Personal Statement of Mu-Yi Tsai
I was born in Taiwan where people are passionate and enthusiastic. I have grown up in a society where people respect and welcome different thoughts and beliefs. Until 2005 my family moved to Guangdong as my father’s job requirement. China has been developing rapidly over the past 20 years. I integrated into Chinese society pretty soon although both are quite different in many ways. I had made a lot of acquaintance with local students in the schools and had a wonderful study in high school to win the scholarships for three consecutive years. In 2011, I passed the high school entrance examination and got admitted to Dongguan Middle School which is the best one in Dongguan area.
Many say that I’ve grown up with great positive energy. I think it was a gifted personality and my parents had also helped cultivate that as I grew up. They have taught me to be responsible for what I have done, always to care for others, and to view the world through my heart with open eyes. For the past few years I have travelled to different cities in China, visiting cultural and historical sites. While walking on my feet through the viewpoints instead of joining in tours, I greatly improved my independence and patience. In 2010, I was honorable to be one of the representatives to participate a one-month exchange student program at Stadthagen, Germany. Although I have joined an Ecology Camp in Inner Mongolia held by the Chinese National Geography Magazine in 2008, this was totally a different experience for me to home stay in a German family. I had a wonderful time with my lovely host family and even though they could not understand English very well, I still enjoyed the time when we had to work through our language boun...
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...I walk in the campus that I have realized the success of my efforts.
To be honest, I do not like how most of the universities in China requires students to decide their majors in freshman year. I found HKU's whole person education concept, mass courses system, unique college system as well as the exchange programs with other universities all over the world extremely fascinating. Thus, being a student in the Bachelor of Arts or Social Science department always been my biggest dream in the past few years. Not only this, University of Hong Kong is the ideal school that I have always been pursuing. Just like what the proverb says, chance favors the prepared mind, and I am ready to challenge myself in this new task. That being said, I am looking forward to become a part of Hong Kong University in the upcoming year. And by the mean times, my dream will finally come true!
When Chinese immigrants enter the United States of America, it is evident from the start that they are in a world far different than their homeland. Face to face with a dominant culture that often times acts and thinks in ways contrary to their previous lives, immigrants are on a difficult path of attempting to become an American. Chinese immigrants find themselves often caught between two worlds: the old world of structured, traditional and didactic China and the new world of mobile, young and prosperous America. They nostalgically look back at China longing for a simpler life but look at the United States as a land of opportunity and freedom that they did not know in China. For this is why they came to America in the first place, to provide for their children and themselves what they could not in China. To do this, of course, they are faced with the challenge of assimilating. Learning the language, acquiring education, owning property, etc. are all ways to seize the American Dream. However this poses a problem for the Chinese immigrant for, in the process of assimilation, they lose some of their Chinese culture. This especially rings true for the children of Chinese immigrants: the second-generation Chinese Americans.
As the evidence shows that, "The Chinese value education as a stepping stone to success, and children - especially only children - are under a lot of pressure to excel in school. There is also an unspoken code of conformity, and there is a lot of pressure to fit in, for to be singled out is the penultimate in humiliation, causing students to 'lose face' in front of their peers. In addition to academics, parents also try and enroll their children in a wide variety of after-school activities to enhance their overall development."("History of Chinese Education, Five Necessities of Chinese Culture", Paragraph 2) This evidence shows not only teachers but also parents or students from China are still keeping the traditional mind to study. Thousands years ago in ancient China, schools are competitive, students needs to have high quality of studying and good relations with the school as well. Even they might feel stressful on learning when they are in elementary school. Nowadays, parents still think their kid must have the best education, more strong points. Childrens are learning lots of skills and knowledge when they are extremely young. In Canada, it's totally different. Students like team-work, they don't have bias on any schools. They study breezily without any pressure. So, more traditional makes Chinese education different from Canadian
In 2009, I went to Italy to become an Au pair for two years. This was a difficult decision for me. I wasn’t able to speak Italian and had never lived abroad, away from my family and friends. I felt I needed this experience to push my boundaries and broaden my horizons. It was incredible to experience another country’s culture. Living in Italy made me realize how grateful, fortunate, and capable I am.
Though trying new food and rooming with strangers seems like an insignificant aspect of almost every child’s life, it was not for mine. The experience went beyond just showing me other cultures existed; it made me want to dedicate a part of my life to helping preserve the diversity that exists among us. Since that trip almost six years ago now, I have volunteered a little over 100 hours of my time on weekends to helping set up and run culture exchange programs. Most of these programs take place near Valdosta State University, a college near where I live, and in these programs, I have the opportunity to meet and talk to people from around the world. The programs have helped me grow a greater sense of cultural appreciation by constantly reminding me that the world is full of different points of view. The basic ideals I learned on the trip to D.C. have helped to understand that there is more to the world than I can possibly know. That makes it essential for me to keep an open mind when facing new
How your culture had shaped who I am today? I was born and raised in China for at least 8 year, and my parents’ culture have once deeply influence my choice of the future and limit my vision. As everyone know, China is once a communist country, similar to old Russia (USSR). People are not allow to be wealthier and education are limited. In Chinese culture, it is necessary to subject one’s own desire for a greater value to the family. If I don’t follow my parents order, it will brings shame to the family. There were moment in my life where I would follow the tradition and culture as a nice son, but I am tired of following the tradition. Sometimes, we have no clue that we live under the internalized oppression from culture and elder. Internalized
Also, when I am home in China, I always wish to drive by myself. This is because that I feel guilty when I have to wake up my brother to drive me to school in the morning. I could take a taxi or wait for the bus, but I can not afford being late to classes if they are not on time. If I drive by myself, I could go to the market and buy necessities whenever I need to instead of waiting for the school shuttle once a week. Also, I will feel a sense of independent and relief when my mother does not have to yell my brother to get out of bed
Unlike most other families mine had decided to live with the Chinese rather than in the isolated compound away from them. I and my parents, we saw no need for separation, after all, what bad could it be? The culture and language of China had begun to grab my attention from the moment I started to learn them. I went to
In conclusion, Chinese parents assume that Chinese foreign students are expected to solve problems and to move through experiences toward globalization. Also, Chinese parents believe that studying abroad in America is advantageous to assist Chinese students in achieving the delightful life and approaching to be globalized. The evidence is that studying abroad in America provides more opportunities for Chinese students to better access to knowledge and to better obtain global view.
In my first 19 years, I grew up in a small town in Northern China. My small hometown was lagging behind than some coastal city, such as Guangzhou and Shanghai, especially in social economy and education. Most of people live in my hometown have strongly stereotypes, for example girl should stay at home
I was greatly impressed by the diversity of the student population and their friendliness. In my first year at LIU-Post, I met a multitude of wonderful people who soon became great friends. However, I want to expand my knowledge of cultures and traditions around the world and meet people from different countries. By transferring, I aspire to meet and become friends with people around the globe.
As a new freshman entering this Community College, you will be discovering and experiencing many new things about the world in which you live and yourself. The jump from high school to college can be a very scary but exciting experience. I have some valuable advice for you on how to make this transition smoother and an enjoyable experience rather than a scary and lonely one.
I was in Ohio when I first came to America as an Chinese exchange student, I live in a little town surrounded by endless corn fields, basically in the middle of nowhere. I went to a small public high school, which has only 2 Chinese students, including me. All of a sudden my world is completely changed, nothing from my old days is left, and I’m totally not ready for that. I got so homesick, I began to miss everything about China, people, food, and of course, language. That’s probably the reason why I was so eager to speak Chinese every time I meet the other Chinese girl.
I built upon my cross-cultural experiences as I befriended exchange students from Belgium, Japan, and Korea. Each time, the friendships enriched my appreciation and understanding of not only my own culture, but the very concept of culture. What falls under the cultural blanket can vary from person to person, and I found it to be very interesting that while one person could claim lan...
Being Chinese comes with a large degree of different expectations. Both positive and negative, the expectations are often built into assumptions made about myself based off of my ethnicity. I have felt strong implications of stereotyping by others because of my ethnicity, and it has impacted me significantly. Throughout my time in America, the experiences that I have had has created its own sense of focus. That is, I have found that specific aspects of my culture have had negative ramifications on the environment around me, making it more difficult to interact in. It has created a circumstance where I am reclusive in my own environment because of these experiences, and it has made it difficult for me to want to interact with others because
Overcoming cultural borders put pressure on me when I first came to America as a ninth grader. Because cultural diversity is an essential part of the society, I want to embrace the difference by keeping the balance between Chinese and American culture. It requires active learning and long-time practice for me to cope with cultural shock and to adapt myself into a new environment. Although the transition can be both exciting and overwhelming, it helps me to have more effective communications because of my exposure to both high context and low context culture.