This post is part of a series of postings.
They appear all like general introductions. But they mean more due to our context of From Street to School und Globales Lernen. If you read carefully you’d have kind of personal encounter, a kick-off for a PenPal-Relation or the first steps on a crossroads in your life, which you didn’t expect there.
October 2023
For contact or own contributions go to: writing@liberiaprojekt.de
My name is Emmanuel Adebayor Williams, I’m a Liberian born on October 1, 1997 in Monrovia. I’ve lived most of my life in Liberia until 2019 when I took on a journey to pursue a BSc degree at Liaoning University of Technology in Jinzhou City, Northeast China. I moved to China in 2019 without no idea of the culture and language of China.
I took on the adventure and flew to China to study Computer Science and Technology. I didn’t understand nor speak the language of the people.
This was a very huge challenge for me, the food taste different, the language is different and every other thing seems so differently in my eyes.
After arriving at the university, I met some new people from different countries but I felt a bit relief when I saw people from Africa and even some friends I knew while in Liberia also attended this university. I started to make friends and see if I could get used to the environment so I became friends with some classmates from Congo, Nigeria, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Kenya and host of other nationalities including Liberians.
Interestingly, I started to get familiar with environment but I still felt that something was missing which was making use of the opportunities around me by learning Chinese language and cultures. I began making new friends again but this time, it was Chinese friends.
Since I’m good at communicating with friends, it was not a difficult one for me but the problem was the language barrier. In September of 2019, I took on the challenge to study Chinese language even more than what I was thought in the classroom.
I became friends with many Chinese students; we played sports together, eat and visited the library together. I visited the library everyday learning Chinese mandarin and I learned about 60 Chinese characters a month while practicing basic sentences. I found it more interesting and because I put in a lot of efforts, my Chinese speaking improved.
I started to use the local services by ordering food and merchandise online communicating with the delivery services. After a year, I could communicate with my Chinese friends and also communicate with other locals.
After learning basic communication skills, my mind and perspectives changed even though it still felt like I’m away from home but one thing I noticed is that when you interact with more people especially people from different countries, it opens your mind to different perspectives.
After my BSc degree study, I plan to continue with masters degree but due to some challenging factors, I was late for the admission so I decided to find a job and work for sometime while awaiting the opening of another admission.
