MAKE A NEW FRIEND
This is your final and most difficult homework assignment. You have two weeks to complete this assignment.
Introduce yourself to a foreign exchange student who is a complete stranger to you.. Engage in an extended conversation or even an activity such as inviting them to join you at English Corner, go to climb a mountain, go shopping, have lunch or just coffee, etc.
Write a 250 word summary of your experience.
At the beginning of your summary put your new foreign friend’s name, home country and telephone number. Post your summary here.
THE NAME, COUNTRY AND PHONE NUMBER WILL NOT APPEAR ON THE PUBLIC WEB PAGE. The name, country and phone number is required because if I think you are making up a story I will call your new friend.
The foreign exchange students have classes in the same building as HEL both on the 3rd and 4th floors.
Most foreign exchange students also speak English as L2 and will appreciate having a new Chinese friend to practice English. Last semester this was the most successful and appreciated homework assignment. Just read “Holistic English, A Revolution, not an Evolution” to confirm this.
This Monday morning after finishing the oral English class, I wanted to make a foreign friend on the 3rd floor. I saw three girls chatting in English near the stairs.
I walked toward them, and asked “Excuse me, can I talk with you for a few minutes?” Maybe what I said was a little abrupt, two girls appeared less willing to talk with me, but the girl farthest to me seemed friendlier. I went straight to her and looked at her carefully. She looks cool, slim build, wearing gray hat, and drinking a can of coffee. She looks just like a modern version of Barbie.
I asked her which country she was from at first, because she looks so like our Chinese and I was not sure whether she is a Chinese or oriental from other Asian countries. She told me she was from Vietnam and studied Chinese in our university. Then she told me something in Chinese. My god! I was a little jealous that she could speak three kinds of languages so fluently.
Then I asked her name, she wrote her Chinese name “小燕” on my notebook. I asked her for her English name and she said “Sorry, I don’t have an English name”. Unbelievable! Then I asked her to write her name in her native language, she wrote “YEN” on my notebook.
We talked about many other things in English such as her feeling of studying in China and the International Students’ Cultural Festival several days ago. Unfortunately, the school bell rang moments later. She said she would have a class at 11:30. So we exchanged our QQ number and email, and then said goodbye to each other.
It was Thanksgiving Day yesterday. I sent her a message “Thank you for giving me the chance to make friend with you. I hope we could have more exchanges so as to understand each other better. Thank you, my friend!” She replied immediately, “let’s be good friends”.
May be my assignment has finished, but our friendship will never end!
When I first received the email of the last assignment of making a new friend, I think it’s very difficult for me. As for me, I commonly speak little with strangers in everyday life. Making a new friend in two weeks is a challenge for me. Fortunately, there is the International Culture Festival 2009 in Xiongdelong Center at last Saturday afternoon and I could meet many foreigners. So I made friends with some of them. When I came to the 1st hall of the Xiongdelong Center that afternoon, a foreigner gave me a green flag of Pakistan. Then I can see that there are so many countries and much distinctive delicious food of their own countries. To my surprise, all of the foreigners could speak Chinese and some of them even speak very well. Before I came here, I was a little afraid of my poor oral English and I prepared some usual sentences in order to talk fluently with them. But all of them speak Chinese and I didn’t need to be afraid of my poor English. We talked in Chinese. Compared with them, they can speak Chinese after several months staying in China, but we can’t speak English for more than ten years. Then I came to the English booth firstly and there are two guys making milk tea for others. Suddenly, one of my classmates who came with me said that “that boy look so young and cute!” Maybe it was inappropriate to describe a boy, but he looks really cute. We talked with him and he was very friendly. His name is Joe and he has a Chinese name Zhou Yunhao. He comes from England and he is a junior student. His major is Chinese language. Oh, so he can speak Chinese well after three months in China! He is very friendly and we make friends with him. Many of us take photos with him. Then we went to the booths of other countries. How delicious the food is! At night, we went to see their performance from different countries. It‘s an interesting activity. We make friends with foreigners and experience the different culture. I hope it will be held every year.
Actually I fail to finish the assignment. I didn’treally and truly make a new foreign friend. But what I can tell is that I have tried it. Now let me share my experience of finding a new friend.
I have been thinking about how to make a new foreign friend for a few days. The best chance for me to meet foreign friends was the “International Cultural Festival” at XiongDelong on last Saturday night when I went back home to attend my friend’s wedding party. So I missed the chance. Then I reached a dead end when yesterday Fei, one of my classmates, told me she also hadn’t finished the assignment, so we decided to visit NO.3 teaching building where exchange students have classes after our class that afternoon. When we arrived there, we didn’t see any students on the third floor. We walked along the aisle. Most of exchange students were having classes or studying in the classroom, which made us dare not to disturb them. There were also several students who we thought were those unreachable and untouchable students on the balcony, some were smoking and some were lying on the desk, which scared us. Then one classroom came out a big boy, which we thought was our chance. But he told us he just had a break of the class to go to the bathroom and didn’t have much time. He also told us he was from Indonesia. Without talking too much, we had to let him go and join his class, which made us a little disappointed. Then we went up to the fourth floor. Luckily, we saw a blondie smoking at the end of the aisle. Then we came near to her, it came out that she was a hot and beautiful blondie. After the first boy’s experience, we firstly asked her whether she had time to talk with us. Though we talked to her in English, she responded in Chinese fluently, which surprised us. Which disappointed us again was that the beautiful girl was also having the class break the same as the Indonesian boy. She told us she had to join her class after the cigarette and didn’t have much time in Chinese. We praised her Chinese was so good and asked how many she had learned Chinese. She told us she was from Russia and she had learned Chinese for two years in her country, one year in China. Compared to our English learning experience, it made us feel ashamed of ourselves. Just a short talk with us, the girl left. Then we were alone again. We waited for a few minutes in the NO.3 teaching building and had no gain. Then we left the building disappointedly. We don’t get the right time to visit NO.3 teaching building and so we failed the task. But the assignment had to been finished, then I went with some classmates to meet a German exchange student named Simon in our college, actually I didn’t talk much with Simon, other classmates talked the most of time. Finally, of course I got Simon’s telephone number. But I don’t think I have finished the assignment. I think I fail it. But this whole experience has helped me learn something more important and I am thankful for it.
When I received the assignment ‘make a new friend’ a few days ago, I was confused by the hard mission. I never contact a foreigner actively before and never speak one English word to a foreigner actively either. Becauce my character is introverted and I even rarely make a new domestic friend before, It is a big challenge to me.
I remembered one of my senior was a home tutor of two korean, I ask him to introduce one of them to me. He promised and brought me to the classroom where they studied. And introduce him to me. His name is Jin chngmin and his major is EMBA. His oral English is not good either thus I felt I was talking with my classmate, but the difference is that: If I talk to a my classmate with English, we could instead with Chinese when we were jam. But it didn’t work when I talk with a Korean, I cann’t speak Korean, he could speak chinese, but just a little.
We must speak English because the situation changed, I couldn’t depend on Chinese any more, It felt just like that: Mr wolff tell us wacth English movie without subtitles or only English subtitles. So my experience of this event is that: If you want learn English better, abandon Chinese first.
It would must be a great challenge for me to make a foreign friend if I had not attended Holistic English class. Because I used to be a shy boy and lack confidence to communicate with stranger, let alone a foreigner. But after attending several classes of professor Martin, I gain much confidence and make some progress, which lay a foundation for this homework.
On a Saturday evening last month, I saw off my friend at underground station and returned. On my way to the apartment, at south-gate of our campus, a foreigner came up and ask me how to get to School of Business in unskilled Chinese. It happened that returning to my apartment need to pass there, so I could take him to there and have a chance to communicate with him. We walked and talked. He told me he was an staff in a personnel department of a company in Guangzhou. He come to our university to jump the battery. His Chinese is not so skilled but his English is much better than mine. He exhorted me to treasure the life and friendship on campus. Also I gave him my information, when I ask him weather diploma is important for a person’s further development he said it’s of course. I suddenly felt that a lot need to talk between us, but time is too limited. He had to attend the night class at 7 pm. He gave me his phone number and told me to contact him freely then. But it is pity that I have never seen him again after that. We contact just by message or E-mail. This Wednesday he sent me a message to say he was on a business trip in Hangzhou at present. I do hope I can meet him again, not just for completing this homework but to learn more about wonderful world outside and practice my oral English from a foreigner, which might be a memorable experience. I believe I need a foreign friend like him, he also need me. I do feel the exchange between people is badly needed. It’s benefit both sides.
When I got this homework assignment from Professor Martin Wolff, I think this homework could be the most difficulty assignment for me. Because in our country, making a new friend I think is not an easy thing, and what’s more, most Chinese people are always shy when they speak to a person who they don’t meet each other before. So they may don’t want to communicate the strangers. But sometime we should change this mind, because communication is becoming very important nowadays. So we should practice our oral English, and speaking with a person who from English speaking country maybe the most efficiency way to improve our oral English. So, on the afternoon of 11.21, I went to the Xiong DeLong students activity center with some of my friend, as I heard that international culture exchange festival would be held there. When we got there, I saw many foreigners from all over the world. What surprised me most was that many foreign people who were displaying their culture and cuisine. Then I noticed one of a foreigner, Her name is Hatcg, who comes from Russia and has been in China for about five months. She is an exchange student who will stay in China for one year. Her major is Business English. I told her that if she could introduce some Russia culture to me, then she pointed at the pictures behind her and told me something about thier food. She told me that their breakfast contains lots of fried food and it’s not good for health. She think Chinese food is very good.Then we talked about music. I gussed she like music very much. And then she told me something about Vitas, and I think Vitas si her superstar. At last, we exchange our phone number and Email(her email is: By6Ka@yandex.rh). we suppose have a meal together in the future. What a wonder day! I can’t believe I can communicate with a foreigner, thank you for the international culture exchange festival.
Tomorrow, I joined a Chinese international community party, there were many foreigners there, most come from Korea and Indonesia, and some boys were very tall, you can know they were Germany. We play some games about Chinese culture, so they can learn many Chinese words. I found all of them speak English very well, but Chinese poor. But FengYun’s Chinese and English are both prefect. She asked me many question about Chinese, she told me she had been in BeiJin and Shanghai ,and wanted to be JiuZaiGou. I told her, JiuZaiGou is very beautiful, but too many traveler there, you’d better go there in winter. I asked why her English is so good, she tell me, in Indonesia, people learn English when they were very young, English is the second language in her country. She also told many other things about Indonesia, I think that country must be very interesting and beautiful, I want there if there is a chance.
I also known some Korea friends, some of them come from FuShan, some come from SoEr. All of them seems very rich, and their skin were so slick all the time, they all are very good at talking, but their Chinese I can’t understand, and English is poorer than me from my opinion.
I feel FengYun was a very kind and beautiful girl. Next time I will treat her for a dinner.
What’s the assignment? Making a friend with a foreigner? Unbelievable, it’s impossible. It’s hard for me to make friend with a Chinese stranger no saying a foreigner. What can I do? These my first thoughts when I saw the last assignment Martin gave us. But I did it, yes, I did it. Through all of the thing, I exactly know that If you want and have the courage, there will no difficult things.
In order to make a foreign friend, I tried many ways, such as internet, English corner and so on. It’s unsuccessful. But at last , luckily, a friend of my roommate who studies in School of Chinese as a Second Language introduced a Viet Nan boy to us. We decided to invite the Vietnamese to dinner. That day he brought us a South Korean girl, clearly, she was his girl friend.
On Wednesday night, we went to a SiChuan food restaurant which a friend recommended. At the dinner, l learned many things that I didn’t know before. To my surprise, he can speak fluent Chinese after just one and a half year in China. And he said that learning Chinese is difficult than studying English because Chinese character is too complicated to write and remember. It’s a great shock to me. I have learned almost twenty years English, but I can’t use it well. We talked a lot of things such as his life in China, his hometown city, the reason why he came to China to learn Chinese and so on. They also have the Spring festival, Mid-term festival and mooncake just similarly to us. He said there are many Chinese in their country, the business between China and Viet Nan is booming, and his father can speak Chinese too. Maybe the girl felt shy, she didn’t say much.
What a enjoyable dinner! Thanks to the assignment , I got a wonderful experience.
There was a culture & art festival of foreign students in last Saturday, and I heard that many foreign students will present the evening party so I thought it was a good opportunity to make a friend with a foreigner. Actually I got a little nervous when I considered I would say hello and sought to make him or her to be friendly with me. I prepared a lot for tonight’s action: bought a thanking card and mystery present.
My roommate and I came to the party at 7 o’clock and the hall was fulfilled with people—I couldn’t tell where are they all come from, but I could recognize some Korean, Thais and Japanese because they were wearing their traditional costumes. No seats for use to sit so we just stood aside and were immediately attracted by the show. Time went by and we were interested in watching programs and almost forgot the assignment. Suddenly I caught a quick glance of two beautiful girl one of which was dressing a kimono were sitting besides us and talked in a language that I couldn’t understand. They must be Japanese.
My roommate asked them:”do you have program tonight? ” their answer was yes. I told them that my roommate and I wanted to make friends with them but we had no malicious intent—it was an assignment and it was also a good wish of us. They agreed after a short time consideration and wrote down there name and telephone number in a piece of paper and I gave them my mystery gifts—two toys in Chinese minority population costumes. They said it was “Kawayi” and expressed there appreciation.
Soon Reiko—the girl dressed in kimono was going to prepare for the performance, so we said wish her performance will be successful and make a promise of keeping connection with each others.
During the two weeks, I recognized two foreigners. The first one whose name was Diamond. He came from Togo and he could speak English and French every well. He also learned Chinese at the SUN YAT-SEN University. We knew each other at the English Corner last Wednesday. At the corner, many students around him asked the question one by one. So at the beginning, I just listened what they said. After a while, when I introduced myself that I learned the Math and Computer. Students and he seemed that I must be very clever. So I joined them successfully. That evening we talked a lot. We discussed our common interests. Especially about basketball, we talked about which star and which team you like best about NBA. Maybe I knew he played basketball very well too. I told him that French was very good at Algebra and they have the tradition. He agreed with me. Yesterday I went to English corner again. I felt a little sad as he didn’t come. But I spoke with a foreigner who was from Australian and another one who came was Italian. They suggested me to join the Chinese corner at 7:30 each Friday. Maybe this week or next I will go to see it.
In our colleague, there was also a foreigner who was from Japan. His English name was. Yamamoto Taishi. As we had class at the same place and we knew more. He learned law in Japan South Mountain University. And he had worked several years. He liked to make cartoons and so he came here to study some computer acknowledge. Now when after class, we may discuss some questions that we have learned. Finally, I wanted to say a word to Professor Martin. Thank you for the last assignment. Because I wanted to make a foreign friend when I entered the University this September. But I have not enough encourage. Maybe the final assignment forced me to put my idea come true and helped me a lot.
In fact, he and I were friends not because of this task, it is a very coincidental thing.
Last week, I have to go to college every day, the Office of duty to help teachers to do the project. Some exchange students in another teacher’s office to do things in the college. When I was preparing to open the office door, a good friend called me , who came out from another office with the exchange student . I can very naturally say hello to them and was going to open the door in, but my good friend began to introduce me to him. So I had the courtesy to say “nice to meet you!”. Because I was afraid he did not understand me, I wanted to go quickly. He began to say “I often see you come here”, we began a simple chat. I have been using very simple words because of my poor English, but he was able to understand what I said, that makes me very happy.
Later, I suddenly thought of the teacher’s task, by the way, I told him this task and asked his telephone number. Although this is only a brief chat, but I was very happy to know him. I will often see them in college, through this exchange I will not be afraid of the speech with them, hoping to become a true friend.
In fact, he and I were friends not because of this task, it is a very coincidental thing.
Last week, I have to go to college every day, the Office of duty to help teachers to do the project. Some exchange students in another teacher’s office to do things in the college. When I was preparing to open the office door, a good friend called me , who came out from another office with the exchange student . I can very naturally say hello to them and was going to open the door in, but my good friend began to introduce me to him. So I had the courtesy to say “nice to meet you!”. Because I was afraid he did not understand me, I wanted to go quickly. He began to say “I often see you come here”, we began a simple chat. I have been using very simple words because of my poor English, but he was able to understand what I said, that makes me very happy.
Later, I suddenly thought of the teacher’s task, by the way, I told him this task and asked his telephone number. Although this is only a brief chat, but I was very happy to know him. I will often see them in college, through this exchange I will not be afraid of the speech with them, hoping to become a true friend.
EDITOR’S NOTE:
THE FOLLOWING POST WAS DELETED BY MISTAKE BUT WAS RECOVERED.
jim class1
Yesterday, in the afternoon,I went to the Number 3 teachering building to make a new friend with my classmate GaoChuan.There was a big porch on the third floor,so we desided to stay there that so many foreign students were rest at there.We waited.After a while,a student came to us near to goachuan.We were all shy boys,so we wait a minute.In the end,gaochuan walked to that student and said “Excuse me,can we have somethng to talk”.He was a very open minded boy.He answered “yes”.
Gaochuan said “we have a homework to do that is to make a foreign friend”.He said “he also have same homework that is to make a chinese friend”.So we became friends in a short time.
After that,we asked his name,age and country.when I asked “how old are you?” He said “guess”.Gaochuan said “23” and I said “20”,but we were all wrong.He was 22. Iasked him “what will like to do when your spare time”.he said “ I like football and jogging”. We knew many things about him.He was born in Syria, but learnt at dubai in UAE.He only learn english two years,but he speaked english very well.He said his country also haven’t ESE,so he teached himself.He liked watching english movies and listening english misic.
His major was chinese lauguage,so his chinese was very good too.He now worked at a trading company, a part-time job.
Then the bell rang,so he had to go.We exchanged our telephone number and QQ.
Maybe,we can have more talk in a later,I think.
Ali is a black and really big guy. We met because my instructor wanted to get some feedback about the new testing tool that was developed for the international market, so we arranged a meeting at the South Lawn Restaurant, and Ali is not the only one guy that joining the meeting, but considering the homework instruction so I am just talking about Ali.
We show Ali the doll that is for multicultural interacting communication. Ali was really interested in it, and he told us a lot about how he felt and his idea about how it could be improved in his mind. The English of Ali was not so good, maybe he is also a L2 speaker, but the communication is quite OK maybe it is because of the communicational tool and the L2 to L2 effect. After all, the communication went well and we started the lunch and talked about the family and our nations.
Ali is a Muslim, so that he does not have pork and he is religious self disciplined. He said that they would serve the Muslim ceremony a few times in the day. Though Ali actually told us that the young Muslim as Ali and his friends thought this kind of ceremony quite boring, they still serve it although they are in China. As for the marriage tradition, I was surprised to find out that the western self liberal marriage spirit is prevalent all over the world but not just China. People are al l free to choose to have a good life with the one they love, it is improvement of the human social life. Ali is a big black guy with fun.
Thursday afternoon, my roommate Sharon and I went to the Guangzhou Vocational College of Engineering Technology. My good friend Laura is a teacher in this school. So she invited us to this school play. This is a beautiful school.
When we have dinner in the canteen, we encountered a foreigner. Sharon and I were excited .Laura told us that the foreigner is her colleagues. Because we have a tasks from Professor Martin is make a new foreigner. Sharon and I wanted to know this foreigner. Laura was very happy agreed to our request. So she greeted to the foreigner in English. She said: “Hello Nataliya, I am very glad to see you in here, I would like to introduction my two friends to you .this is Coco and this is Sharon.” “Nice to meet you, my name is Nataliya Proshunina. I come from England ,I teach the oral English in this school and also Laura’s colleague. Which school are you in ?” I replied her that we are post-graduate students now in Sun Yat-sen university ,We also have oral English class, our teacher call Martin and this time we have a task that we should make a friend with a foreigner, so we are very pleased to meet her .She thought that this task was very good. Sharon asked her give us her telephone number and so that we can give her call again.
After dinner, she suggested that we played badminton, we were very pleased agreed. So Thursday was a happy and lucky day.
In fact, I always thought about making a new friend with a foreigner from other countries, but I hadn’t the courage and also hadn’t a very good reason. Fortunately Professor Martin gave me a good chance to do so. I didn’t plan to talk with a foreign student in the road, because I thought it was very rude, and I didn’t want to abrupt them without a further communication, just for an assignment of me, it was not fair. What I wanted is a real and sustaining friendship. One of my roommates is a MBA student in Linnan College. I asked her if there were some exchange students in her class. She said that she had a good friend from Korea. I told her about our assignment and asked her if she could offer an introduction. She said OK to me nicely. So in the evening of this Thursday, I came along with her to their class, and she introduced a middle-aged man to me. His name was Piao Zhengyun, from Seoul. He stayed at America for nearly ten years, so his English was simon-pure, but not Chinese, because he stayed in China just several months. We talked about our majors, families and countries. He was a very mild man, and when he talked about his family, I could see his love in his face. He must be a very responsible husband and very kind father. About half an hour later, their class was going to start, and we exchanged our phone numbers and emails for further communication. I said to him that anytime he needed a help in China, he could connect to me. He smiled and said that he would.
It’s really a good experience to talk with a foreign student, especially a man who have so many life experiences and who is also kind and smart. I wish that I can make friends with more foreign people.
I know I have little encouragement to express myself and my opinions in public. So after I read the mail Martin sent， I feel I will fail to pass my English course this semester. But I am lucky. Thanks to the International exchange festival in Xiong De Long, I got a chance to make new friends with foreigners. At that afternoon, I got there earlier. Nervously and hopefully, I was just looking around at first. Suddenly I looked a beautiful dressing, a kind of traditional cloth dating from Korea which I liked very much. I was excited. Bravely, I went ahead to chat with the beautiful girl no matter how embarrassed or shy it was. I asked some questions about my favorite dressing. Then she told me how to make it and how to wear it. At last, she told me that they didn’t usually wear the dressing although it is very beautiful. Because it’s too complicated . I felt very comfortable talking with her. Then I saw a girl who was making pickled vegetables, so the girl who I was talking invited me to taste. It’s so delicious. There were so many people waiting to learn her country, so I had to end my talking. I asked her about her phone number and Email, she gave me without hesitate. So we became friends. To my surprise, it is so easy to chat with foreigners. What I thought before this action is useless and also perplexed me. Thanks Martin.
My story is not like the others’,but it is a true story. I have told this story to some of my friends, they don’t believe me. But I know I need not to make up a fake story which is more believable, because I have a true story.
My story goes like this, one afternoon, I was sitting on one of the benches in our campus near Chinese Building. I just wanted to be alone for a while. Suddenly one people came to me. He was very like a normal Chinese and I thought he must be in his thirties.
‘Do you speak English?’ he asked.
‘Yes.’ I answered and thought that was a good chance for me to practice my English.
‘I’m an exchange student here, I want to practice my Chinese.’he spoke in a slow and hardly understandable Chinese.
Actually, I did not want to talk to anybody that time. But he was very polite and I could not refuse him. So I agreed, and we talked. And he really spoke poor Chinese and I had to explain many things in English to him. So I thought I practiced my English during the talk.
We introduced ourselves to each other and had some small talk until I had to go back to do my job. And we left the cell phone number to each other.
A week later I asked him out to dinner, he refused but I think we will have dinner together some time later.
I think we have lots of chances to make new foriegn friends in the campus. we should take these chances.
Well, to be honest, at first I did not think the assignment is very difficult since we have a class with several Germany students together, and I thought maybe I could just invite someone for dinner to complete this task, so I’m sorry I did not notice the deadline of this homework until today. My partner is Simon, we need to do a presentation about townships development in the pearl river delta in one group, so we spend a lot of time to discuss the topic and something else……of course he is my friend, and I like him very much. Unfortunately I mistook the direction of our presentation in the beginning, so we did not have clear argument. No doubt our professor was not content, and we received very strict critic. I was so upset and ashamed, and I think saying sorry to my partner and teacher is not enough, I’d better do the homework again as soon as possible, following our professor’s guide. It’s very kind of Simon, he did not blame me and just tried to cheer me up. In order to enjoy the weekend, we planned an appointment on Saturday for some shopping and cooking with his roommates and my classmates. Unfortunately we made some misunderstanding yesterday, so we changed the time. Maybe I should try to make new friend with another foreign student to complete this task, but it seems there is no more time before the deadline, sorry for that.
After my post was rejected, I was very disappointed and didn’t know what to do to finish the assignment.I have to say I hadn’t got the courage to make new friends with an exchange student until the end of this afternoon.
Then I found an easy way out:I turned to my good friend for help and he gladly introduced me to his newly-made friend Saif.He gave him a call to see if he have time to go out and grab a cup of tea together.Saif gladly accepted the invitation.So we made a appointment to meet each other at the front gate of the university because he lives outside the campus and the front gate is nearer to his hotel.
My friend wouldn’t tell me anything before I met Saif,he just wanted me to find out myself.So before I really met him,I felt quite curious about him:How is he look like?How old is he?Is he a very tall guy,just like other foreigners on the campus?I am full of questions.
When he finally showed up before me,my friend smiled to me:That’s him.He is no taller I have imagined,just as the same height as mine.He has a curled hair and dark skin which make him different from our easterners.It turned out he was a very shy boy and also a new comer here.For he told me that he just arrived in Guangzhou only a month ago.We shaked hands with each other and his hand shaking was very firm.
I was very curious about his hometown and asked a lot of things about it.I have to say that he is really a talker,he answered all of my questions and also,he showed great enthusiasm of Chinese culture.But his English was not that good.That is the reason why he came here to study Chinese.I had a very interesting discovery that when we were talking,he always wanted to get closer to me and my friend,I realized when we departed that it was a way that the Arabs showed their friendness.
It was a very interesting experience.
When I got the E-mail about the last assignment, I felt very frustrated. I’m not that kind of person who is good with people and always have trouble to have a smooth conversation with a stranger let alone a foreign one.
Anyway, homework had to be done. So I chose a sunny afternoon, walking around the gate of the third teaching building, waiting for an opportunity to meet some foreign guy. Actually, there were plenty of chances but I just hang around and around. Then I saw an Asia-look guy talking Chinese and I thought why not start speaking to a Chinese stranger first. I came up and said in Chinese: “Excuse me! Do you know any foreign friend? I might need one for my homework from my oral English teacher.” “I’m a foreign student to you, I guess.” I was shock by what I had heard, and didn’t know what to say for a long long time. Then I found out that he was from Korea and spoke excellent Chinese. That would save a lot of trouble since he was such a nice and willing-to-talk person. I told him about the whole assignment thing and we exchanged QQ numbers and decided to catch up at the evening so that he could go to the next class.
At the evening, we have a pleasant conversation on line which I was probably good at. We share our hobbies, favorite stars, interesting experience in school and so on. Then I noticed that we were both big fans of war3, a kind of cyber game. I knew that cyber games were most popular in Korea. What an exciting experience would it be to fight against a Korean player! And that started a nightmare. 10 games, I didn’t win a single one. I’ve never in my life been this frustrated. I guessed I might have to practice a lot more.
Now see what I get from this assignment. I get a great foreign friend and an excellent opponent. What an interesting assignment!
I am very glad today; my friend and I went to Chinese corner to make a new friend, fortunately we met two Indonesians, a boy and a girl. The girl is really pretty and the guy is a little short, they are both very nice and talkative. The boy’s name is QIU Yuanqiang and the girl’s name is SHEN Fengyun, they come to sysu to learn Chinese, just Chinese. Their Chinese are really good but English are better, I like their pronunciations. The girl said I looked like one of her best friend and I said I’d like to be her best friend, so honored. They told me about their country and invited me to visit their homes because the air tickets are really cheap, roundtrip from Hong Kong to Indonesia for 1350RMB, UNBELIEVABLE!! My one-way ticket to my hometown is more than 1500RMB. We played games together—animal signs of when we were born, they were smart and learned very quickly when I told them about twelve animals of Chinese culture. They figured out the right images of Chinese paper-cutting perfectly. Then we had some snacks out of north gate. We talked a lot and I knew that they had worked in Indonesia for two years in an international cooperation. They came to learn Chinese just because their parents are Chinese and they would feel shy if they couldn’t speak Chinese well. When I talked about our professor Martin, they said they already knew him and his assignment. We have a very famous professor!
They are also L2s, but their English are pretty cool. We would learn a lot from their experience. And martin’s expression is correct; we can sharp our English with L2, not just L1.
When I received our teacher’s E-mail at the very beginning, I thought it’s quite easy to complete this assignment by myself, but what happened when I trying it out is nothing funny but frustrated. Before I started my plan, I had arranged several ways to make a friend with a foreign student, such as starting the conversation with asking for help, talking about the bad weather, inventing him to have lunch, and so on. As our teacher suggested, there are many exchange student in the No.3 teaching building as the same location where we have our HE lessons，I picked up a nice day went there to find some foreign exchange students to make a friend with, in the hope of building a relationship for an extended conversation between us. At the 3rd floor of the teaching building, I found a fat girl and 3 handsome young men, they were talking in a cycle.Well, it may not be polite to disturb them in a sudden, but I still walk towards them with a big smile. The fat girl gave me a bad impression because she was smoking when I was making a greeting to her; her friends were also not friendly looking. After a short self-introduction and concision talk, it seems that she was not willing to talk with me any more. But after I told her my purpose that it’s our teacher request to finish such homework due and she finally agreed to be my new friend and talk with me by MSN later. Like many other foreigners, she uses the MSN rather than QQ.I was so happy to get her cell phone number and her MSN mail address, and in my opinion on that time, I thought she was a nice girl though she looks ugly. Unfortunately, when I went back typed her MSN email address to contact with her with my MSN message, no feedback message. I was so sad for my first friends making experience. Meanwhile, it’s nothing to be surprised that the cell phone is fake.
With the lessons of failure, I took part in the “International Culture Festival” activity which was hold in the XiongDeLong students` center on Saturday afternoon with my classmates. I have no interest in the delicious foods and the beautiful hand made art wares. The only thing I thought was to get someone’s cell phone number and his E-mail address as quickly as I can. Suddenly, I found some of my classmates were talking with 2 foreign students, I joined them. To my big surprise, the black young man I was talking to can speak a little Chinese, his mother language is English.He told me he have been in china for nearly two months, and his major is medicine, he was very happy to meet a chemistry student. Frankly speaking, by my nervous and fearless, the topic we made was boring, nothing but like: where you from ,what you like to eat, what’s your opinion about china…..After we knew each other well, I got his contacts. Thanks a lot to my foreign friend, he gave me his true number sincerely.Anyway, it was an unforgettable experience in my study period, I truly looking forward to have the next meeting with foreign students!
There are three exchange students from Germany in my academy this school year. I have saw them twice before, once in the lecture given by a Japanese professor, the other in the corridor in the academic building. However, I didn’t talk to them, and I even had little impression on them.
To be honest, I thanks so much for Professor Martin’s assignment of making a new foreign friend. Taking advantage of this opportunity, maybe I have made friends with not only one of the three exchange students, but also two others. It happens rather accidentally, so let me state the thing in detail.
For the reason of the 80th anniversary of my academy, there are a lot of Sino-German conferences nowadays, which reflect the friendship between Kologne University and my school of Geographic Science and Planning.
This Monday, I took my class in the classroom of D128. During the break, I went out of the classroom and found another Sino-German conference held in the adjoining meeting room. They were having a rest, too. A German was chatting with one of my classmates in the corridor. I went up and talked a little bit with the German. After a while, he left back to the meeting room. Suddenly, an idea entered my head strongly. I should ask for information from the German to complete my oral English assignment. Eventually, I gathered up my courage, catching up with him, and asked，“Are you student here?”Then I realized that he was one of the exchange students. How silly I was! I explained for my abruptness and asked for permission. The German student approved simultaneously. Yeah, I made it! I was acquainted with a foreigner, although we were not real friends yet.
Having gained the German exchange student’s contact information, I sought a chance to invite him out with me. At length, I telephoned him bravely and tried to make an appoinment. He approved of it. We determined to have dinner this Saturday. For me, it was such a wonderful opportunity to make friends with him, because he was really nice and smart.
During days before the dinner appointment, I began to pay close attention to the German exchange students. It would be impolite if I knew little about them when we talked in the dinner. Then I got information that their staying in China was for ten months, and they had been here for two months. And I had been able to recognize them in accord with their names.
Yesterday evening, when I opened the door of the computer room, ready to go back to my dormitory from the academy building, I exactly right met with my several classmates as well as the three German. Then we went out of the Northern Gate to have supper together. In the process, we talked and made jokes loudly, about tradition, habits and so forth. Beside the friend I first made, I also got better acquainted with the other two German. It was excellent!
Because my friend needed to meet his German friend this evening, we delayed the dinner thing to tomorrow. However, everything is to be continued. And I am hopeful for the friendship.
When I had finished some of my experiments, it was half past three in the afternoon. I hurried to the Xiong Delong activity centre for the International Cultural Exchange Festival.
After enjoying some Korea food, I started my talk with an elegant Pakistani guy. His white robe and thick black hair made him look like Avanti, a famous people in Folklore. What attracted me most were his white shoes decorated with many beads. They were really very beautiful though seemed to be a little strange on a gentleman’s feet. He stood by his friend who was also from Pakistan, sending their national flag to the passers-by. And his Chinese was not as good as English so we spoke to each other in English. I was very so nervous that my words often made him confused; he seemed to be shy too and listened to me quietly most of the time. He told me he had been in China for 1 year and was trying his best to adapt the life here as here few people could understand his mother tongue–Pakistan language. I expressed my admiration for his courage and ability. When we talked about our majors and career choices in the future, he said after returning to his mother land, he might become a respected teacher because there were a lot of people who could not regale themselves on education resources. I told him if possible I would like to have a visit to Pakistan some day and he welcomed me. At last, we exchanged our contact messages, waved good-bye and promised to keep in touch with each other in the future.
A friend of mine gave his number to me several days ago and I messaged him to see if it’s OK to call him. Ahmad replied with a yes. So I called him immediately. We chatted about ourselves. I got to know he is from Pakistan, and he is studying in HuaNong University, WuShan campus. He studies agricultural economics. He came to China two years before and will graduate in July 2010. I also told him my basic information. And he said he likes to call me in my Chinese name instead of Leon, well that’s fun because the pronunciation of my Chinese name is not that friendly. We chatted about 10 minutes and decided to have a small dinner on Saturday evening. So I caught the metro to go to his school at about 4:30. Then we met. He showed me around his campus, which is beautiful. Then we went to eat. We had toast duck together, and it’s delicious!
Well that’s a great experience for both him and me! Hope to find more and more foreign friend, especially girls — —!
EDITOR’S NOTE:
THIS DOES NOT COMPLY WITH THE INSTRUCTIONS.
Several days ago, I was very upset. Because it seemed that I can’t finish this task. I called two exchange students in our school, but no one picked it up. So I just talked it with my friend in shanghai. She introduced one of her friend, a Korean exchange student to me. Then I made a phone call to her. It was pleasant to communicate with her because she was really interesting. This girl is the same age as me but she has the opposite characteristic to me. She is really out-going and good at talking. She was very proud of her country. She was very excited about the performance of the Korean national team in the world cup in 2002. When we talked about the popular idol, she showed great affection to Super Junior, a team in pop music. She even sang a song to me. Surprisingly, her Chinese is very good. During the conversation, some Chinese words occasionally bumped out of her mouth. At last, she invited me to her country. I don’t know whether I could have a chance to travel to Korea, but I am really happy to make friends with this humorous and cute girl.
I am late for posting my experience, but finally, I got a foreign friend. It is really a long journey. China Culture day was a start. That day, my roommate and I went to the place ‘Xiong Delong’ Norris Center. They said there is some delicious food, but I really do not care. Made a friend was my purpose. But I felt disappoint when I got there, so many Chinese students but a little foreigner. And many of the foreigners are Japanese and Korean (To be frank, I don’t like Japanese and Korean). But I was happy to talk to students from Russia, England, Pakistan, and Thailand. I talked with every one from those countries except Japan and Korean. It is said that Chinese students are always shy to communicate with a foreigner. No, that’s not true; I just found they were shy. I talked to some foreigners, but I did not ask them for their cell mummer or QQ. Because you could see such a scene in the center: so many people revolve around a foreigner, to ask him/she his/her number, and the foreigners confused at first. I believe that was really impolite.
I must acknowledge that my friend’s phone number and QQ number is obtained from my classmate Ben. Three days ago, I send him a message by QQ, and I said: dear friend, I was very glad to meet you in that China Culture Day; I was attracted by your dance and your enthusiasm. And I was happy that he accepts me as his friend! From that night on, we always chat through QQ. But it’s a pity that even he doesn’t know what I am look like. Tonight, I should give him a call and tell him “Hey, big man, tomorrow we eat together, this is my treat!” I want we are real friend, and I am trying. As we know, just making use of somebody is very immoral, and real friend should be honest to each other.
Make a friend with a foreign exchange student? Oh, I find that it is very difficult to finish it, why? I have several foreign friends; they all can speak Putonghua, and even better than me, but their English is poor. Suddenly, I remember that my teacher have a student come from Portugal. Maybe I can make a friend with him.
With the help of my teacher, I got his phone number; I called him, if I can take chat with him. The answer is sure. We met, after introduced, I knew his name is Andrew, we talked about football, we all know that C.RONALD is the best football player now in the world. Portugal now can plays the 2010 World Cup. We all very happy. But I feel ashamed that when we talked about Chinese football. Andrew is very handsome, and very good at water resource. I think I can learn much from him.
We will often have a dinner.
I am really very busy these days. I am quite eager to make many foreign friends, however, I have so many things to do, so it was postponed day by day.
But yesterday, I made the very first foreign friend in my life. You, professor, also know him. He is Simon Bennertz, who wrote a thanks letter to you. And he is a German exchange student in our school. We met sometimes before, but I didn’t get to know him normally.
Yesterday, there were almost 6 Chinese girls inviting 2 German boys to have lunch together near the Xiaobei gate. We had a happy communication together. I found it not difficult to chat with them in English. And they are so kind and so gentleman. I like them very much. I got Simon’s QQ No. I have learned much from them. And I also feel there are many differences between us. For example, I asked Simon what he will do after graduation, and he said he will take one year break, traveling around to know the world better, and to think what he really want to do in the future in his life. I totally agree with him. In fact, I also hope to do so. But I have the responsibility to earn money to raise the family, to feed back my parents. Yes, I think I should also always be myself, to know about myself better. Thank Simon, and thank Martin.
Like I said before,yesterday’s experience is just the beginning of the friendship between us.Today we had made a date that had a dinner together outside the small north gate of our campus,he was glad,and we figured the time at 8:00pm.
As we came out of the school gate,we had a talk as following,
“Which kind of taste do you favorite,do you want to try some hot food such as Chuancai(川菜) or Xiangcai（湘菜）?”Indeed,I wanted to show some tasty food which I liked very much.But when I heard his answer,I was shocked by it.
“I think that if you really want to try some hot food,these two restaurants may be good choices.”You knew,he just figured out the right place I wanted to
“You are so familiar with these restaurants,it is like that you have come these places many times.That’s unbelievable!”I said this with smile.
He also gave me a big smile“I like Chinese food very much,I like the different kind of styles of Chinese food.”I was very glad to hear his praise about our food.And at last,we chose the restaurant“Chuanwei（川味）”.
During the dinner,I knew he had come to China for two years,and his major is“Chinese teaching”,he said that he like China very much,and he had came to many places in China,and he hoped that he can stay in China to teach Chinese after graduated.I agreed with his plan,and welcomed him to teach in our Henan province.
After dinner,we came to our dormitory togther,we just lived in the same building“351”.Also that I knew he live in room 808,and I told him that I was just one floor upon him that I just lived in room 938,maybe in future,we can have more communication just in our dormitory.
I knew it was a difficult homework.My classmate Amy introduced a foreign young boy in Wednesday night. We waited for our foreign friend at the supermarket. We knew Germany was punctual. As we knew, he arrived on time. His name was Martin, Germany, 24 year old. He lived in Room 351 at the apartment. We talked with each other. I told him my Professor made us create our own language learning environment that helped us improve our oral English and make a foreign friend.He believed it was an effective method of learning English. He told us he loved China and came Sun Yat-sen University for studying Chinese. He admired Sun Yatsen who brought freedom and democracy to China, which was the reason he chose Sun Yat-sen University.
After several minutes, his classmates passed and joined our chat. 5 men of them were Turkmen, one was British and another was Korean. I was not good at oral English. Sometimes I was not able to accurately express what I meaned. Martin let me tell him in Chinese. His classmates spoke excellent Chinese.I was so surprised that their Chinese was so good that I felt ashamed. I had learned English for many years, but they had learned Chinese for many months. Then I managed to convey my ideas in English, sometimes in Chinese. We talked about the China’s role of Mao Zedong,their winter vacation plans and the significance of the Berlin Wall torn down and so on. We chatted for about a hour. That was a wonderful day. It was impressive to make friends with foreigner.
That very night I received a message which was sent by that Brzail student who I met with the day before yesterday. Pleasantly surprised I showed thanks to him immediately. Because it is too late to meet with that night so we arranged to get together yesterday. He is busy at weekends so our meeting is short. We meet outside Xiongdelong building. This is the first time I talked with foreigners. We said hello to each other firstly. He is a handsome man and much stronger than me. His mother tongue is Portuguese and he says a little English. His name is Marcelo and from Brazil. We talked about each other’s basic information in English. Then I asked him his Chinese name and his feelings about China. “Maselong(马瑟隆)”！He answered me in Chinese and get his Chinese name written on my notebook. Then he asked me if we can speak in Chinese. I said “That’ ok!” He has already been China for nearly nine months and he likes China and is interested in our history and culture. I asked him about their football’s culture. He told me that he is good at football and promised to play together later. And he also hoped me to help him learn Chinese and I answered happily. After half an hour’s talking ,we had to say goodbye to each other. At last we promised to meet with in future.
On Nov. 21st, I attend the International Culture Festival to found a new foreign friend. According to the instruction of the homework assignment, I decided to found a L2 speaker from a country which is said that one of its official languages is English. At first I spoke to a man from Pakistan, I asked some question about a ancient fort in the picture on the wall. Unfortunately, I could hardly understand him because of his accent. So I had to give up and say goodbye. My second target was three men from Turkey wearing their traditional clothes. I got close one of their and said:” Excuse me, would you please introduce something about your clothes?” But the man seemed do not understand me and began to talk in his own language to a man stand beside. And the other man spoke to me politely:” Excuse me, where are you from?” When he found I was a Chinese he began to speak Chinese! Though we talked a lot but I think to make a friend by using Chinese is not the purpose of the homework. So I had to try another one, but to my surprise the exchange students from Vietnam, Indonesia, and Thailand seemed prefer speaking Chinese to me rather the English. A man from Thailand even told me that his grandpa is Chinese (Of course, he speaks perfect Chinese).
When I nearly give up, I decided to try the last time with the Japanese students, and I did it. At first I joined in the conversation between two Japanese girls and my classmates. We talked something about our major and why they come to China. And then I tried to learn how to fold a paper bird from a Japanese man. I tried my best to make it but the bird could stand steadily. At last, I found a man who becomes my new friend later, was teaching people how to play a Japanese toy. The toy is made of a wooden ball and a wooden hammer which has a horn on the top, and they were connected by a rope. The goal of the game is to shake the hammer and try to catch the waving ball by the hammer’s horn. I misunderstood the rule when I tried the first time, and my new friend explained the correct rule to me. Then we began our conversation, we talked about festivals in Japan and Chinese, and a beautiful castle in their picture, and about a cartoon program which both of us like. And it was interesting that when we leave our number and name to each other, we found both of our names were difficult to write in our own language.
What I learnt from that day’s experience is that though many of the foreign students cannot speak English as well as L1 speakers. They don’t afraid of speak out.
I am very glad that I have Know some German friends. They are some graduates exchanged from Universitaet zu Koeln. We first met on professor Xue’s english class, and I found that he spoke English so fast that I could hardly followed him. However, maybe we have some kind of luck by which we are brought together, both of us had chosen all the English class of our school! So we can meet each other at least 3 time every week. And gradually I can get with his speaking speed, which facilitated our communication.
I find that he is a very humourous guy, which makes him very easy-going. Suddenly, I caught a glimpse of the signature of the letter forwarded from Martin last week, I realized that Oh, this name is so common. When I met Simon a few days ago and mentioned it, I was told that he was the guy! Ah, I was startled, and I was glad that he became famous and related so well to people.
After we finished the English classes on this whole Thursday morning, Simon and my another 2 German classmates was invited to lunch by a group of beautiful girls and I went with them. I was happy for them and even a little jealous. As winter gets near and Christmas is coming up, maybe we can have a party then, I believe it will be successful and interesting.
Last Saturday，I went to xiongdelong student activity centre to take part in the International Students Cultural Festival. A lot of foreign students showed their countries` culture there. A handsome man in front of the Britain booth caught my eyes. I came up and ask him whether he came from Britain. He shook his head smiling, and told me he was German. But he had ever been in Britain to study for bachelor`s degree. I wondered why no Germany booth there. He replied sadly that he was the only one German. He told me that he had been in China for only three months. His oral Chinese was influent, but he only spent a year to learn Chinese. He always played with his other foreign friends. I ask him”do you have any Chinese friends?” he said no. “You can make friends with me! My name is Linda. My Chinese name is Linling, if you can`t remember the name,just think about “zero zero”!” he became very happy and introduced himself as well. His name is Martin. His name was the same as my teacher`s! Then we exchange our telephone number and email, and promised to keep in touch with each other.
I have never worried about this assignment. All I need to do is to wait until Last Saturday, 21th, Nov, I know here is a chance for us.
That day there was a foreign culture festival in Xiong Delong student center, I went there in the afternoon with my roommate to make friends. Many students went there, no matter Chinese or foreign. We saw the delegations from Pakistan, Russia, Japan, Turkey, Thailand, Vietnam, England, Indonesia and South Korea. At first we felt shy and embarrass, so we just wandered in the hall for a few minutes. Very soon we relaxed and decided to talk to someone. Our first target was a Pakistani. He was very outgoing and active. Then we had a word with the two Russia beauty. In fact in the following time, we called at all the delegations one by one. The handsome guy of Britain, the Turkish playing a folk dance, the Japanese students focusing on the traditional culture, all gave us deep impression.
In the end, we set foot at the Japanese booth. They seemed to be very virtuous and traditional. The guys told us how to play the wooden ball and Japanese chess, the girlie Yamamoto, who was kind, told us how to fold paper and do a cat’s cradle, which reminded us of the childhood memory. I folded a rabbit and a frog following her guide, we had a really good time. At last , we exchanged numbers and made friends. It was a significative day.
I am very happy to have a chance to communicate with a foreigen friend in my university. To be honest, I am a shy girl in normal life, but this time, I go outside to talk with a guy who comes from kazakhstan bravely. In a word, we have a good time.
The boy named Bolat , he is an exchange student who study for about one year here. We met up with each other in the cafe at first sight. Actually, I tried to looking for someone to finish my assignment that day. Fortunately, I saw him. After I introduced myself, he talked with me friendly. He told me he also wanted to communicate with more Chinese people, because he knew little about China, but unfortunately, he has few opportunities to talk with some other people. At that day, we talked about a lot of topics, including the study course, travelling and the different cultures. I am so surprised that he went to a lot of cities in the world. With rich experiences, he told many strange things to me, it is fantastic especially for me, because I never go abroad. However, for the limitation of English, I can’t understand most of his words, just the general meaning.
During this time, I found I can speak more English than I thought , I think it is a good thing for me, I am not shy any more.
After this conversation, I find I can communicate with forien people although it is not flexible especially with a people whose second language is English. Even so, I think such experience can improve my English. Anyway I get a good experience through the conversation, if I have a chance later, I will continue to communicate with foreign people.
As an old Chinese saying says:’ As decreed by providence you have met him，otherwise you might have failed although you traveled a long way.’ When I was visited NO.3 teaching building I unable to find a friend, maybe I did not realize deep. Fortunately, I finally found a true friend. He is a student who comes from Kazakhstan. He speaks English, Chinese, but also the Uygur language. We were meeting at the north school gate.
I was at the north gate to see a person carrying a bag, he is tall and very strong, he was sitting above bicycle to rest. I got to there to greet him and asked him:’ Can I take you visit our school?’ He replied:’ Sure, you are very friendly. What’s you name?” I am very sincere and he let me be his guide. I took him to visit the campus of Sun Yat-sen University. We walked and chatted. He told me he study at Guangzhou Higher Education Mega Center less than half year. The city of Guangzhou is a thriving place. He likes to ride a bike everywhere to travel usually on weekends. When I said I also like traveling, he was excitement to say: ‘If you partner with me that will be great!’ He also told me that he has no friends in Guangzhou, his friends mostly in Xinjiang province. Before he came to Guangzhou, he also visited Beijing for tourism, etc. Finally, we separated at south gate of Sun Yat-sen University. We were exchanged our telephone number and email each other. At the same time, he invited me to visit him at Higher Education Mega Center next weekend.
To be honest, I found it a great challenge to finish this homework assignment at first, because I have never made foreign friends actively before. I could still remember my impressive experience in the English Corner, it was not easy to conquer my internal uneasiness and shyness. Speak to a stranger is so difficult, especially when using a foreign language you are not good at. Fortunately, it is never too late to change yourself and make some positive changes.
November 21th, there was an international culture exchange festival held in Xiong Delong student activity center. My roommate reminded me that most of exchange students in SYSU would be there, and it was a great opportunities to make foreign friends there. I thought so, but still hesitated because of my poor English and shyness. At last, I went there with my roommates. There were many foreign students there, they had different skin colors, some of them were wearing their native clothes. I looked around and found some beautiful girls with typical asian face. They must be from South Korea, I thought. But so many Chinese boys were talking with them that I could not step in. At that time, I found a short girl outside the crowd, seemed lonely, so I talked with her proactively. She told me that her name is Wei Min Zi , came from South Korea, she felt shy just because of her poor English and Chinese and did not know how to communicate freely. I told her it did not matter, we were both L2 speakers. I encouraged her to speak out, and we shared foreign language study experience with each other. She said she needed to find someone to tutor Chinese and help her pass the exams recently. I had never taught foreigner Chinese, so that sounded so interesting for me. I said I can help her and fixed a time to meet on campus canteen the next week. Finally, we exchanged phone numbers and promised to keep in touch.
When I received our teacher’s E-mail at the very beginning,I thought it was a difficult assignment to me,because I was a man with few words and not good at communicating with others.And now,Pro.Martin asked us to make a new friend who is foreign student,oh,God bless me. I felt embarrassed and dawdled over the assignment for a week,but you know,I must finish my assignment or I will fail in this course which is unacceptable for me.I didn’t know where I could find a foreigner,and last Wednesday night I went to English Corner but there was no harvest. As the deadline approached,I was so anxious and like a cat on hot bricks.Two days ago,my classmates Wu Hongsheng told me that he finished his assignment,and he made a Pakistan friend whose name was Ijaz in International Cultural Exchange Festival.He knew I was anxious worry about the assignment,so he came forward to introduce his new friend to me.He made a call to his new friend to make an appointment for a meet in Friday afternoon,and I invited them to dinner in a Hunan cuisine restaurant named Sanxiang restaurant outside Little North Door in Friday afternoon,which is a Chinese way to make new friends. Ijaz was not a tall man with curl hair and bushy beard,and he has a Roman nose like a Uighur in Xinjiang province.To my surprise, Ijaz’s Chinese was good and he could use simple Chinese to communicate with us freely,but what surprised me more was that he knew a Hunan cuisine Grandma’s dish(wai po cai)!In the next communication,I knew that he had ever have Hunan cuisine with his another Chinese friend. Maybe the Hunan cuisine was too spicy for him,he was in a sweat.But he enjoyed the dinner and said that the food was delicious. We talked about Pakistan and Chinese cultures,foods, clothes and some other interesting issues in Chinese or English ,and when we cannot communicate with language we will use gestures and actions.It’s very funny. In the talk ,he taught me a Pakistan “Aslam Alakam”that its meaning was“hello”,and I taught him some common Chinese words and correct him some Chinese pronunciations. The happy time, always lets the people after it passes only then thinks short.When we parted,we gave our mobile phone number and QQ number to each other and promised to contact frequently. It’s a memorable experience that I had never went through before.
Indeed I have made a foreign friend in my college WeiFang university, but I want to make another friend in virtue of this homework. Though Mr Martin have give us two weeks to finish this work, but at first I do think it is a little difficult for me to make a goal. For I am a little introverted. But I finally finished my homework at the end of last week with the help of my friends.
But firstly I would like to introduce my first experience of associateing with my first foreign friend, because I think it is very incidental and we both full of karma. And we still contact with eachother. It was in a evening of my sophomore year, while I was studying in my school library, my mobile phone vibrated. It was an message sent by a strang phone number but the message was written in Enlish , my first reaction was someone was kidding me. So I just reply a message use chinese to it. Latter a message came again, I did not read it carefully in fact, I am a litter angry, and just called it back. To my great surprise, he was truly a foreigner, he was a student of WeiFang medical college that near to my college and he want to come to my school to find his fellow countryman, but he lost his number, so he just sent the message to my number by mistake. I asked the major and name of his fellow countryman and promised to help him to find his friend, and at last we keep in touch till now.
Last week, there was an activity of exchanging Chinese and Western culture, three of my friends and me come to take part in it. Durning our stay in the Xiong DeRong activity center, we were familiar with an beautiful gill from Viet Nam, we have a pleasure chat, and later we exchanged the phone number and have dinner together that night.
In fact, I am will to make friends with strangers. I have many friends in my life, but making a foreigner friend is one of thing that I have never thought about. When I received this assignment, I felt hopefully and nervously. Fortunately, the International Cultural Exchange Festival which held in the Xiong Delong activity centre on Saturday afternoon gave me a good chance. Many exchange students as their country representative show their culture and provide delicious food for free to visitors. There were so many diffident countries, such as Pakistan、Russia、Japanese and so on. In there I meet my first foreigner friend, a Turkey guy，named Masao. He wear Turkey’s traditional costume. At first, I had no courage to go and say “hello” to him. The reason is friend means two people know each other and could communication fluency. It made me frustrated. Suddenly he said in Turkey -Chinese to me with smile:” would you like to try our traditional costume”. His words made me relax. He told a lot about of his country. I asked him why their traditional costume is always white. He explained to me that the white is religion color in the Moslem world. And there is a little diffident. For example, when they dance they need wear a black coat. He helped me wear their clothes, and I just looked like a Turk. He invited me to attendance the evening party, and he will performance their traditional dance in night. Indeed this is a successful party.
Maybe my foreigner friend will leave china to his homeland in future, and we will never meet again. But I cherish our friendship at this moment.
Now,I still remembered the day with Sunny,Mmurice and other friends.It was Nov.21st.We heard that the International Culture Festival would be hold in “xiong de long”building.I came with Sunny,my classmate,take part in.
There were many foreigner,they come from South Korea,Japan,England,Russia, Japan,Vietnam ,etc.We have enjor these delicious food.At the same time ,Maurice, a Sierra leone man,his telephone NO is 15914206717.And us enyor the Korean food.He have been there for 2 months plus 2 weeks ,studying Chinese,he wiil get his phd in sysu..When I ask what is your favoriate sport is ? He said foodball.I told him ,when I was in my highschool,I usually playing football with my friend,we never feel tired , I have a good days.Then we talked about superstar and famous club of football,AC milan,Arsnel.And my classmates also come,we have a fun talk,at the same time,some of other class student come ,too.I also,make new friends of Chinese,they are from Shandong,Hebei,Guangdong.Then we came to the south lawn,I showed him the English corner,We all believed we would jion together to improve English and Chinese.Some later,Joe had something to deel.So we said goodbye and see you then to each other.I had friends from other country,It is a good thing.I am sure.
To make a foreign friend is a too difficulty thing. I have no experience to talk to a foreign in English. And I am to shy to chat up strangers. But how can I make a new friend? And where I can find a foreign? And how can I to start our conversation? Day after day, I stay with myself and no new friends. But the deadline was approached. I must finish it. Our Tuesday’s class was cancelled. So I used this time to make new friend.
The foreign exchange students have classes in the same building as HEL both on the 3rd and 4th floors. It a good chance to make new friend. So I went there with my classmates. At there, we met our professor, and he introduced us to the foreigners, and made us to known that is an easy thing to make new friends. But I am to shy to speak to them. At the rest time, I tried to conversation with them. The first time, I wanted to speak to a young man, but when I say hello to him he was just picking up his telephone. I failed.
What I can do was just to wait for another. At last, I saw an Russian and say hello to him. Fortunately, he was so kind and let me felt comfortable to chat with him. And he asked that can I speak English. I asked his phone number and we made an appointment to keep in touch.
One day passed I wanted to invite him to have dinner. But unfortunately, he had a cold. So we just chat by the QQ.
I think it’s a good experience to me. And I can try my best to practice my English .
I would like to enjoy my experience of making friend with a foreigner. Of course, I think it’s a difficult assignment for me at the beginning. I have no foreign friends and lack the self-confidence to communicate with a foreigner. Fortunately, the international culture festival held in the XiongDeLong offers an opportunity to exchange. I and my classmates walked toward there with chatting to taste the delicious food.
When we arrived we found many foreigners come from different countries. Such as Pakistan, Russia, Japan, turkey, Thailand, Vietnam, England, Korea. Most of them wore their national costumes. There are so many students around them that I really felt nervous to open my mouth. After wandering about ten minutes I chatted with a girl from Thailand. She let me taste a kind of soup. It’s delicious! Many students waited for enjoying the soup and my hope to make friend with her were dashed. Then one of my classmates came with a green flag and suggested to exchange with Pakistani.
When we walked to the exhibition area of Pakistan my friend IJAZ was introducing their history with a map. Then he showed some beautiful pictures of his country. I see a picture of ManGuo(a kind of fruit) which is common in china. I asked if the fruit exports to china. He said YES and then introduced a special use of the fruit. It can be used to get rid of acne. He taught us how to make the formula: Half kilogram of ManGuo, some salt, some milk and some water are mixed together. In order to prove the effect of the formula he pointed at his face. His behaviors made all of us laugh. His enthusiasm infected us too. So I would like to make friends him. He wrote down his name and telephone number. To my surprise, he also gave me his QQ number. Obviously, he is a conscientious man. It’s a wonderful experience for me. I hope we will learn each other deeply in future. I also have to convey my appreciation for the assignment because the experience enhances my self-confidence to communicate with stranger.
Seeing the assignment, I immediately thought of her. The first time I met her was last year, joining the activity of SIEA (the first and only time). Although we have just talked for a while, as the problem of short time. I found her kind and easy to associate. At the end, we exchanged our phone numbers. But, we have not called each other during the long time. On the occasion of the task, I take heart to contact her. Fortunately, she still has little impression of me. Because it was also the first time for her to the activities of SIEA, and we really had a good time there. So I invited her for night snack outside the little north-gate, together with my roommate. Because there are residents, who are Koreans (chao xian zu) in my hometown. In addition, I enjoy Korean TV Play, the film and TV stars, the singers and so on. Thus, I am a little familiar with her life and their culture. We have a lot topics to talk. Also, I introduced Chinese culture and custom to her, which she is interested in. Except the above topics, we also refered to the Korean food, which I appreciate, such as pickle, noodles with soybean paste and miso soup, plain home cooking for them. Also, we talked about the Korean fashion, which is popular and my favourate. In a word, it was really a good night. After that, we may keep touch with each other all the time!
Last saturday, sun yat-sen university hold the International Cultural Festival.There will have many country foreign students and many west food,so i decided to go and I thought it is a good chance to finish my home work too.There are many foreigners who come from different country such as Russia ,Vietnam, Korea, Japan, Congo, Turkey and England. At this afternoon,most of the foreign students introduced the culture of the coutry ,it let me know so much which I wasn’t heared before. I also tasted different food that very interesting.When I came to the south Asian food exhibition area we met Flower, a very nice and beautiful girl. At first I felt very strange flower is her name but later I found many exchange foreign students have special name or Chinese name.Her smile is very sweet and she weared Vietnam costume which let she looks like a true flower. After a simple introduction to each other, we ask her something about Vietnam and she answers us politely and patiently.We also talked about the experience of study in sun yat-sen university.We talked about some interesting things about learn Chinese and English. Although sometimes we can’t understood each other very well,it isn’t a important problem.Surely,at the end of the communication I got her email.At this evening,there will have a party and the exchange students will exhibit their culture in other ways.But in this evening,I wasn’t met Flower anymore.I think we can meet later because email is a good tool to contact with her,isn’t it ?It’s impressive day,a good start to communication with foreigner.
At first I have no idea to how complete this difficult homework. I went to Shenzhen for sampling last weekend so I missed the big chance to make a new friend at international culture exchange festival. I wanted to encounter the beautiful girl who I saw at sunshine canteen sometimes before the homework asked, but I did not meet her and I gave up. Then my roommate told me there were so many foreigners at 351, so I tried to meet one, in fact I meted a lot of tall and black men but I had not enough courage to say some word to them, because their height are almost 1.5 fold of mine. I felt frustration as the time passed. At last, I boosted my courage to help a girl who was bargaining with the shop owner when I was shopping at Beijing road yesterday. The girl who’s name is Jesical wanted to buy some Chinese gifts to her friend when she would go back her country Denmark after china tour, but the shop owner just could say a few word of English and asked a high price. So I helped them to make the deal. Jesical was very happy and said “thank you very much”. I was not only help you but also help myself, I though. I told her some detail of my homework and asked her phone number, she said “sorry, I just stay at china for a month and do not use mobile phone”. This experience was very valuable for me, though the time I talked with the girl was not so long.
But I was not followed the instructions so I need try to make another friend to complete my homework. I feel a bit of confident though that experience. Soon and lucky I made a friend with Lomen, a girl who came from Canada when I was eating at sunshine canteen. After I introduced myself, she was interested to talk with me. She studies at Chinese and she said “I want to be a teacher”. To my surprise, her Putonghua is fluent and she also wants to make a friend with Chinese girl to practice her Chinese. So I spoke in English to her but she spoke in Chinese to me sometimes at last. It is so funny. We talked about language. I told her learning English was very popular in china and we began to learn it even at 7 years old. She told me there were more and more students in her country to want study Chinese. Finally we dated a night every week to eat at sunshine canteen together to learn each other. I need to make more friends with foreigner to practice my oral English and even my courage to communicate with strange.
On a Tuesday afternoon, when I finished the Holistic English Class, I went to the 3 rd floor of that building with Cindy and Carling. We wanted to make friends with some foreigners since we received the assignment. We stood there for 5 minutes until we bore up. We began to accost with a girl, but she was in a hurry because classes would begin after 2 minutes. So we decided to do nothing until the class bell rang and so we could find some people who didn’t have to go to class and had more time to talked with us. But after the bell rang, all students outside the classrooms in the 3rd floor disappeared. So we decided to walk upstair to the fourth floor. Only four students were there smoking and talking. We bore up again to accost with them. After we telling them our assignment, they were very nice to help us. They four all wrote down their names, E-mails and hometowns in my notebook. By the way, why we first didn’t ask them to give us their phone numbers because we thought it was a little offhand to do so, and we were shy so maybe we could express ourselves better by writing not by speaking. We sent e-mail to them the next evening. We waited for several days, but only one of them wrote back to Cindy. Maybe the other three had no time or the E-mail addresses were false because manuscript English sometimes was hard to make out. But I was happy to try to communicate with a foreign student. I was always timid and self-contemptuous, but after this try, I became more self-trust in my English than before.