Wonderful Encounters

"What do you think is human life here or there? It seems like a swan’s traces on mud or on snow." As the first Chinese teacher at Samarkand State Institute of Foreign Languages (SamDChTI), I embarked on a journey of teaching Chinese abroad in Samarkand, the second largest city in Uzbekistan.

Yesterday Revisited

On the first day in the classroom, a student whose face resembled the movie star Sylvester Stallone stood up and greeted me in Russian, then performed some martial arts moves, which immediately brought a smile to my face. Through our subsequent conversations, I learned that he was a fan of Jackie Chan, and at that time, the students there had limited knowledge of China, mostly from watching Chinese kung fu in TV series.

In September 2008, SamDChTI began enrolling students majoring in Chinese language. However, despite the students' enrollment, there was no Chinese language teacher available. In a desperate situation, the school urgently invited an Uzbek teacher who had studied Chinese from the capital, Tashkent, located hundreds of kilometers away, to teach. Therefore, in their eyes, my arrival was like a timely help in their moment of need.

My overseas Chinese teaching journey began there. Starting from scratch, from Chinese phonetics to strokes of Chinese characters, I started teaching step by step. The students also often surprised me during their Chinese learning process. I once told the students that Chinese characters originated from pictograms, and each character is like a painting. Using the character "田 (tián)" as an example, with its simple shape accurately representing the object. This character is evenly divided into four parts, cleverly indicating its function, as if farmers were planting and irrigating there. Unexpectedly, a student related this Chinese character to daily life. Once, a student's mother was planting flowers in the yard. She saw her mother arranging the yard to resemble the Chinese character "田" and said, "Mom, you planted the flowers in the shape of the '田' character!"

Spending every day with the students diluted my loneliness of being in a foreign country. Half a year later, I took two students, Bohan and Qiuxiang, to the capital, Tashkent, to participate in the "Chinese Bridge" competition. And Bohan won third prize with his eloquent speech, while Qiuxiang sang a Chinese song "Grapes in Turpan Are Ripe," igniting the atmosphere of the competition. I named these two students based on their personalities. Bohan is steady and subtle. After graduating with a bachelor's degree in Chinese language, he applied for a scholarship and went to Shanghai International Studies University for a master's degree. After graduation, he stayed there as a teacher. Qiuxiang is lively and clever. After completing her undergraduate study, she pursued her master's and doctoral degrees at Northwest University, becoming a star student there. Later, she formed an inseparable bond with Xi'an, marrying a Chinese postgraduate and settling down in Xi'an.

Simple and Kind Folk Under the Blue Sky

Samarkand is one of the oldest cities in Central Asia and an important hub city along the Silk Road. It boasts azure skies, vast deserts, majestic rivers, and the most beautiful sunrises and sunsets. Here, "In boundless desert lonely smokes rise straight; Over endless river the sun sinks round" is more than just a verse. Amidst such beautiful scenery, the people are simple and kind-hearted. When asking for directions, the enthusiastic residents would guide you. When carrying heavy items, someone would always step forward and ask, "Do you need help?" I remember one snowy day when the road was covered with a thin layer of ice. I waited at the bus station for a long time but didn't see any vehicles. Worrying that I would be late for class, I started running towards the direction of the school. At that moment, a police car stopped beside me, and after I explained the situation, the officer invited me into the car and drove me directly to the school. In the following days, whenever it rained or snowed, the police car would always appear at the station near my home and take me to school. The warm-hearted policeman jovially said, "We Uzbeks are hospitable. You are a guest as a Chinese person."

Uzbekistan is famous for its high-quality cotton and is known as the "Land of White Gold", ranking as the fifth largest cotton-producing country in the world. Every autumn during the cotton harvest season, various universities in Samarkand would suspend classes for a period of time and organize students to pick cotton in the fields. During this season, several foreign teachers from Japan and South Korea, including myself, would buy some food and fruits and visit the students in the fields. Whenever we appeared in the cotton fields, the students would cheer joyfully. Upon their enthusiastic invitation, I would stay and live with them for a few days. In the early morning, we would join the students in picking cotton in the fields under the morning sun. During breaks, I would sit with the students on the field ridges, telling them ancient Chinese legends, such as the stories of Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai, and Xu Xian and Bai Suzhen, as well as teaching them to sing "Youth Dance" and "In the Field of Hope." Laughter and singing echoed across the fields. That period of time was fulfilling and joyful, and I still cherish it to this day.

Right Here Waiting

After completing a two-year term at SamDChTI, I transferred to State University of World Languages in the capital. On the evening before my departure, I stood in front of the school gate of SamDChTI for a long time. Gazing at the gate, a myriad of emotions welled up within me. How many stories did this gate witness!

At State University of World Languages, my students were junior and senior undergraduates majoring in Chinese language, and their Chinese proficiency had reached a certain level. The higher the students' proficiency, the more detailed and challenging their questions became. Although I had been teaching Chinese for many years, the students' random questions presented me with more challenges in terms of my expertise and teaching experience, compelling me to treat each class with unwavering diligence. From textbooks to real-life situations, from past to present, and then to the comparison of Sino-Uzbek cultures, every class brought the students new insights. Together with them, I learned and progressed, striving to provide them with "a drop of water," while ensuring that I possessed "a bucket of water" myself.

Once, I explained the idioms "情不自禁" (unable to help one's feelings) and "一见钟情" (love at first sight) in class, and then I came across a sentence in a student's homework: "Yesterday, I was doing my homework till very late. Glancing at the clock, I couldn't help but shout, 'It's already one o'clock!'" I couldn't help but smile at that moment because she had actually used the idiom "一见钟情" separately. I was impressed by the student's flexible use of the Chinese language, while also reminding her that Chinese idioms should not be split when used. Later, I coached this student, named Gamila, to participate in the 11th "Chinese Bridge" competition. With her speech titled "Beautiful Chinese Language Carrys My Chinese Dream", she won the top prize in the Uzbekistan division and represented Uzbekistan in the final round in China, where she secured the third prize. After graduating with a bachelor's degree, Gamila also received a scholarship to pursue a master's degree at Shanghai International Studies University and later worked at the Ministry of Education in Uzbekistan.

Returning to Samarkand

After an eight-year absence, as an international Chinese language teacher, I once again set foot on the land of Samarkand. The clear blue sky of Samarkand remains the same, and the number of students learning Chinese is increasing year by year. Some of the former students have become my colleagues, and the team of Chinese teachers is constantly expanding.

The students in front of me, when talking about China, are no longer as naive as they were when I first arrived. They not only have a certain level of Chinese proficiency but also have a completely new understanding of China and Chinese culture, even knowing about China's "Four Great New Inventions": mobile payment, sharing bicycles, online shopping, and high-speed railway.

Life is a journey, with scenery all along the way. Over twenty years ago, I could never have imagined that today I would come to this country as an international Chinese language teacher, teaching Chinese language and culture. Never could I have foreseen that I would return to Samarkand. What an incredible twist of fate!

(Author: Bi Fengyun)