从万象到山东，用心感受中国

文/Keomalaisack Athit（老挝）

作者参加合唱比赛合影

1989年10月23日，我出生于老挝沙耶布里省博尔坦区，2009年我搬到了老挝的首都万象接受教育。当我拿到学士学位后，我就开始做生意养家糊口。在做生意的这5年里，我遇到了许多在老挝投资的中国商人，了解到中国有为那些寻求高等教育的外国学生提供奖学金的机会。我花了一段时间思考，最终说服了自己申请中国的政府奖学金。2016年8月，当我收到来自山东大学的录取通知书时，我的中国留学梦梦想成真了。

2016年8月28日，我从一个小国家（老挝）远道而来，来到一个文化繁荣、科学技术先进的大国进行学习。2016年9月3日，新学期开始了，这是我第一次到国外学习，为此我感到非常兴奋，并且能够有机会结识来自不同国家的留学生，我们都是学习金融专业的。虽然本专业是用英语授课的，但我开始意识到我在讲汉语这方面处于劣势，因为我从来没有在老挝学过汉语，也没有在中国上过汉语预备班。因此，在那段时间里，我特别紧张，因为我不会说中文，甚至一个字也不会说。每当我去菜市场买菜，都不知道如何与菜贩沟通的时候，那简直就是一场噩梦，因为当我跟他们用英语表达时，他们都听不懂我在说什么。那个时候我觉得在中国很孤独，只能通过Facebook和老挝的朋友联系，告诉他们我在中国所遇到的困难。他们问我：“你为什么会选择在中国学习，为什么不去母语是英语的国家留学？”我告诉我的老挝朋友们，当我还是个孩子的时候，非常喜欢看中国电影，并且被电影中歌曲的美妙旋律所吸引。这也让我在幼年时期就对这个有着5000多年历史的神秘东方国度有了一定的遐想。

Born in Sayabury Province of Lao P.D.R in Bortand district on 23rd October 1989, I moved to the Capital of Lao in 2009 for further education. Once I graduated with my bachelor’s degree, I started to do business to support my family. During those 5 years, I met many Chinese men investing in Laos and learned that China is offering scholarships to foreign students seeking higher education. It took me a while to decide but I talked to myself into applying for the government scholarship eventually. It was a dream came true when I received an offer from Shandong University in August 2016.

On August 28th 2016, I traveled far from a small country through the mountains and river to study in a major country with prosperous culture and advance technology. On the 3rd of September 2016, the new semester started, I was very excited to study outside of the country for the first time, and to have the opportunity to meet student from a variety of countries enrolling for the same major, Finance. Though it was taught in English, I started to realize my disadvantage in speaking Chinese since I had never studied Chinese in Laos, nor had I attended the Chinese preparatory class,not even one word. It was a nightmare whenever I had to go to the vegetable Market while not knowing how to communicate with vegetable retailers because none of them could understand me when I spoke English. It made me feel very much lonely at that time, I could only contact my friends in Laos through Facebook. Telling them about the difficulties I encountered in China. They asked me: “Why did you choose to study in China, why don’t go to an English speaking country?” I answered my friends that when I was a child, I liked watching Chinese movies very much and was fascinated by the melody of the Chinese songs in the movies. Moreover, I felt specially bond with this mysterious country with a long history of more than 5,000 years.

刚到济南开始留学生活的时候，我对这里许多奇妙的事物都很感兴趣。在这个繁华的都市里，道路非常干净宽敞，交通井然有序，并且人们也都很有礼貌，这与我在之前所听到的情况截然相反。当时，每个人都说，中国的环境很脏很混乱，人们在公共场所都随地吐痰。自从我亲身体验过以后才知道中国是一个如此令人向往的国家，正如中国有句俗语说的那样：“百闻不如一见”。同时，这也激发了我开始认真学习汉语的热情，通过与当地人的交流，更能够加深我对齐鲁大地文化的了解。2017年1月，寒假来临，很多留学生都回家了，但对我来说，这也是我开始学习汉语的第一天，用了博雅初级汉语教材。当时的校园环境非常安静，是我专心学习汉语的好时光。除了语言课，我还试着和同学、保安、宿管、出租车司机或市场的菜贩等等进行汉语交流。并且只要有国际学生参加的活动，我都会踊跃报名参加。

我参加了学校举办的各项活动，如山东大学国际文化节、中国改革开放40周年外宾庆典、第五届国际学生冬至包饺子节、京剧体验活动、海外工作讲习班、“建设铁路，成就梦想”海外工作经验研讨会等多项活动。除参加各种活动外，我还参观了很多地方，去了淄博、潍坊等地，参加“百名国际留学生接近山东发现山东”、临沂地区第九届国际商贸物流博览会等。这些经历都将永远铭记在脑海里。记忆最深刻的就是去山东电视台参加了一期节目秀，我非常兴奋，因为在我的人生中这是我第一次上电视节目。在节目中，我们跳了一段老挝风格的舞蹈，还玩了一些游戏，并通过这样的形式来加深中老之间的友谊，更令人兴奋的是我们赢得了这次游戏比赛环节的大奖。一个月后，我的中国同学在节目中看到了我，于是就劝我参加“合唱团歌唱比赛”。在排练的前两天，他们让我唱了一首中文歌，叫作“山大校歌”。我很头疼，因为这是一首中文歌曲，对歌词极其不熟悉。但幸运的是，我的一位名叫“赵康康”的中国朋友来帮助我，在比赛前他几乎每天都在教我唱歌。我还记得歌词是：

At the beginning of my stay in Jinan, I was very interested in the many Amazing things here. The roads are very clean and spacious; the traffic was orderly, and people very polite in this prosperous city, which was contrary to what I heard before I was there. At that time,everyone said that China was dirty and messy where people are spit indiscriminately in public places. Since I had seen by myself that China is a very fascinating country, It was consistent with the Chinese proverbial saying “百闻不如一见”. It was also what inspired me to be interested in study Chinese seriously to communicate with local people and get a deeper understanding of the culture of Shandong province, the hometown of Confucius, who influenced the history of the Chinese language. In January 2017 the spring vacation was come and many students were going back home.But for me it was the first day that I started learning Chinese from the Boya Chinese elementary book. The Campus environment at that time was so quiet as to be a great opportunity for me to start concentrating on my study. In addition to language class, I tried to speak with Chinese people such as classmates, the Guards, Housekeeper in the dormitory, taxi drivers and vegetable sellers in the market. Every time there were activities for international student, I was one to participate in.

I attended every exhibition that the school held such as the International Cultural Festival of Shandong University, Foreign Guests Celebration for the 40th Anniversary of the Start of China’s Reform Policy and Opening-up, 5th International Students Winter Solstice Dumping Festival, Peking Opera Experience Activity,Workshop About Overseas Working Experiencesession “Build a railway, Build your dream”, and many other activities. In addition to participating in various activities, I also went to visit various important places including Touch Shandong One Hundred International Student Discovering Shandong in Zibo and Weifang District, The 9th International Trade and Logistics Fair in Linyi District and so on. All the experience I had at that time would be kept deep in the memory of mine forever. The most unforgettable one was to go to Shandong TV Station to participate in a program show.I was very excited because it was the first time for me to be on a TV show. In the show, we danced in Lao’s style,played some games, and bridge the friendship between China and Laos. What was even more exciting was to win the big prize from this game show. One month later, my Chinese classmate saw me in that show and persuaded me to participate in “Singing Chorus Group Competition”. They let me sing a Chinese song called“SDU song” during the first 2 days of singing rehearsals.I had a lot of headaches for it was a Chinese Song with unfamiliar words. But fortunately, a Chinese friend of mine whose name is “赵康康” came to help and taught me to sing for almost every day before the competition.I still remember the lyrics:

东临黄海 南望泰山

这是我们追求真理的乐园

天行健, 君子以自强不息

薪火传，学子要与前贤比肩

为天下储人才, 放眼五洲

为国家图富强，求索万年

要志向远大，气养浩然

学无止境不畏登攀！

奋斗啊，奋斗啊

为了中华民族崛起

奋斗啊，奋斗啊

为了人类好明天！

我们是崇实与求新的朝气蓬勃的青年

我不得不对他说一句：“谢谢你能够如此耐心地教我学习中文歌曲。”没有他的帮助，我们不可能成为歌唱比赛的冠军。

作者参加山东电视台节目合影

在每个假期里，我的中文就会进步很多。因为在假期里我去了中国的许多省份，了解了各地不同的文化。我的第一个目的地是去的哈尔滨，在那里体验了零下25℃的寒冷天气。当时我是坐慢车过去的，火车走了将近24个小时。当火车穿过乡村田野时，我看到了美丽的街景和风景，这是我以前从未见过的。当我到了哈尔滨以后，我以为到了俄罗斯，因为这是我第一次看到了整条河都结冰，并且在哈尔滨冰雪大世界看到了世界上最大最漂亮的冰雕。在哈尔滨游玩之后，我便去了天津，天津是中国的直辖市。我很喜欢这座城市的购物中心，因为在这里非常宽敞、干净、漂亮，我还看到一个巨大的摩天轮，我以为只有在伦敦才能看到，没想到在天津我也目睹到了如此大的摩天轮。之后，我去了中国最大的经济中心城市——上海，去的时候我坐的是高铁，这是我人生中第一次坐高铁，它比飞机更方便更舒适。中国科技发展的速度让我感到非常惊讶，发展的速度是如此之快，就像中国的高铁速度一样快。到了上海之后，我有幸参观了上海图书馆，它就像读者的天堂一样，可以在知识的海洋里畅游。再后来，我去了广州、深圳、澳门和香港，这些城市都有它们各自独特和神奇的地方。2018年寒假期间，我也有幸去了青岛和成都，我深深地被中国北部、中部和南部的差异所吸引。接下来，我未来的旅行计划是去北京、内蒙古和西藏，我非常希望下一次的旅行可以让我有比前一次旅行更加深刻的印象。

东临黄海 南望泰山

这是我们追求真理的乐园

天行健, 君子以自强不息

薪火传，学子要与前贤比肩

为天下储人才, 放眼五洲

为国家图富强，求索万年

要志向远大，气养浩然

学无止境不畏登攀！

奋斗啊，奋斗啊

为了中华民族崛起

奋斗啊，奋斗啊

为了人类好明天！

我们是崇实与求新的朝气蓬勃的青年

I have to say thank you to him for his patience. We could not have been the Champions of the singing contest without his help.

With each holiday, my Chinese language was getting better and better. I went to travel to many provinces of China to learn about different cultures in each locality.My first destination was Harbin to experience the cold weather under -25 degrees. I went by a slow train and the journey took 24 hours. As the train passed through country-sides, I sighted a very beautiful street-side view that I had never seen before. When I finally got there,I thought I had reached Russia. It was the first time that I saw a whole river frozen, and also the largest ice sculpture in the world. After that, I traveled down to Tianjin. It is governed as one of the four municipalities under the direct administration of central government of the PRC. I really like the shopping centers of this city because they were vast, clean and beautiful. And I saw a large Ferris wheel I thought I could only see in a city like London. After that, I went to travel to Shanghai,the economic center of China. And it was the first time that I was able to ride a high-speed train. It was fast and more comfortable than a flight. I was impressed the speed of China's science and technology development.It is so fast, just like China's high-speed railway. I was also thrilled to have had the opportunity to visit the Shanghai Library. It was like the readers’ paradise. Later on, I went to Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Macau and Hong Kong. Those cities are unique and magical in their own way. And during last spring semester vacation, I had the opportunity to travel to Qingdao, and then Chengdu. I was encountered by the charm of the difference among the north, middle, and south of China. And my future trip plan is to go to Beijing, Inner Mongolia and Tibet. I am very hopeful that the next trip would be even more impressive than the previous ones.

作者（右）在国际文化节上跳老挝舞蹈

直到2019年1月12日，汉语水平等级考试的日子就要到了，很多中国朋友都给我发了祝福短信鼓励我，让我瞬间觉得自己充满了力量，准备好了面对考试。最后，我以高分通过了HSK四级考试。由于我过去的经历对我有了很大的帮助，所以现在我的中文水平每天都在进步，现在我可以很容易地和我的中国朋友交流了。正如中国古语所说的那样：“功夫不负有心人”，成功是留给有准备的人的。这也是我的中国朋友教给我的，我把这些话永远铭记在心里。在过去两年的中国学习中，我有过许多美好而温暖的回忆，回顾过去的经历，让我心怀感恩我在中国度过的美好的时光，并能转化成为我人生中最重要的一部分。拿破仑曾经说过：中国是头沉睡的狮子。让她睡吧，因为当她醒来时，她将撼动全世界。事实上，中国不仅在经济上发生快速的变化，而且在社会层面也发生着巨大的变化，因为它正在改变着每一个中国人的心。现在我很高兴地说，当我从中国毕业时，我会让像我一样的老挝人去了解中国，我会不停地学习中国文化，如果有机会，我希望我能继续在中国攻读博士学位，因为中国是目前我最爱的地方。

Until January 12th, 2019. The exam date for the Test of Chinese Language Ability was coming; many Chinese friends sent me a blessing message to encourage me,which made me feel powerful and ready to face the exam. In the end, I passed the HSK Level 4 with a high score. All of my past experience really helped me a lot, so that my Chinese level could have made great progress every day. Now I can communicate with my Chinese friends easily. Just like a Chinese ancient saying “功夫不负有心人”, success is reserved for those who are prepared. That is also what my Chinese friends have taught me. I've kept it in my heart forever. In the past two years of studying in China, I have had many wonderful and warm memories. Going back through the archives of memories has made me reflect and appreciate the two wonderful years that I spent in China and being a part of the rapid changes. Napoleon once said, “China is a sleeping Lion. Let her sleep, for when she wakes she will move the world.” Indeed China is moving the world, not only economically but also socially. It’s changing lives one heart at a time.Now I can gladly say, when I graduate from China, I will let many Laos know about China as I did. And I will continue to study Chinese culture without a day stopping. If there have a chance, I hope that I can continue to study Doctoral degree in China, because China is the place I have fallen in love with.