After class

So there is this student who I talk to after my Monday oral English class.Usually when students want to talk after class, it is just to practice their English and they generally ask questions like ‘how long have you been in china’ and ‘do you like chinese food.’ And I am tired after class and try to keep the conversation short. But this student always has something interesting to say and sincerely wants to know something about American culture, so I try to stick around and talk to her for a little while because amid her questions I usually come away feeling I understand a more about the students and about the intellectual climate here. Today, she began by talking about how there was a lecture she attended by some Ph.D. from the United States, and one of the questions he asked was how many students have access to computers. The student was shocked that an American academic would ask such a question, because it assumed that China was so backwards that they didn’t even have access to computers. What other misunderstandings were there in America about China? she asked. How could Americans be so misinformed? I told her that Americans are notorious for not knowing much about foreign countries, and that they generally don’t find out until it is too late. With the Muslim world, for example. There was a great interest in Islam after the 9/11 bombings. But what if people had been interested in Islam before the bombings? Perhaps the level of understanding and interest could have undercut the trend towards violence.

I said that this is one thing we are supposed to do in the Peace Corps. When we return home we are to educate our fellow country men and women about the country we spend time in, and I told her this was especially important in the case of China. I said I thought maybe Americans could avoid this mistake in the case of China, that people were beginning to understand how important China was and that hopefully we could get Americans interested in China and as a result avoid misunderstandings and foster cooperation. She said it sounded like a good idea.