Before coming to Beijing to study at Peking University, I had heard that using the internet as I had in the US would be a challenge. The Chinese government regulates which websites people can access, and sites such as Facebook, YouTube, and Netflix are all banned. When I arrived at my hotel and dorm room in Beijing, I quickly realized that the lack of access to certain websites was the least of my problems. When I got to my room, I realized that I had no internet access at all– I had no cell-phone service or wi-fi in my room. After using my broken Chinese to ask a hotel manager how to “use the internet,” the manager informed me that I would need to go to a cell-phone store to connect my phone and buy a router. At the time, I barely knew how to say “use the internet,” let alone “cell-phone plan,” “unlimited data,” “router,” or “I would like to purchase this router and cell-phone plan.” 

Because I came to Beijing a week before my program started, I needed to go by myself to set up a phone plan and buy the router. The day after I arrived in Beijing, I walked from my hotel to an outlet mall to find the merchant stall that the hotel manager directed me to visit. I naively expected the store manager might speak some English so we could communicate; as soon as I approached the stall’s clerk, he told me in Chinese, “I’m sorry, I don’t speak any English.” For the next hour, I embarked on a haphazard and messy process of using the few vocabulary words I knew to ask to “use the internet” for the amount of time I would be in Beijing. I did not understand the majority of the clerk’s responses. However, I was ultimately able to piece together my limited vocabulary to get a phone plan with unlimited data and a router. Though it was obvious that my Chinese level was painfully low, the clerk was actually pleased and amused by my efforts and even decided to give me a discount on my phone plan. I left the shop not just with internet access, but also with a new WeChat friend who told me about his family and the best places to visit in Beijing. 

The most significant part of this exchange was not my extensive knowledge of Chinese vocabulary and syntax. Rather, I was able to creatively piece together the bits of words, sentences, and phrases I had learned to make meaning and communicate with the person standing across from me. Learning Chinese gave me tools to communicate with the store clerk not just through words, but through laughing at my mistakes and overcoming my embarrassment to make a connection with another person. My language learning experiences have given me the tools to creatively and holistically communicate with others. Moreover, learning Chinese has given me the ability to approach unfamiliar situations, often when I do not know what is happening or how to say exactly what I want to, with confidence, persistence, and good humor.

The belief that it is essential for individuals to be capable of dealing with complexity and diversity is at the core of a liberal arts education. There is no better way to gain the tools necessary for approaching the world’s complexity and diversity than through the study of foreign languages and cultures. On the surface, studying foreign languages enables one to communicate with a broader range of people through oral and written communication. Beyond this, language not only gives us communication skills, but also the ability to problem solve, an understanding of the world’s complexity, and, perhaps most significantly, empathy. Studying and using foreign languages enables one to see the world through the eyes of others, understanding how different cultural contexts shape beliefs, perspectives, and values, allowing us to see the commonalities among people across cultural and national borders.

I study foreign languages not just to learn about languages’ particularities, but to use the language to communicate. This is both a practical tool and, inevitably, a method of building my ability to problem-solve and navigate cultural differences. When I jumped into a Beijing taxi with only the English name of my destination and no app to translate directions, I had to find a way to tell my driver who spoke no English where I was going. Not only that, I needed the cultural knowledge to understand why the driver asked me why I wasn’t yet married, offer to introduce me to his nephew, and ask if I had ever shot anyone because I was American. Without some previous familiarity with Chinese culture and society, this conversation would have offended or even insulted me. However, years of learning and using foreign languages at all levels of proficiency had prepared me to approach this situation with confidence and positivity. Instead of an uncomfortable situation, this conversation became an opportunity to connect with my driver and, when all else fails, use charades to get my points across.

This is a picture of an address I showed to my taxi driver in Beijing on my first day in the city.

This is a picture of directions I would show to taxi drivers in Beijing when I had no idea how to get where I needed to go.

When I reflect on the knowledge and skills I have gained over the past three years at Emory, my study of languages and cultures stand out as essential to my personal and academic development. Studying languages has enabled me to directly connect with others both at Emory and abroad, and such connections have been my most significant source of learning. While I have studied anthropology, education, history, and literature in my classes, communicating with others through language has allowed me to put tangible faces to those to whom these subjects pertain. After all, humans, or people, are at the core of the humanities, and language is our key to connecting with and understanding people.