SEU Story | Gloria on the land of her dreams
Editor’s note
Gloria is a master student in Teaching Chinese to Speakers of Other Languages.Born and brought up in Anambra, Nigeria, she was always dreaming of leaving her home country to travel around the world and experience many diverse people and cultures in her life. Her deep desire to better understand the world especially outside Nigeria led her to study International Relations during her undergraduate years in the university. Let’s have a look at Gloria’s story in China, the land of her dreams!
1. Love diverse cultures
To Gloria, China is the place where she can find diverse cultures in that China is a country with vast territory and gives many opportunities for foreigners either to study or work. Therefore, there are so many foreigners coming from different countries and regions in the world. Gloria keeps a close friendship with many of them. Zhu Tongtong, Hu Songyan, Zhao Yunyi and Rosalia, etc. although coming from different countries, are all her good friends.
Moreover，Chinese food is also so attractive that Gloria finds it amazing. With so many different options, cooked specifically and carefully, Chinese food is a completely new experience for her, something that she seldom feels bored of.
2. Love diverse history
During her undergraduate studies, Gloria studied history and international relations for her enthusiasm in history. China, as a country with profound history, is undoubtably her dream land. When she came to China and heard of Nanjing Massacre, she was very interested in learning the history and inclined to share the story to her friends. Gloria chose to become an international volunteer, and she even made some videos and posted them on her YouTube account where she talked about China.
3. Love diverse life
A diverse and fitted-in life in China requires a good command of Chinese. Although it has bothered many foreigners to learn Chinese mandarin, it seems no problem to Gloria, as she said that “the level of difficulty depends on the interest and the determination you have. If you are determined, you wouldn’t consider the challenges.” Gloria loves Chinese and the life style in China. During the pandemic, Gloria also kept her life under control. It was a time of self-evaluation and also gave her great opportunity to keep in close contact with her friends around because everyone used to be very busy. “I still consider the COVID-19 as a break to the world! And now in the post COVID-19 era, I can't wait to explore all the exciting new experiences that China will offer!”, said Gloria.
After chatting with Gloria, I was impressed by her love for China. She mentioned that, “I would still choose to stay in China over and over again.” Her deep love in China functions as a kind of bridge over the cultural gap between us and I felt as if she were a close old friend of mine. Besides, Gloria’s Chinese is so fluent that she had no difficulty in chatting with me in Chinese!
Source：Southeast University
