为什么你学中文？
Weishenme ni xue Zhongwen?
Why are you studying Chinese?
Why are you studying Chinese?
Why are you studying Chinese?
Why are you studying Chinese?
I have been asked this question in a variety of ways in a variety of languages (Chinese, Hindi, English) over the course of this semester. Yes, as a junior, I have started a new language. And not just any language, but Chinese.
I am the only junior in my section (and there’s a senior too!), but it often feels I have come back full circle as a first-year Chinese student. Wo shi Yelu Daxue san nianji de xuesheng keshi wo shi Zhongwen yi nianji de xuesheng. Everything feels new. There is exuberance and a need to do well. There is a community. I love hearing how my fellow freshmen classmates (tongxue) are getting along. Their first parents’ weekend. Their first college screw. Their first everything.
There is much you can get out of the Chinese program at Yale. It is one of the best in the country, and one of the largest language programs, with nearly 100 first-year students. You can possibly win the renowned Light Fellowship and get Yale to pay for an entire summer experience (on a side note: you can get Yale to pay for lots of other experiences, too.）The Richard U. Light Fellowship covers the full costs of students studying Korean, Japanese, or Korean, for any term, summer, spring, or fall, for as long as you want.
But I soon realized that the perks weren’t exactly all the language had to offer, and it wasn’t exactly why I was studying Chinese.
I enjoy watching my mom laugh at me as I practice my Chinese, my tones less than perfect, struggling to understand every word that’s said during Ang Lee’s Eat, Drink, Man, Woman. I catch hao de nanpengyou and mei you and shi a. I teach my mom how to say how much in Chinese (duoshao qian?), which she hopes to use the next time she goes to the Flushing fish market. I talk to my Hindi teacher and she reaffirms, yes, Snigdha, now you will be able to talk to 2/3 of the world’s population.Looking at my life, my decisions have usually been based on getting outside of my comfort zone, always being a bit off-kilter. I backpacked for the first time as a pre-frosh on FOOT. I farmed the summer after my freshman year (I’m a city girl). I lived in Mumbai for two-and-a-half-months on my own.
Or maybe I just like the challenge. I was ready, after two years of learning Hindi, to cross the border, or that’s what I tell people. I may not agree with Chinese politics or even some cultural mindsets. At the end of the day, I enjoy going to class. I like that feeling of knowing how to write certain characters because they have become engrained in my muscle memory. If there’s anything I’ve learned here in college, and at Yale, it’s that some of the detours you take—the ones that don’t exactly fit into your majors—that can be the most rewarding and the most fun