Last Friday, we joined Brain's friends' going-away party. It was the first American Party that I had never experienced. Unlike what we had imagined, there was no wild dance, crazy and noisy crowd. The party was just a place for young people to hang out and chat with each other freely.
On that party, I met with a Russian student who called himself a philosopher. The first question he asked me was “Do Chinese people have free press?” “Yes, of course we have.” The unfriendly tone angered me a little bit. We began to exchange views on different things, such as politics, religion, economy and culture. The young man had great scope of knowledge, but most of his opinions about china are lopsided and radical. We argued a lot and I felt very proud that I could defend my own stand eloquently and finally be able to convince him. I believed after the conversation, many of his misconceptions would be changed.
While at school , every student has to go through the training of public speaking, parliamentary debating and take many courses that seem to be useless, such as Confucianism and Taoism taught by Prof. Roger Ames from the University of Hawaii , American society and history and critical thinking. I always thought to myself, “I am an English major student. Why do I have to be bothered with those boring courses if I don’t want to be a diplomat or something?” Now, I realize that even if you are not going to choose diplomat as your career, there are chances that you have to stand up and speak for your country, and that is when all the “useless” skills and knowledge come into use.
Our reading teacher Prof .Yang once told us that when he was in Harvard University, he used to debate with other professors on Chinese issue for two days without eating anything. Now being abroad myself, I could understand the eagerness to defend your country and clear up all the stereotype and misunderstandings. The debating skills that I have learned make me respond as quickly as I can and what I learn on the critical Thinking class enable me to challenge the Russian students in the course of verbal fencing. I really enjoy the feeling of talking to someone that
Later on that party, I exchanged views on many political issues with Brian, whose scope of knowledge surprised me and changed my point of views about American students. The conversation was really thought- provoking and inspiring. I learned a lot from it and I hoped that I could have another chance to talk to him about the things that we both interested in some other day. He is definitely well-informed and well-read. I really enjoyed talking to him a lot.