Mateo Whatley

When I signed the language pledge on day one, I made a promise: only Chinese, all day, every day. Every character was a rep, every assignment a set, and I studied my way through coffee shops all over Beijing, rating each one out of five stars. My politics and business courses were taught entirely in Chinese, and my one-on-one research dug into modern dating and why, so few young Chinese are having kids- answers I found by interviewing locals myself.

The real growth, though, happened outside the classroom. I’d talk to anyone who would say hello: monks, aunties in the park, students in the library, a woman making tea in a Yunnan village. Each conversation was a private lesson worth more than gold. I took the bullet train to Shanghai, biked around West Lake in Hangzhou, got lost in the tea mountains, played pick-up basketball with Tibetan and Uyghur students, and even talked my way into seeing Alibaba’s headquarters after waiting at the gate for over an hour.

By the end, my teachers told me my Chinese improved greatly, but the part I’ll really carry with me most is every meaningful conversation I was able to experience.