On 27th September
2013, AfriqAsia Merge had an interview with
one of the final year Chinese students of the University of Ghana who
just returned from a year abroad trip to China. He shared with us some of his
experiences and observations during this trip.
AfriqAsia Merge:
Tell us about yourself.
Student: My name is
Yakubu Misbawu. I started studying Chinese
some four
years ago, before going for a year abroad
program in
China. I`m from the Northern part of Ghana,
around
Bimbila...
AfriqAsia Merge:
What inspired you to study Chinese ?
Student: I was offered Chinese. I
had my admission letter and saw i
had been
offered admission into the university of Ghana to
study
Archaeology, Information studies and Chinese. I
asked what is
Chinese?
Many of my friends,
family and colleagues were making fun
of me..but there was one person i spoke to who
said "don`t
worry, you could
go and study it for some two years and if
it`s not good you drop it. So i said
fine..that was how i
started...
AfriqAsia Merge:
A little question. Was it your first time traveling?
Student
: For me, that was my first time
of traveling so you know
naturally
there`ll be that kind of excitement.
AfriqAsia Merge:
So did you experience any
cultural shock?
Student
: Yes. There was a cultural
shock. When i talk about cultural
shock, i mean
the way we address ourselves as Ghanians
and the way
the Chinese address themselves. In Ghana
when we want
to talk about ourselves, we put our hand
hand on the chest and
say "me". In China, the fellow points the
finger right to
the face or to the nose and says "Wǒ", so i
was kind of
confused.
The gap between
the male and the female is also very wide
if i may put it
that way. Unless you were a boyfriend or
girlfriend to
someone, you would not get that close,
even if
you`re course mates.
You have different agenda. If I'm saying
something to you,
there should be some distance between us,
you know? ... But in
Ghana we don`t see it like that. You could
see course mates here in Ghana holding hands, teasing, laughing..
Over there, immediately you hold hands. you`re boyfriend and
girlfriend. So it was very big trouble.
..And the way we handle friendship here "Charley, what`s
up"...
You call friends everyday to find out" what`s up", there, you
call
a friend today, tomorrow, it`s like a burden. Not too much
friendship. All they do is continually think of how to make it in
life. That`s all!
AfriqAsia Merge:
How was your social life. Did you have friends? what
were the fun
things you did in China?
Student : I made friends. Personally I
used to invite friends and cook
dishes with them,
like rice balls. They only knew rice to be
eaten with sticks,
but I had to show them that rice too could
be
balls (Omotuo).(laughing). Yes, that there was also
Waakye, neat fufu
etc.
AfriqAsia Merge: Did you get the ingredients there or you
sent them?
Student: We took them from Ghana. They in turn will cook Chinese
dishes for us.
AfriqAsia Merge:
What were some of the Chinese dishes you enjoyed?
Student: Chao mian (stir fried noodles) and Octopus with fried rice.
AfriqAsia Merge
: What impact has the China experience had on you?
What have you
brought back?
Student: Personally, the impact China
made on me is what i`ll call
sacrifice. In the
sense that there are a lot of things we have
here in Ghana, but
we tend to ignore them and go looking
for other things.
...when you talk to a little Chinese boy or girl,
he or she will tell
you about what she`ll want to achieve in
future and you`ll be marveled. Everything points to the fact
that he wants to do
something that will be remembered forever.
there`s no way you do
that if you don`t sacrifice.
AfriqAsia Merge:
How do you see Ghana China relations.
Student:
When it comes to dreams people say the sky is
the limit. I
believe if we
respect each other and are able to understand
each other, the
sky will be our beginning!!!
