大家好! My time at Middlebury has finally come to a close, which still shocks me. Our final exams were pretty easy, so what caused me the most stress this week was writing and practicing a speech to represent second-level students and our experience at Middlebury during the graduation ceremony, but that also went off without a hitch. Ending the language pledge was one of the most interesting parts of my time at Middlebury, because when the 双语 beat the drum and we all started looking around at each other waiting for someone to say the first word in English, it felt like I was suddenly surrounded by strangers. I found myself not wanting to speak to people I had been close friends with, or even discovering I liked other people with whom I had barely engaged. We talked and talked, slipping between the two languages when we couldn’t think of a certain word, and by the end of the night it made me sad that everyone had to leave the next day. It wasn’t necessarily that we could convey more ideas than before, I just had a clearer picture of who my classmates were, and it was nice to see them in their totality.
Hearing our teachers speak English was even more impactful, because they suddenly become anxious, sitting deeper in their seat and putting on faces of embarrassment, when they had previously been loud, smiley, and confident. It hurt to know that, if I had not known the Chinese version of themselves, I would have completely missed how brilliant they are as people, filling the holes with stereotypes. However, it gave me a very clear reason why I want to continue learning Chinese: to ensure that I can see people as they really are, not who they are through translation.
It is nice (more relaxing, easier) to be back in the world of English, but I’m sad to have said goodbye to good friends I won’t see again. But as I said in my final speech: “虽然我们以后可能没有机会常常交流，但是我们今年夏天的这个大家庭，特别是二年级的，也已经给我们产生了很大的影响。所以，我相信我们可以带着这个美好的回忆，继续走下去”。谢谢明德让我很难忘！:)