the art of typing on the phone - until this day I'm still swiping). Also, who'd actually want to read a wall of text, that just bubbled to the surface with little coherency and lack of creative writing.
Though I'll see, if I can find the picture from my room's window in Beijing back then. It still has the old Hutongs in it. I remember waking up every morning to this gorgeous view, hearing the first rumblings of the market, the first trains, the radios being switched on in the small parks everywhere for the old people's Tai Chi exercises and the myriad of breakfast aromas in the air.
Edit: Found it. Since it's glued to the front cover of the photo album, it wasn't as well protected as the other pictures (which I'd also already scanned some years ago).
But for me it still invokes the same amount of nostalgia.
The writing inside the album also reminded me, that the album originally belonged to Yang Zheng, which he had gained as a price for his outstanding performance with his saxophone.
This was an awesome read. I might have a chance to go to China within the next few years and have been desperately trying to learn Mandarin beforehand. It’s a lot harder than Japanese or Spanish but the challenge is awesome!
Interesting. To me, Japanese seems much more difficult. :P
I also have no idea how much of my experience is still applicable to modern China.
Back then China was really opening up to the West, eager to soak up everything new. It was still a sort of balancing act for the party (at the one hand, you could more openly criticize the party etc, but on the other you had stuff like the persecution of Falun Gong).
Beijing still had its old Hutongs, Hong Kong was still British and "bad mainland Chinese tourists", the "elbow" culture and flaunt of wealth/status weren't really a thing, yet.
Now China is turning inwards again. It'll have to weather some rough economical, social and political (external + internal) storms. And it's choosing the "nationalistic" and restrictive approach for that (which is pretty much the current West's approach/trajectory, mind you, but it's still sad to see).
But even so, I still love China. It really is a world of its own. You can meet hundreds of different cultures, see humble villages and mega cities, experience ancient traditions and cutting edge tech, travel through almost all climate zones, terrains/landscapes, flora and fauna -and still never leave its borders.
Hey man, please, PLEASE reach out to them again. It doesn't matter what you say. They will be so happy to hear from you.
I'll check, if the email address from years back is still valid.
If it is, I'll send a mail and update you on the outcome.
This was a great read! Thanks for sharing.
Knew several, dated one. The one guy was a bit of a douche, but the one girl was cool. Both of those were from Germany, different parts.
There was a girl from Milan that was awesome. Just one of those people that's able to make anything fun.
Those, however, were in a higher grade than I was at the time, so there wasn't as much interaction.
In my junior year, there was a girl from Madrid in my grade. She and a girl I had dated that was from Mexico City were both in the same Spanish class I was taking. Kind of a chance for them to work on more conversational English, and for us americans to have native speakers to talk to. What it ended up being was two kids that spoke Spanish so fast and so well, with slang and accents that the teacher couldn't keep up with that it was a comedy. The girl I had dated wasn't an exchange student, she had immigrated with her parents, and was a citizen by that point. And they didn't always get along, what with the cultural divide and differing personalities, but the teacher was such a twatwaffle that they had more fun screwing with her than arguing lol. But the Spanish girl was really nice. Went out of her way to help other students, and put up with my bad spanish that was part the Castilian that we learned in class, part the stuff the girl I had dated taught me, and all done with a southern accent.
There was also a guy from France that year, but I never had any real interaction with him. Seemed decent from what I heard about him, and he was certainly friendly.
But then, there's Junko. We shared an art class. She was Japanese. She was also a bit of a metalhead, and an amazing artist. She blew away everyone, including the teacher, on any project we did. Just astounding skill, and wildly creative with it. She ended up sitting between me and a friend of mine just randomly at the start of the year, and a few days later when we both had on band shirts, started gushing about Iron Maiden. She brought in her painting of Eddie, a slightly modified version of the somewhere in time album cover.
So, it was on. The three of us would sit there working on whatever, talking about music.
Which led into me and her working on a project together. A sculpture of Eddie lol but it was fun, and it was a long project we were expected to work on outside of school.
We liked each other a lot. After the project, it just turned into us hanging out pretty much any time her host family was okay with it. At some point, a few months in, we're sitting in class joking about my dad greeting her in bad Japanese every time she comes over (he was stationed on Okinawa during his army stint) when someone asked if we were dating. I was not aware that we were, but Junko just piped up with a yes and kissed my cheek.
Apparently, she like, like liked me. I did her as well but at the time I was about as clueless as it gets. I can't say it was love, but she did make my heart do funny things when she'd laugh, which was often.
So, the rest of the year, we dated a bit more intentionally. The closer it got to the end of the year, though, we knew it was going to end, and we also knew it wasn't something that was long term enough to make any kind of plans. So that was pretty much it. By the time she went home, it was essentially just friendship with occasional kissing. But there was a deeper affection, we just didn't pursue it. She wasn't moving here, I wasn't moving there, so no point in letting things get too involved, you know?
We did exchange letters for a few years, though that petered out until email became a thing got each other's addresses and kept in touch that way off and on. She had called my dad to find me. It's been a few years since we last communicated though.
Cute story ! I had a similar one, that didn't end nearly as good. I like yours better
Wow, this was a rollercoaster of emotions.
It was then too :)
I've been an exchange student in high school, and my family hosted two of them. Im from Germany, and the exchange was with US students. My personal experience was interesting, I stayed with a mormon family in Utah, and it was a very different life than I was used to from my rather liberal upbringing. Not necessarily in a way that bothered me as most of the people at school also were Mormon and had more or less strict Mormon parents. But yeah, it was just very different. Going to church every Sunday, praying together with family and reading their religious texts, small acts of community service under the umbrella of the church. Their lives were very much defined by their religion and the social circle they built at church. I wouldn't necessarily say that I kept any of their habits or beliefs long-term, although some stuck with me for a couple of months after I returned home. I do believe that the experience made me more open-minded and inclined to understand others rather than judge them.
The first student we hosted actually stayed with us in the year before I went to the US. He was kind and sociable, and we could tell he was having a good time during his year. I think he also realized some things about himself that he hadn't known before, so that's great. That's the biggest advantage, you go through so much personal growth during that year, which can really help you get ahead of your peers if you can utilize it.
The other student we hosted had a rougher time, and I think it came down to not really finding connection at school. But he did end up staying the year with us and visited again a couple of years later, so I'd say it was overall still a positive experience for him and our family.
Yes I was, my parents wanted me to practice my english. I lived with a family in Indiana for a bit and then lived with another familly in North Dakota. Both families were different but I liked the one in Bismarck better, the girls from the Muncie family were mean to me the whole time. My parents booked the experience through a private agency, not really sure how that worked (it was the nineties). ETA: I was 12 years old when I started the exchange and went back to my home country at 15
Are you saying you lived with another family in another country between 12 and 15 years of age? The whole time?
Yes. My own family visited for Christmas.
Knew several as I was wrapping up uni. Had lots of fun partying and doing local trips with them.
I married one and moved to her home country for a few years. Now we live together in a third country.
We hosted one while I was in college. He fit into our family well and we still stay in touch 20 years later.
There was an exchange student from Spain in my high school Spanish class (in the US). The main thing I remember is that when we actually needed to communicate with him, it was easiest when he spoke English and we spoke Spanish.
Yes, to both ends.
My family hosted a student in my grade and we went to high school together. The exchange program did her so dirty. She was told students got placed in cities and thought she would be where she would be able to go into NYC on the weekends. She ended up on our farm, an hour and a half from what could only be called a small city if being generous, at least two flights from NYC, and eight hours by car to an actual large city.
I studied abroad for a semester in college and moved out of my host family's and into my own apartment quickly for many reasons.
My older sister hosted a Japanese exchange student when I was in high school. I learned a few words, but he was a regular teenager who barely knew English. We did crush a bucket of chocolate chip cookies in one weekend camping trip.
After he left, I found out his parents forced him into the exchange program so they could get a break. He seemed alright to me.
Yes, it was fun. It was with one of the places on the sister city program. You really had to watch your step though.
German here, did Erasmus exchange in Istanbul, Turkey while at art / design school. While the university there was to, uh ... practical? advertisement focussed? capitalist? for my liking it still was one of the best things I've done in my life so far. Met so many cool people from different backgrounds, learned a lot about social skills / relationships, the music, the food, it is (was? It was like 15 years ago, before Erdogan) an amazing city. Can def recommend.
