English Final Project Written Memoir

Unit 3: Project Intentions Directions: ​Submit this document along with your Unit 3 memoir. Responses should be complete, detailed, and clearly explain the intentions and purpose of your memoir. 1. Define the ​subject​ and ​theme​ of your memoir. - Subject: Exchange, China, Language, Communication problem - Theme: Communication problem

2. Define the ​tone​ of your memoir. - Stressful, Depressive

3. Describe the plot in a few sentences. - Start with my feeling that I have to go out somewhere, I could not stay in the dormitory forever. I went out and struggle with the communication problem. I took the bus to the department store and wanted to be anonymous. I was struggling at the shop when I cannot communicate with the cashier and she was yelling at me because she thought that I am Chinese.

4. Which goal(s) are you hoping to achieve when creating this memoir? - To share my experience with other people, living in the country where I cannot communicate with anyone, and share what actually China be like, from me who actually lived there. -

To learn more about myself in the situation and explore why that situation shaped my identity. How I cope with difficulty and how it shaped me

5. For Written Memoirs​:​ A memoir is a portion of your life that is crafted into a story. Explain which storytelling techniques (characterization, symbolism, climax/resolution, sensory details, etc.) you will use to communicate a central message or theme. - I used Sensory Detail to emphasize my feeling and the situation - I used Climax to communicate my large struggle about communication which shaped my identity.

My first week in China After trying and failing to use the hand gesture to tell the dormitory aunties I was going out, I went out. I have stayed in the dormitory for 4 days, hanging with myself in the small tiny room. I am a very talkative and socialize person. Therefore, being unable to talk to anyone made me feel really depressed. I had to go out somewhere. I walked out of the dormitory fence. I did not understand what people were saying. The atmosphere was extremely boisterous. I lived in the provincial capital city called Shijiazhuang where foreigner considered as a rare item. I was staring completely at my phone searching for the bus stop in order to avoid to accidentally make eye contact with anyone. I literally afraid of everything and did not want to speak. The pollution made the sky foggy and this made me feel quite lonely. I walked past the Chinese street food restaurant. I heard the commercial voice recording from the tape. It was played again and again and I did not even understand what the tape was saying. I took the bus no.68 as shown on the map on my phone. Putting 2 yuan in the box for the bus fee, I moved through the crowd in the bus to find somewhere to sit. I feel more comfortable when no one put attention on me, that might be because I look like native people. I arrived at the department store 30 minutes later. Many well-known brands that I familiar with were presented and that made me feel a lot better. While I was walking around to explore things in the building, I was stopped by one of the sales. She said something to me and try to put the brochure in my hand, unfortunately, I cannot understand her. The best I can do was just smiling and walking away. I saw people eating fried squid, it looks really really good and it made me immediately felt hungry. I really wanted to ask them “Where did you buy this?” However, the word still in my throat, I did not even dare to speak. I started to walk to the upstairs, again and again. I stopped at the third floor. There was a shop right after the

escalator. Many people were going in there. The rainbow color label on top of the shop told me that the shop named “SANFU”. I guessed they might sell some random stuff. I decide to enter the shop. I was very crowded and I accidentally bumped against other customers for many times. Some of them had very bad facial expression towards me. Their face frowned. I looked around and I found out that this shop sells almost everything, from cosmetics to sneakers. Everything looked interesting and cheap. I was stopped by the red SALE label on the cap corner. The cap price was just 3 yuan, and it extremely cheap. This was my first time encountering this price. I took 3 caps with me and start to walk around again. standing still and considering, I stopped at the bag corner. Unfortunately, there was one staff coming and she said something to me. “!@#$%^&&*” Her voice is soft and convincing. I assumed that she was suggesting me something, but I cannot understand. She talked very long and tried to present the bag to me. It was a totally awkward situation. I really had nothing to respond to her. I just kept silence. I did not know what she thought, to be honest, and I did not want her to feel bad or disappointed. At last, she walked away with disappointed face. Of course. I felt really frustrated when people were talking to you but you do not understand anything they were saying. I felt a lot better after she walked away. I took one bag that hanged at the top of the corner. It was a small light pastel pink backpack made of the synthetic leather. Then walked to the cashier with many stuff in my hands. There are 3 cashier counters. I walked to the most left one which had the shortest line. “!@#$%^&*” The cashier said something to me. Again, I did not understand what she was saying. “huh?” I said

The cashier started to talk to me again with the same sentences, but use louder and brusque voice. The made me scared, but I still did not understand her. “Sorry, I don’t understand what you are saying. Can you speak English?” I asked her in English and deeply wanted her to understand what I was saying. Her face seemed shocked so that she trying to point at one of the labels placed on the cashier desk. I knew immediately that she tried to tell me that this cashier receives only mobile payment. Moreover, she pointed to another cashier. Therefore, I used hand gestures to confirm that I had to pay at the most right cashier before I walked there. I walked through the crowd to find the end of the line. It was a quite long line there. I was waiting in line for around 10 minutes. Finally, it was my queue. I put all the stuff on the cashier desk and the cashier started to check. At that time I did not pay attention to the cashier. “Whose bag is this?” said the middle cashier in the normal voice. No one responded that including me, because I did not understand Chinese. “Whose bag is this?” said the cashier for the second time. People around me started to curious; however, there was no response again. The atmosphere started to change. It became more and more boisterous around me. “Whose bag is this?” the cashier shout out very loud. All of the people witnessing were paying attention. Her voice was loud enough to notice me that something went wrong. I looked up. The middle cashier was holding the pink backpack I was picked. I try to tell them. “It’s mine” I tried to use my Chinese for the first time. Luckily she understood what I said. “THIS BAG IS YOURS RIGHT?!!!!” She shouted to my face with a very annoyed and upset loud voice. Her face was really scary and annoyed. I thought she was very angry. Others customers were staring at me and some of them start to gossip. I absolutely did not

know what to do. I nodded. Her face was fed up while she put my bag pack in the blue shopping bag with the shop label on it and told me the price. It was a very embarrassing situation for me and I wanted to say something to defend myself. “I’m sorry. I cannot understand what you were saying. I’m not Chinese” I spoke to her slowly by using my best Chinese to communicate because I was afraid that she could not understand me fully if I spoke in English. Everyone there was shocked including cashiers and shop staffs who standing there. It was two seconds of dead air before the cashier gave me a receipt. “She’s a foreigner,” the cashier said in Chinese with a surprising voice. After I received the receipt and changes from the cashier. I was about to walk out of the shop. However, I was stopped by one of the shop staffs. She was trying to talk about something in the receipt to me in English but I did not quite understand. “This no no” she said while pointing at the goods list in the receipt which was in Chinese. “huh?” I said. “How can I say this in English,” she asked herself out loud in Chinese with fidgeted voice. “This you, this no” she tried to explain again. I kind of understand that there was a good that had wrong checked and it was already void out, so she just told me about that. “And this free, give you free” she said which pointing the receipt and trying to find something in my shopping bag. She took the brown small belt out of the bag. I assumed that the shop gave me a belt as a complimentary. “Oh, thank you,” I said and smile. “bye-bye,” said the shop staff. The big smile was also given by her.

After I walked out of the shop, I realized that I had to try to speak more and study harder. I want to be able to speak Chinese in order to communicate with the people around me. I cannot just be with myself for 1 year and not to have a conversation with anyone. I thought there were a lot more to explore about China and Chinese people, and I wanted to learn more. At that day, I made a resolution for myself that I have to pass HSK which is a Chinese proficiency test in level 5 before I go back to Thailand.