I was pretty excited to see African students in my dorm when I arrived. Having spent three + years researching the topic, and writing several papers (including my undergraduate honors thesis), it is about time I speak with some African students about the issue.
Last night I had my first encounter with a student from Liberia. He approached me, and initiated the conversation in Mandarin. He sat down, and we went through the basics (what is your name, where are you from, etc), and then after a while we swtiched to English.
He first started explaining how Liberia got its name, and the significance of the US involvement (ah yes, AP US History…I remember that). He then switched over to studying in China. It was really interesting to hear from a real live person about many of the issues I have only read about. For example, he asked me why I thought he and his friends went to China. I replied, “because they are given opportunity”, to which he replied, “yeah, it is mian fei de” (free). Then went on to talk about his experiences so far as a Masters student, part-time employee, and African trying to learn Chinese.
I will hopefully have more opportunities to chat with these students about their experiences and their views on China’s involvement in Africa.
