Dilara is a Kazakhstan girl who has stayed in China for 5 years. It was totally out of expectation for Dilara to come and study in China. In 2007, Dilara was traveling in China with her parents after graduating from high school. During that period of time before the 2008 Olympics, China was developing rapidly. While traveling, her parents, who considered the bright future of China, asked her whether she wanted to come to China for further education, and she said ok. Then she is here. It was all decided in a sudden.
She has her own reasons, though. China attracts her by its charming civilization and its endless possibilities during developing, especially those in communication affairs with Kazakhstan. Also, Dilara considers it as a chance for opening up her horizon and point of view. Understanding another culture is good for the understanding of her own culture.
Besides, one of the most important reasons is the Chinese language, which she believes is one of the most difficult languages in the world. Dilara is in great interest of learning languages, and is eager to learn Chinese in particular. “I can speak Russian and English. If I could also speak Chinese, then it would be marvelous. I could not imagine the scene when I was speaking Chinese!” It takes a long time, and now she speaks fluent Chinese, and she considers her Chinese even better than her English.
Kazakhstan and China are neighbors and they share a common point which is they both have the traits of Asian culture, but they have many more differences. When talking about the differences, Dilara first comes up with ethnicity. It is amazing that the number of ethnic groups in Kazakhstan is up to 128, almost doubles that of China. What is amazing is that though those groups are various, there are rarely any ethnical problems.
Food is another issue that shocks Dilara. As Kazakhstan people are nearly all Muslins, they don’t eat pork, but sometimes the horse flesh. In the beginning this posed a huge problem for Dilara. Now five years later, Dilara has grown used to Chinese food, even if there might be pork in it.
Though the cultures between the two countries are quite different, it is not that hard for Dilara to adjust herself to the new environment. In the first year, she studied Chinese in The Central Academy of Drama, which is a really interesting place filled with an atmosphere of art according to Dilara. She made lots of friends, both Chinese and from other countries. Speaking of feeling lonely, Dilara said that sometimes she would miss home, but the feeling of solitariness never occurred to her. “At first I didn’t feel lonely, as everything was new and I made lots of friends who I could chat with. Then after having friends, you would not feel lonely.”
Dilara always pursues for the best. “Ok, I am in China. I need to go to the best university in China. PKU? Ok, then I’ll go.” After a year in Central Academy of Drama, Dilara participated in the preparatory class of PKU, but unfortunately she failed in the first year’s entrance examination. That was a stressful time. She had to compete with Korean and Japanese students, who could learn Chinese much more easily, but Dilara didn’t want to give up. She made up her mind and started her second year trial. This time, she successfully entered PKU.
Then the first problem Dilara has to face is to choose a major. When she was in high school, she had a strong faith to study ecology, “because I want to save the world.”Dilara smiled while saying, laughing at her “innocent” thought. That was a lofty dream, but now she realized that her real interest was in the media, so she chose the School of Journalism and Communication.
However, though in a school of communication, she is also confronted with some communicating challenges with Chinese students, who have a different culture and values, and a different perspective on looking at the world. “At first it was interesting to exchange the different part of culture, but gradually it became boring as we didn’t have common topics.” So she began to join some clubs and groups where people share the common interest, such as a drama troupe and the PKU TV station.
There are not many students from Kazakhstan in PKU, only 12 in total. But even so, Dilara isn’t familiar with everyone. She explains that as everyone’s schedule is tight and different they don’t always hang out together apart from having meals.“ Life and study in PKU is busy, but I can overcome it, if I work hard,” Dilara said. She is really assiduous, as she used to be.“ People say I am smart. I don’t know how smart I am, but I know how hard I work.”
It is enjoyable to hear about Dilara’s story on how she decided to study in China, how she fought hard to enter PKU, how different the cultures are, and what China is like in her eyes. For Dilara, whatever she encounters in China will be part of her life and a treasure.
Written by: Guo Danyang
Updated:May 15,2014
