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Welcome to the AID's English Podcast. My name is Jack and I'm here with my co-host
Sochil and today we are doing a topic talk and today's topic is Sochil's trip to China
when she was 16 years old. I didn't know that you went to China when you were 16. I think
this is the first time I'm learning of this. Why did you go? Who did you go with? What
did you do? All the WH questions. I'm so curious. What can I say about this trip?
We went, I was learning Mandarin at the time. I started learning Mandarin in the freshman
year of high school, which for our listeners, that means first year of high school. In
US, we have four years of high school. I want to say it was my junior year. Yes, because
I was 16 in my junior year. The summer of my junior year, we went to China on a trip because
as it turns out, my dad is a university professor and his university, the Confucius Institute
hosts a trip to China and you have to pay your ticket. I think everything else is paid
for or it's subsidized. That means they pay for a lot of your trip. You just buy the
ticket, but they pay for your accommodation. They pay for your food and that kind of stuff.
Either that was the case or it's subsidized, meaning they put a lot of money towards your
accommodation and your food and your travel. It lowers the price down. It was pretty
affordable. My dad found it actually and he said he would pay for it for me. I said,
yeah, okay. Only one other person who was in my class in Chinese went. Besides that,
it was all students from Louisville, which is the capital of Kentucky. We all went to
China and it was an age range from 16, 17, pretty much. It was a really great time. I
think we landed in Beijing and we went to Shanghai and Xi'an. I really, really loved it.
I think that's probably one of my favorite places that I've ever visited. I really liked
the food. I liked the weather. I liked how busy it was. There were a lot of really beautiful
parks, especially Xi'an. We spent the most time in Xi'an. I think we spent a weekend
Xi'an. If I'm not mistaken. We went to a high school and got to meet other kids our
age and then we went to a host family and had dinner with them. We got to go shopping
and we got to take the subway and we got to eat street food and we got to go on the
Great Wall. We hiked on the Great Wall of China.
Cool. Yeah. To Shanghai, we went to some traditional palace I want to say. Yeah, because
we went to some gardens, some traditional gardens in Shanghai. It was very hot and humid
in Shanghai. In Beijing, it was very rainy and cold. It was like, because Shanghai's the
south in Beijing is like the north, right? Then Xi'an was probably my favorite because
the weather was just perfect the whole time. I really liked it there.
So, Sochil, you said you went to Shanghai. I heard some quote by a famous chef and traveler
Anthony Bourdain. He said Shanghai makes New York City look like a third world country.
I've always found that really interesting because I think the perception that Americans
have of China is that it's somehow backwards or it's not developed or whatever. If you look
at some of these projects that they have in their building and the things that they're
doing in China, it looks like it's in a science fiction movie. Like it's the future.
Yeah, this was almost 10 years ago at this point I guess or 10 years ago. But I do remember
that it was really insane how tall all the buildings were. Yeah. We had a race after
I think in Beijing is where we ate pecking duck because it was a specialty and I want to
say that's from Beijing. But yeah, there's correct me if I'm wrong. I'm pretty sure that's
true. And so after we had pecking duck, it was really delicious, but it's heavy because
it's kind of fatty and sugary and it's not. The duck is wonderful, but it's so oily
and so it's heavy on your stomach. It's like delicious. And then your stomach's like
right. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. My friends and I like raised because we were staying on
like the 13th floor or something. I don't think any of it. No, it was higher than that.
None of us had ever been that high up and like stayed that high up. And so I remember that
we got in like an elevator and they got an elevator and my friend and I tried to race
them up the stairs. There's no way we could make it, you know. You got to like the
eighth floor running part is good. I think and I made it and like they were, I think they
had like stopped on the floor because of something or something. And so they, we made it
close to the same time, but I like threw up after because I ran so hard. I'm like, no,
I'm like taking duck. Beijing duck goes in, Beijing duck goes out. Yeah. So it was very.
Yeah. Shanghai was very beautiful. We actually, I believe we stayed at a university in Shanghai.
And it was really nice. I remember the dorms and everything. And we were saying that some
college dorms, even though we were high school students, but it's because I think the
University of Shanghai has like some exchange program. That's what we were looking at.
And yeah, it was really fascinating. We really enjoyed it. And I would say it's a beautiful
country. I think it's one of the, the, that in Seattle are two of the places that I went.
And I was like, I love it here. I could live here. I could stay here forever. You know,
yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Shanghai is a city that I absolutely must visit. I'm more interested
in visiting Shanghai than I am in visiting Beijing oddly enough. I know it's the capital
city and everything, but I really want to visit Shanghai. It seems like such a cool vibe,
like such a cool city. Yeah. And Chinese listeners don't hate me for this. I like the Southern
accent more, even though it's more improper. The Northern accent is more difficult for
me to pronounce because it's like, it's rougher and like the tones and like the, the sounds,
like the consonant sounds are much sharper. And Southern accent is like more, it's softer
and it's easier for a foreigner because it's hard to like, enunciate those, those like
sharp consonant sounds like, like that kind for the, for the northern for the south,
it might be like, low instead of roof. And so it was just easier for me to pronounce because
my first teacher was actually Southern Chinese. Okay. And my tutor after that was also
issues from Nanjing's issues from the Southern capital city, I guess. So I was more used
to that. And then when I went to college, the professors were from the north and it was
so hard to keep up because it's like, it's a more proper supposedly, I think enunciating.
More formal or something like that. Yeah. Yeah. I guess it's more, it's kind of like
how in the Southern US dialect or regional accent, we kind of slur words together.
Yeah, there's a Southern draw, they call it, you know, which I think it'd be really funny
if for like a Chinese student or a Korean student to go to America and study English in Louisiana
or Georgia or Alabama. And so they learned, you know, English with like, how y'all doing,
you know, hey, y'all, you know, something like that. It's like, that's basically how I
learned Chinese. So that's what I had the funny accent to them, to the northern north stuff.
It was fun though. But yeah. So yeah, that was my trip to China. I have so many very
fond memories. And I loved it. And I definitely, I think it's one of the number one countries
that I really want to go back to. Okay. And how about the people? I forgot to ask you
about the people, but everyone was so friendly. And it was crazy because everyone was so
friendly. And it felt really safe. And I remember I left my wallet full of money at one
of these stands. And the old lady ran after me and was like, Hey, you forgot this. And
crazy because a lot of places they'd be like, Oh, I just don't do that. US that money
is a gonzo. Yeah, gone for sure. And K, you left your money here. And I bought all this
merch because I knew my dad would really like it. It was really fun. It was like these
t-shirts. Obama was president at the time. And they were called like, Oh, Bob Mal. Like
Mal did the long, I guess, but yeah, Obama. And the red star. And it was really, I really,
I had a fun time with that. I got my dad like a watch and a t-shirt and a hat and all
stuff. That's great. Yeah. And the people were so nice so friendly. And they were so,
they were so like nice and flattering to us. And like accommodating it. And I don't know,
I really, really appreciated it. And yeah, nothing, nothing bad to say all good things.
And I really hope to come back someday and be able to see all the China. I really want
to get there. So you have to go. My dad also wants to go and I tell him, like, come on,
you should go because the circus. We also went to the circus. It was so cool. And the
thing that's really funny is that the popcorn is like sweet there. It's not salty.
Yeah, it's the same in Korea too. They got, you know, yeah, the sweet popcorn, the caramel
popcorn. Yeah, it's just I look salty popcorn. So yeah, I'm definitely a savory over.
Anyway, listen, there's let us know. Are you team sweet or salty popcorn? Have you been
China? Are you from China? Tell us your experiences. I really love it. It's definitely a country
that I want to go back to. And yeah, we will see you guys next time. Make sure to join
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