first person
Lisa Smith: China
Looking back on my trip to China, I realized I learned a lot about myself and about American culture as a whole. Many people in other countries admire us for being Americans and living in a free country. But I don’t think we should be so strongly admired. It’s not that America is an awful place; it’s just our mindset and mentality needs to be re-examined. Because of our power and freedom, we fail to look outside this country. We fail to recognize the people hurting in other countries unless we are involved in a war with them. Instead of learning about other cultures, we focus on our own history and culture. What made me realize this was talking to the Chinese university students. In each city we went to and interacted with the students, I was asked, “what do you know about China?” I was always embarrassed to say “very little.” They knew so much about U.S. history and culture having studied it since they were in grade school. But I had only learned about China this past semester preparing for this trip. I thought I knew things about the people there—but discovered I had only learned the normal Chinese stereotypes so prevalent in the U.S.
This realization hit me hard and I hope I remember it forever. I want to be someone who works to correct the generalizations and stereotypes of the Chinese people. They deserve better. There is no reason why world history and cultures can’t be taught in our schools, just as it is in China. I hope that as a future teacher I will be able to teach my students about global concerns. Perhaps this is one of the reasons I was able to go to China, so I could come back home and correct these stereotypes. Since so many people in China love the American people, we need to be able to show a little back by being more informed about their lives and the lives of the people in other countries. This trip was the motivation I needed to research and learn more on my own about the world and begin to teach others how much more there is across the U.S. borders.
I can honestly say this trip to China was amazing and I have learned more in three weeks than I could have learned in a whole lifetime of reading. I hope and pray that I will continue to be impacted by the trip and live my life in a different way. I want to inform and teach others based on the experiences I had in this new place that was so unknown to me. I may not have the answers to every question people may ask, but this trip was just the beginning. Now it is up to me take it farther and learn even more.
