虽然我的身份是美籍华人,可心里还是为自己的中国背景感到骄傲。我想,很多像我一样大的美籍华人孩子都有这样的想法。比如,每当有人问我的民族是什么,我总会回答,“我是中国人。”但真正到了中国,大家又都说我像外国人。由于我是一个华人,我认为我应该了解中国的文化和语言,学好中文。我不希望长大后去中国时不认识中国字,不会说汉语。
我7个月大时,由于父母正在美国读研究生,没有时间照顾我,就只好把我送回中国,让姥姥姥爷和爷爷奶奶把我带大。我在中国一共呆了4年多,还在中国上了幼儿园。虽然我不太记得那时候的经历,但姥姥总是说我小时候知道的词汇挺多的呢!前几天,我和妈妈清理东西的时候,找到了一些我在中国时写的汉字和作文,那时候我的字写得整整齐齐。可是,我6岁来到美国以后,就一直没有机会很好地坚持学习中文。结果,我的汉语水平慢慢地下降了。
说实话,小时候我特别恨学中文。每当妈妈让我读中文的时候,我都会乱闹、糊弄。因为我那时候还没有体会到汉语的重要性。我想,我能说中文,也能听懂中文,这就够了。七年级的时候,我才开始正式学习中文。每个星期天上一个半小时,我感觉很痛苦。很多在课本上的单词我都不会读,回家试着看中文报纸,连最简单的文章也念得乱七八糟。这时我才知道我以前有多傻。于是我开始认真地学习汉语了。
我每个星期不但上中文学校,还争取给妈妈念一篇在报纸上的文章。我也更加努力地复习汉语词汇,并参加了中国政府举办的汉语水平考试。2006年九年级的时候,我考过了中级的七级,得分很高。我的好成绩也使我获得了奖学金去中国参加2006年夏天在北京师范大学举办的中文夏令营。到了北师大以后,我跟其他50个从美国去的学生一起学了3个多星期的汉语。我在学习过程中也遇到了不少困难。比如,头几天上中文课的时候,很多课文里的词汇都不熟悉,在课堂上阅读课文时,总是觉得别人认识的字我却不知道。但我坚持每天下课认真做作业,认真预习,我逐渐学会了更多的汉字,也对中国文化有了更深的了解。夏令营结束后,我感觉到自己真的学到了不少新知识。回到家以后,家人都说我的中文有了很大的进步。
尽管我的汉语水平在暑假时期提高了不少,但我知道,要是不坚持学习的话,就难免退步。这就是我为什么现在到了私立学校以后仍然选择学中文的原因。
我只能说,我对学中文的兴趣使我克服了最初的困难。在以后的时间里,我会继续努力地学习汉语和了解中国的历史。这样,我就可以骄傲地说“我是一个真正的中国人”了。
Although I am Chinese-American, I am still proud of my Chinese background.
I think a lot of Chinese-American kids as old as me have this idea.
For example, whenever someone asks me what my ethnicity is, I always answer that I am Chinese.
But when I really went to China, everyone said that I was like a foreigner.
Since I am a Chinese, I think I should understand Chinese culture and language and learn Chinese.
I don't want to go to China when I grow up and don't know Chinese characters and can't speak Chinese.
When I was a month old, because my parents were in graduate school in the United States, they didn't have time to take care of me, so they had to send me back to China and let my grandparents and grandparents bring me up.
I spent more than a year in China and went to kindergarten in China.
Although I don't remember much about that experience, my grandmother always said that I knew a lot of vocabulary when I was a child!
The other day, when my mother and I were cleaning up, we found some Chinese characters and essays that I had written in China, and I had written neatly at that time.
However, since I came to the United States at the age of 199, I have not had the opportunity to stick to my studies well Chinese.
As a result, my Chinese level slowly declined.
To be honest, when I was a child, I especially hated learning Chinese.
Whenever my mother asked me to read Chinese, I would mess around.
Because I didn't realize the importance of Chinese at that time.
I thought, I can say Chinese and understand Chinese, and that's enough.
In the seventh grade, I began to formally study Chinese.
Every Sunday for an hour and a half, I feel miserable.
I couldn't read a lot of the words in the textbook, so I went home and tried to read Chinese newspaper, and even the simplest articles were a mess.
That's when I realized how stupid I used to be.
So I began to learn Chinese seriously.
Every week, I not only went to Chinese school, but also tried to read an article in the newspaper to my mother.
I also worked harder to revise Chinese vocabulary and took the Chinese proficiency test held by the Chinese government.
In the ninth grade, I passed the intermediate seventh grade and scored very well.
My good grades also led me to receive a scholarship to go to China to attend the Chinese Summer Camp held at Beijing Normal University in the summer.
After arriving at Beijing Normal University, I studied Chinese with other students from the United States for more than a week.
I also encountered many difficulties in the process of learning.
For example, in the first few days of Chinese class, many of the vocabulary in the text is unfamiliar, and when reading the text in class, I always feel that I don't know the words that others know.
But I insisted on doing homework carefully after class every day, carefully preparing, and I gradually learned more Chinese characters and gained a deeper understanding of Chinese culture.
After the summer camp, I felt like I had really learned something new.
After returning home, my family said that my Chinese had made great progress.
Although my Chinese level improved a lot during the summer vacation, I knew that if I didn't keep studying, I would inevitably regress.
That's why I still choose to study Chinese when I go to private school.
All I can say is that my interest in learning Chinese allowed me to overcome my initial difficulties.
In the future, I will continue to work hard to learn Chinese and understand the history of China.
That way, I can proudly say that I am a true Chinese.