OK, so theoretically I should currently be writing a paper entitled "Challenges in the Chinese Educational System." As remarkable as it may seem, I have absolutely no desire to write it. For me, writing things in Chinese is about as much fun as anasthesia-free oral surgery, and about as painful. The entire year and a half I've been studying Chinese, I have never had to write ANYTHING. Having to start now is AWFUL AWFUL AWFUL and I HATE it. Of course, it's an excellent opportunity to improve my Chinese, and having to write things really does help your comprehension of the language (at least in theory), so I should be all gung-ho about writing as much as I can while I'm here... um... yeah.
OK... fast forward to the last paragraph of this blog (and then I really need to start writing the second paragraph of my essay). There is one final footnote I want to make to the conversation I had with the Chinese college student yesterday. In all of the questions he asked me about American society, there was one I forgot to mention: he asked me if Santa Claus was real. With all the American movies he's seen, he's seen a lot of Santas, but no one to give him a definitive answer on whether or not Santa is real or not. At first I couldn't take his question seriously, and said "of course there's a Santa!" He looked kind of confused, then asked "but how does he fit down your chimneys? how does that work? does he really deliver presents???" Only then did I realize how serious he was, and quickly corrected myself. THAT is how far the Chinese are separated from "real" American life; of course, American understanding of China isn't much better. I just remembered today that when Chinese president Hu Jintao visited Washington last summer, he was introduced as the president of the Republic of China (aka Taiwan). Yes, Virginia, there IS a difference between the ROC and the PRC, and if you want to have anything to do with China, you had better learn it!
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