My Experience Being Bilingual

This is the final blog entry of my WRA class. What I want to say first is that time passed really quickly! I can remember clearly the first meet in our class, but now it's already the end of the semester. I am so happy to meet Franny and all my classmates in the first semester of my college. You all taught me a lot both in study and life, also bring me tons of happiness.

I am now getting on well with my overseas study, thanks to you guys. Today I want to mainly talk about my experience being bilingual. I am a native speaker of Mandarin and I started to learn English since 10 years old. Even though I have learned English for so many years, I am not a professional speaker of English now, just because I didn't speak a lot in English when I was in China. All my Chinese friends and teachers thought that my English was good enough to handle the study here. But actually it's not the case. After I came to United States, I found my English can't be worse. I don't know how to order food in English, I know it's rude to point at the food and say I want that, but I have to. Sometimes when I was in trouble, I would shout out Chinese involuntarily. Recording pen has become a necessity of my life, since I can't catch all the materials covered by the professors, I have to record the lectures and review them again after class.

There are also some advantages to be bilingual. My Chinese name is Tong Chai, and my English name is Cherry. I gave myself an English name because it will be easier for local people to remember me. Some of my friends are taking Chinese class in MSU, and sometimes they pretty struggle in the class work. It will make me so happy to help them with Chinese. I feel so lucky to be bilingual. That means I can communicate and survive in two totally different countries, which makes me so excited. I like knowing people and sharing ideas with them. Do you have accomplishments you are proud of? I do. When I help the Chinese people who cannot speak English here, I told myself that it was not a waste of time learning another language.

Being bilingual is a challenge, as well as a chance. It is a challenge that makes us face more difficulties and problems to use different language in a new environment. It is also a chance that provides us a broader horizon to acknowledge the world and realize the self-value.