The Social Mixer with Chinese guests at OSU-Delaware

The Social Mixer

My group work with the Chinese students went great. There was a student named Sean that I really connected with. I first met him during the trivia game when he asked me who Jim Thorpe was. During the answers I joked with him that I should receive an assist for helping him with the question since he got it right. I felt that was a good way to ease the nervousness of us both. It turned out that he was in my group. The group work went very well. They had good insight on the poem we did about the moon and how the man missed his family. They said the poem lost some of its beauty during the translation. The students really didn’t get the 7-11 poem (the poem is called Capitalism, by Campbell McGrath), and I honestly didn’t expect them to.

I was very surprised about their love for poetry, and when the recited a poem as a whole group I thought that was incredible. There were no real challenges in the discussion about the poems. I had a little trouble explaining the meaning of the 7-11 poem, but other than that we had good communication.

I learned a great deal from these students, and especially Sean. He told me about his life back in China. He also told me about how most people in China never use cars to get around until they get older, as opposed to Americans who use their car for everything. We talked about his experience here in the United States, and what he thought of the American people. We talked about sports and the Chinese athletes here in the United States, such as Yao and Yi Jianlian. He was a very smart individual and was one of the nicest individuals I have ever met. We exchanged e-mails and I hope to talk to him when he gets back to China.

I came away with the perception that people all around the world are the same in many aspects. I think we are all inherently good people, and we all like to have fun. Even with the language barrier we could communicate and express our genuine like for each other. I think if societies had more interaction we would see that we all have more in common than we think. This was certainly the case with Sean and me.

Matt Dixon
Student in Mike Lohre's Ohio State English 367 class