Challenge 23: Talk

22. Tell us about one of the best conversations you’ve had. (Stanford/93)

            The summer vacation of 2011 is one that I will never forget as it required me travelling alone for the first time. I was going to Beijing to meet family and learn Chinese. Having a blast everyday seemed to have made the month go by in the wink of an eye. I had two days left, and my father insisted that I take my cousins out for a dinner to show my gratitude. I had been thinking of doing such a thing, but I knew that my cousins were not going to let me treat them as I was the youngest. However, I managed to sneak my way to the counter and pay. It was during this meal that I had a noteworthy conversation with my eldest cousin sister, Acha-Keyangla.

            We spoke about numerous things; from school to family, friends and the future. Acha-Keyangla, who had spent the past year on an exchange program in England, told me she was studying to become a journalist, and I told her that I wanted to work in the medical field, a plastic surgeon in particular. She asked me a few questions here and there, including where I wanted to study. “Probably America or England” I replied, “Oh, Pala (father) mentioned China should be an option too. I mean, I am learning the language and the medical schools here are supposed to be really good. So I might consider.”  Acha-Keyangla just smiled and said, “If I were you, I wouldn’t study here.”

I was already (kind of) against that idea in the first place when my Pala said it, so her negative reply was comforting. With an ice-cream sundae in front of us we talked for about an hour on this topic. “You know, you are very lucky to be studying in an international school,” she told me. “It allows you to experience different customs and the teaching methods there sound much better. Here in China, all the teacher will do is give an hour long lecture and majority of the students just memorize. Students are not allowed to think ‘outside the box’ and instead are literally told one thing which they have to follow. I feel like I learnt more than I have ever learnt in England than all the number of years I have studied in China.”

I enjoyed listening to her go on and on about how different the education systems worked and how she kept blaming the Chinese system for the way she was. I learnt a lot from her and in the process picked up many opposing arguments against Pala’s suggestion of going to a Chinese college.