The Role of Mandarin Chinese Dictionary - Admission/Application Essay Example

?Narrative: Dictionary Reflective Preface An essential object during the formative years of the curriculum for many, but for us, who have touproot themselves from their locale, culture and identity into a realm where every single thing around is so much different, interpersonal relationship and, most importantly, communication skills become the only life support in the ocean of unknown identities. Amid this kind of condition, a dictionary is an essential instrument for students like us who are shifted into America on exchange programs of various universities. A procurement of a Chinese Mandarin-English dictionary could actually be like a support system of a patient through ventilation -- this had been an evidenced aspect in my life. Today, when I am a bit stable after spending considerable days of struggle in this foreign country, I fall back and start to seek what was that particular thing in my life which I carried from my native land and that made me sustainable amid all oddities of alien factors. I found this small pocket red color book the integral part of my lifestyle. Through this small reflective piece, I would like to stitch a small collage of events on the colorful canvass of my life where I could reflect upon and relate to the trajectory of my battling life into this new land amid unknown people and culture. Also, a dictionary can actually discriminate the ways of life for an immigrant within the land of dreams, with the people who are already a part of this huge cosmos of dreams and desires. Thereby tracing the importance of a single object, quite mundane into the realms of native people, but one of the most essentialities in my life, I would be able to narrate the story of my struggle, adaption and comprehension which till date is an ongoing process for me in the land of dreams and distant faces. Recall: The Reflection of a True Life It was middle of July, 2008, during a small party at my drawing room in some province of China. Some province I mention deliberately because presently the flux of my life actually leaves no space and desire to fall back and think upon the old golden days spent amid the lust pasture, tall bamboos and warmth of a family like fresh rice poured into the bowl before it is served hot. By mid-July, 2008, it was very much well sorted and well discussed topic within my family that next year I was about to shift to the United States like many good students of my school and neighborhood to pursue a life of American dreams and desires. I did not choose to leave my family. On the contrary, my family had chosen to release me in order to provide a future teeming with all aspirations and desires which my family thought they deserved but could not achieve because they were living in a country like China. I am staying in the US since 2009. And, I am still not sure whether my family or I was correct to choose a life amid strangers. The only thing I learnt after stepping into the land of America is that life is all about learning and it should not cease. I am still a student, and now I am under the exchange program of SBCC pursuing my Major in Economics in UC. Before leaving for the US -- I still remember -- I was loaded up with parting gifts. Blankets, Trolley bags, hobo bags, good dresses of all kinds, jeans and T-shirts over-poured into my life like heavy monsoon in my native town. I was very elated and excited as well. Getting all the attention from family and friends, I was feeling like a hero. Moreover, the red banded sports watch gifted by my uncle Lai was the most favorite of the lot. There was another object too red in color, and that too was lying idle into the packs of gifts presented by various people in my farewell party. The object was a book, a paper-back book. It was light and compact. It was the smallest size amid all the books ever encountered by me in my small span of not so exciting life. The book had a golden writing on its top, which read “Mandarin Chinese Dictionary: Chinese-English by Fred Frangyu Wang.” For me, the book was insignificant and did not fetch my attention for months. Even my mother had to insist that I should carry the book to the US, and she was the one who had put it into my bag-pack before leaving. Hardly at that point, I knew or could understand that the most idled and insignificant thing in my back-pack is going to be the most essential thing within the span of next few days. From the lounge at the airport to the shopping mall, into the class or canteen, I had to take the refuge of the insignificant book and open it up publicly or in solitude to express my fear, agony, pain, joy, humility, hunger or anguish. Language, the mode of expressing mind, can be so important I could have never been able to understand if I had not been transported to this foreign land at such a tender age. Gulping the food your digestive system has never encountered or adhering the conventions and customs so new and at times weird as well is not that difficult as it relates to learning a language so much alien to your entire history, culture and identity. It is not that I have not been with Chinese people or students here in America. You would be able to find a small China Town in every big or small city out here. However, when you go close, you get to know that each unique featured life out here in the alien land had to undergo the same story of struggling and learning which involved unlearning and undoing many things you have learned and done in your native land. My battle was unique; it was my own and very private. Thus, in the time of tryst, the red book from China turned to be my Bible in America. In my class, I studied with students who were not all born Americans; there were Africans, Hispanics and Asians as well. For them also, the dictionary played an important role. As a student of economics, it was quite hard to comprehend many new and hard terms with which we were coming across for the first time. But for them, a dictionary was a part of the curriculum. For me and students like us it was the window, the corridor, the only means through which we could say a yes or a no. We could cry or smile. Like a dictionary that captivates everything possible and keeps itself updating, the integral and inevitable part of my life, the Chinese to English Dictionary shaped my vision as well. Now I know there is nothing alien, and everything is a part of this life as one is sent to earth only once, and on this great and diversified planet, a single life falls really short to know, touch and feel every object around you. Therefore, it is only those black words pitted against those white turned yellowish pages of the valuable book which became my only window to the outer world. Soaked in tears both of joy as well as fear and sorrow, I have million times turned the pages of the dictionary which I carried all the way from my native land, and with the passage of time I realized that transition is the only consistent thing in life. I have spent years in this foreign land, amid the culture and traditions and, most importantly, the way of life quite different from my growing up years. I have learned so many things. Some things I learned very fast, and with some I really had to fumble a lot to cope up with, but one thing was very true: life is a story, an ongoing plot where the crest and fall is very much integral part of it. The straight line could have made the trajectory easy, but that would suggest passivity. I am active, and therefore, I fall and I am able to live my dreams just like the words with rise and fall of metre inside my red colored dictionary. And after so many years spending in United States, today I know how little space the word ‘dictionary’ hold in the lives of the students born in the United States. They would never know that in someone’s life, a dictionary can be so important. When Uncle Lu had presented me the dictionary, he had been to United States already and had successfully spent their considerable part of his life. I asked him, why he gave me a present like that of a dictionary at my farewell party. He said me that one day I would know the worth of this gift. It’s light, so light that you will never be able to understand its weight unless you are drowning. That day, I could not comprehend the meaning of this sentence, but today I know the worth of it. Steve is an American; he is a very good friend of mine. We talk often. And he narrates to me how much little and insignificant space does a dictionary holds in their life. When I narrate to them the importance of this red paperback book, at the outset made Steve and many of my other friends, skeptic about me. But now they can understand and can even relate to my situation. Thanks to the only asset, the dictionary which I carried all the way from my native land. Looking back is not an option. Going back and giving up would mean the loss of a battle. Therefore, at this age of twenty four, I am fumbling, falling and again rising to pass a new day, meet new challenges and grow amid the faces unknown. The only friend, philosopher and guide in my life seems the red Chinese to English dictionary the most insignificant gift turning into the most prized possession of my life till date. This prized possession has been and will be an imperative support for me in the coming years as well to deal with ever-evolving challenges of life in a foreign land (Wang 10-225; Hall 15-175). Works Cited Hall, Alicia Anne. Knowing the Good Life: A Narrative Approach to Subjective Well-being. United States: ProQuest, 2008. Print. Wang, Fred Fangyu. Mandarin Chinese Dictionary: Chinese-English. United Kingdom: Courier Dover Publications, 2002. Print. Read More