Qing
Where Qing Lived:
Qing (pronounced Ching) was born in Henan province, the 2nd most populous province in China. It was a big place but she liked it anyway. It was a very urbanized place to be so she would mainly play inside by herself. At the time she was the only child in the house.
School:
Qing went to school in China, starting from preschool, which she went to for three years. Then she went to elementary school for six years starting at age seven. Next she went to middle school for three years, but for high school it was a little different.
Qing went to high school in Australia. She and her family also decided she would stay there for college too, but she got sick and had to go back to China. Instead of going to college in Australia, she went to college in Beijing which was a six hour train ride. It was very long train ride! After she finished college, she studied in Beijing. She lived in Beijing for ten years and then she packed up and came to the US!
"I came for education"
Qing said, for when she came to USA she went to the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry for her masters degree. Her school was in Syracuse, New York and she had gone all alone from China to Australia for education. Then, she went back to China and then here to the United States. It was a long journey!
A New Language:
"Its never to late to learn a new language, but if you want to speak it as well as the natives, 12 years old was not that early."
The main language that Qing spoke in China was Mandarin Chinese. That was the local dialect in Henan Province. Mandarin Chinese looks like this 你好.That is hello in Mandarin Chinese. When Qing was in China she focused on reading and writing English, so when she came to the US she had not actually spoken much English. Qing thought that immersion was a really important part of learning a new language. With people all around her speaking English, it was easier for her to learn the language, but still learning English was a very long process for Qing. Now, she knows English quite well.
Coming to the US:
When Qing first came to the US, she came to the US alone. It was night, and she had come to Syracuse, New York. She looked out the window as she drove through New York; it was very different from China! Another Chinese graduate volunteered to pick her up at the airport. It was about 11 o'clock at night, and she couldn't see much but she knew that they drove all the way through the Syracuse University campus, because her school in China was associated with the Syracuse University. Qing had came to the US once before, but she had not came to Vermont. Instead, she had gone to California and she was out on the coast, so coming to the New York was very different from California.
Qing came to Vermont in the summer of 2014. She had a lot of stuff, so she packed as much as she could and shipped the stuff she couldn't carry with her. She shipped some books and other heavy stuff. She came to University of Vermont to get her PhD. Qing still lives here in the USA in Vermont and is planning on staying!
"[Being an immigrant] affects every aspect of my life"
Qing missed the Chinese food because she couldn't get any good Chinese food here. Her favorite food is noodles. She could eat a lot of noodles in China, because one of the major crops there was winter wheat. With wheat, you can make flour and with flour you can make noodles! Another thing Qing missed was the noodle soup her grandma made, because it was really good!
Because she is an immigrant, Qing feels she is treated differently from other people. Some people don't care and just say "oh well that's their problem" but Qing is not like that. When someone says something mean to her, she will sometimes feel "oh that could be my problem". Recently, Qing has been trying to ignore people when they are saying mean things about her and she is trying to switch to another approach. So she has decided not to take it personally anymore.
Going Back to China
Qing really likes living in America, but she misses her family back in China. She tries to see them as much as possible. Her mother recently visited her in August of 2017, but she hasn't seen her grandparents in almost 2 years. Qing is planning a trip to go visit China this summer to see her family. She thinks the trip might happen in August, but she is not sure yet. She is still really excited!
The picture above is of Qing her mother and her grandparents.
Interview and web page by Huck P.