Lingering memories
Whenever I open my photo album, the door of the past opens for me again. There is always something beautiful there that clutches my heart tightly, softens the hard corners of life, and fills me with tears of excitement. Time flies. One month has passed since I left Poland. I feel as if I were a traveller, travelling in a circle, and returning back to the beginning. I am back to my normal self again. But there is always a hollow in my mind, which I want to fill by recalling the past good days. The memories are too deep to express them with words.
Before I went to Poland, I had been a little concerned whether we Chinese were welcomed by native people or not, and whether I could handle the culture difference with ease. Also, usually people like each other only because they are similar to each other. I had been wondering how much Polish people knew about Chinese people. My doubts disappeared when some of my classmates welcomed me warmly and sincerely. They asked me about my name and I said, “Feng Ping.” They tried hard to pronounce it, but only managed to utter some strange syllables. Then we laughed wildly. When one guy called me ‘Ms Ping’, I was quite confused at first and did not response immediately. Later I explained to them that my family name was ‘Feng’, not ‘Ping’, and that in China we put a family name in front of a given name. Then we made a lot of jokes with names. Two of my other friends’ names were Yang and Ning. When Polish friends heard our introduction, they laughed. I asked them what was so funny. One guy said, “Ping, Yang, Ning.” Then friends around us laughed again. “The three names combined together sound like a Polish word which means ‘drunk’!” the guy explained. Then we laughed together and this is how our friendship started.
The friendship developed successively and steadily during the following classes. Our cultural differences amused each other very much. In one class we were required to make a presentation about food and drinks in our own countries. Both Chinese and Polish students introduced the traditional food in our countries. I had gone to some Polish restaurant before that class, and I thought that Polish food was lighter and sweeter, unlike spicy Chinese food. For example, in China we fry vegetables with salt and pepper, while in Poland, in my view, the vegetables are mainly eaten raw, as salad. In that class, we showed a lot of pictures of Chinese food, including Peking duck (duck is also served in Poland with apples, but Peking duck tastes different), noodles with soybean paste, Kong Pao Chicken, and so on. The dishes impressed my Polish friends a lot. “Your presentation made my mouth water and I hoped I could have a taste,” one of my Polish friend said to me.
Several days later, we invited a few friends to our dormitory and we prepared them a good feast. One girl was a little afraid when she saw the way we cooked the chicken. I promised her that she would never be disappointed if she tried a little. She still dared not to try. I got an idea: I put the plate directly under her nose. She kept away from it at first, but suddenly grabbed it at once in her hand and, holding it tightly, said, “This smell is awesome.” Then she gobbled the chicken greedily.
One day we went to the Irish Pub with our Polish friends and other international students. We sat at the table in a circle, talking joyfully. They learnt some Chinese characters from us, and we learnt some Polish words from them. The problem was that we could not understand each other completely sometimes, so we had to use hands and feet to explain things to each other. While talking with my new friends, I was really amazed by how we perceived the same things differently and how different our value systems were.
I remembered when I first introduced myself to a Turkish guy, I said, “My English name is Hermione, like the heroine in the book Harry Potter, who is both smart and beautiful, but I am neither smart nor beautiful.” It is very popular in China to introduce oneself like this, as it is a way to show the Chinese modesty. But this introduction confused other international students. They could not catch what I meant. The same situation happened to one of my friends too. When one the Polish friend asked her whether the show we saw was interesting or not, she said, “It wasn’t interesting,” she paused, “It was very interesting.” My friend was trying to emphasize how deeply impressed she was by the show and how much she liked it. This could be regarded as Chinese humour, but it confused the Polish friend who did not know much about the Chinese culture.
The days I was in Poland were filled with misunderstandings and tolerance. It was this exciting life that made me still dream about UITM at night even when I returned back to China. To be honest, I always travel back to the past, wondering why I did not react properly when I talked with my Polish friends. I also regret that I did not explain Chinese culture clearly to them. Things become precious only when they turn into memories. During the four months’ stay in Poland, I changed into a person who wants to seek something different in life. My friends in China all say that I am no longer who I was, but a girl who is more willing to accept the differences, an independent and vigorous person. This stay in Poland will be cherished by me for the rest of my life. I hope that years later I will return to Poland and embrace the atmosphere again.
（作者：冯萍，外国语言文学系英语104班学生。2014年通过了复旦大学研究生的考试，还收到了波兰华沙大学、波兰波兹南密茨凯维奇大学、波兰弗罗茨瓦夫大学的录取通知书。）
(作者：佚名 编辑：waiguoyu)
