Back to the Future

Hello new reader!  To old readers, welcome back. ^_^  This is a blog I started for my first visit to China back in the beginning of 2011, and now that I’m going back, it seems appropriate to me to continue chronicling my adventures here rather than starting a new blog.  However, if you ARE reading for the first time (or have simply forgotten), I would like to provide a short explanation of the title of my blog, as it is of significance to me.  Here’s a quote from my very first post:

“The title of my blog requires a bit of explanation (and foreign language experience).  When I was in high school, I went to a Hebrew immersion camp for a summer.  They told us to speak רק עברית (rough transliteration: rock ivrit), only Hebrew.  I really liked this phrase, and thought about using רק סינית (rock sinit), only Chinese, as the blog title... but it seemed a bit counter intuitive to give my blog (about Chinese) a Hebrew title. However, the same title in Chinese (只说中文) didn't have the same oomph as the Hebrew.  Thus, רק Chinese becomes Rock Chinese... a funny Hebrew-English mix, which also manages to encompass how awesome I think Mandarin is (and how amazing I hope to become at speaking it).  =]”

I believe my Chinese has improved immensely since this blog’s beginnings when I studied abroad at Minzu University of China in Beijing.  Minzu University is not as well known or prestigious as other universities such as Beida or Qinghua, but it is special in that many of its students belong to ethnic minorities.  I learned a TON with the ACC program, hopefully enough to make my upcoming adventures a bit easier.

Which leads us to what exactly I will be doing… I have been awarded a Fulbright Full Grant to go to China and study both Chinese and Psychology, my two majors in undergrad.  Before this starts, I will also be going to southern China (Guiyang, Guizhou) to host an English teaching convention for Chinese elementary and middle school English teachers.  It looks to be a very challenging and exciting year, and I hope that you will stay along for the ride!

As for the title of this post, I was recently having a discussion with close friends about the time difference between the US and China so that we could stay in touch.  One friend was particularly tickled by the fact that I would be speaking to her “from the future” as China is currently 13 hours ahead of Central Standard Time.  Also, because this will be my second time going to China, I am essentially going back to the future.

For legal purposes…..

I hereby acknowledge that this blog is not an official Department of State website.  The views and information presented here are my own and in no way represent the Fulbright Program or the U.S. Department of State.