Jonathan Banasihan

Whenever I think back to my summer in Beijing, I remember two things in particular: the humidity, and growing. The weather was manageable, but it took me a few tries to really understand just how far I had gone.

Until I landed in China, I operated under the assumption that I had a decent enough grasp of Chinese. After all, I spent the last 3 years learning, that had to amount to something useable.

That shattered in my first 10 minutes in-country, and the frustrations only mounted from there. What was the point in all that learning if I couldn’t even be understood? The only way around it was to work it step by step, celebrate the gains as they came, and to stop overburdening myself with pressure. Taking a growth-based approach instead of the perfection-based brutalization I put on myself before made things much better. That growth mindset continues to pay dividends for me, allowing me to approach new challenges with a healthier outlook and create better outcomes.

One of the unexpected benefits of immersion in a foreign culture was the amount of perspective I gained on my own sense of self. As I began to learn more of the culture and people around me, trying to share my own stories required more self-reflection. Things I did not really consider were some of the hardest questions I received when trying to talk to people. What was it like immigrating? Do you think you lost something when you became an American? Meeting people where they were challenged me to look back at the path that I took to reach them.

Academically, there were significant improvements. With every day my spoken Chinese sounded less like a textbook and more like a person. In that summer I improved exponentially, learning the lessons through constant exposure. It enriched my cultural understanding by breathing life into the texts and pictures I had seen before. It’s one thing to read about the Yungang Grottoes, but another thing entirely to see massive Buddhas carved as far as you can see. That experience even allowed me the coveted self-citation, when I used my own pictures to supplement a presentation in Chinese Art History. I still consider that one of my best academic achievements.

My study abroad experience was invaluable in more ways than I can really appreciate. It helped me to transform a self-imposed limitation, clarified some of my self-identities, and vastly improved my understanding of China in every sense. So far, it’s been worth more than a few sweaty t-shirts.

My name is Jonathan Banasihan, a United States Navy veteran, 2020 American University graduate, and one of the 2021-2022 Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship Alumni Ambassadors. My Gilman journey started in the summer of 2019 where I studied Mandarin at Minzu University in Beijing, China.

When it comes to my experience in studying a language abroad, the hard part came after returning home. The summer I spent in China rapidly improved not just my understanding of the language, but my appreciation of where I needed to grow. But it can be difficult to keep that growth going when you’re not forced to breathe, think, and cry in your new language. Before I left for China, I felt that the three years of classes I had under my belt more than prepared me to handle living in the language. Coming back, my last year of classroom Mandarin felt more like a limitation. I’ve managed to keep up learning in spite of that by taking the time to build little opportunities for immersion.

I find ways to incorporate learning Mandarin into my daily routines. During commutes I fire up some podcasts or Chinese music to help train listening. When it comes time to watch movies and shows, I find media that either is natively Chinese or dubbed and includes subtitles for that extra work on reading. When travelling, I find maps or brochures in Chinese to take back along with the English versions for reference. My pantry is labelled with hand-written characters and pinyin to help me remember common kitchen things and improve my character writing. These techniques help keep the language both familiar to me and comfortable to use.

Finding others who also want to learn is just as important, if not more so. Striking up a conversation and making mistakes was easily responsible for half my growth while abroad, so finding others to make mistakes around is critical to me. Luckily, there’s no shortage of people who want to learn a new language, and as Gilman scholars and alumni you’ve already got an incredible community to engage. The Gilman Scholar Network currently has 4 language exchange groups filled with resources, and most importantly, similarly interested Gilman peers looking to continue the language learning journey! Whether the language is new to you or you’re masterfully fluent, the support of people around you can be key to keeping it up when you feel frustrated.

If all these steps also sound like they’d be useful to language learning in general, you’d be right! But taking them after being abroad allows for a more refined approach. I found several interesting musicians and books that would have been much harder to find outside of China. And my quest to recreate some of those beautiful málà moments in my own kitchen may be an impossible dream, but will definitely keep me remembering the characters for Sichuan peppercorns. Taking some small steps to replicate the immersive end of things is a great opportunity to keep that hard earned growth, and to reconnect with some good memories.