feeling
A Review of Insights into Chinese Culture
As a freshman majoring in English at Hanshan Normal University, I stepped into this beautiful campus in Chaozhou three months ago. Everything here was new and strange to me — new classmates from all over the country, different teaching methods from high school, and the pressure of learning English as my major. But there is one thing that has never changed: my deep love for Chinese traditional culture. Since I came to Chaozhou, the core city of Chaoshan culture, I have fallen more in love with Chaoshan opera, Chaoshan tea ceremony and delicious Chaoshan snacks like oyster omelet and beef ball soup.
I have been interested in Chinese traditional culture since I was a child. I can talk about ancient poems, Chinese ink paintings and traditional festivals fluently in Chinese, and now I can chat with my classmates about Chaoshan culture happily too. However, as an English major, I was always confused. I wanted to introduce these precious cultures to foreigners, but I could not express them clearly in English at all. I even did not know the correct English translations of some cultural words. This made me a little frustrated, especially when my Comprehensive English teacher asked us to talk about a kind of traditional culture in English.
Last month, my teacher recommended Insights into Chinese Culture to our whole class. This book is the English version of A Reader of Chinese Culture, compiled by famous scholars Ye Lang and Zhu Liangzhi, and translated by Zhang Siying and Chen Haiyan. It is an introductory book about Chinese culture, written in simple and easy English. When I first picked it up, I just wanted to finish it as homework and learn some useful English expressions. But after reading a few chapters, I found that this book is not boring at all. It brought me a lot of surprises and helped me get rid of some of my confusion about college life and English learning.
While reading this book, I gained a lot of valuable English knowledge and many authentic English expressions. Before reading it, I only knew some basic English words and simple sentences about Chinese culture. But this book taught me the correct translations of many cultural concepts, such as “harmony without uniformity” and “the unity of man and nature”. It also told me how to use these expressions in daily conversations and English writings. Besides, I learned some useful reading and translation skills from the book, which are very helpful for my English major study. This book let me know that learning English is not only about memorizing words and grammar, but also about using English as a tool to spread our own culture.
What surprises me most is that this book also taught me how to spread Chinese traditional culture to the world. It tells me that cultural communication is not a one-way introduction, but a two-way dialogue. To spread our culture well, we must first understand it deeply — understand its connotation, its origin and its charm. We also need to use simple and easy English to explain complex cultural concepts, so that foreigners can understand and accept them easily. This is very important for us English majors, because we are the future messengers of cross-cultural communication.
This book also deepened my love for Chinese traditional culture and Chaoshan culture. Chaoshan culture is a precious part of Chinese traditional culture, and Hanshan Normal University is located in Chaozhou, which is a perfect place for me to feel and learn Chaoshan culture. After reading this book, I have a strong desire to spread Chinese traditional culture and Chaoshan culture to the world.
I know that as an English major freshman, I still have a long way to go. My English is not good enough, and my understanding of traditional culture is not deep enough. But this book gives me courage and motivation. In the future, I will keep reading more books like this, study English harder, and learn more about Chinese traditional culture and Chaoshan culture.
I hope that one day, with my English professional knowledge, I can introduce Chinese ink paintings, ancient poems, Chaoshan opera, Chaoshan tea ceremony and Chaoshan snacks to foreigners. I want to let the world know the beauty of Chinese traditional culture and the charm of Chaoshan culture. This book is more than just a cultural reader for me; it is a guide that lights up my path as an English major and my dream of spreading traditional culture.
After finishing this book, I really feel that this is a meaningful reading experience. It lets me grow up a lot, both in English learning and in the understanding of traditional culture. I will keep this book well and read it again and again. I also want to recommend it to my roommates and classmates, so that more of us can gain something from it and join in the team of spreading Chinese traditional culture
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