Re: “The SECURE CAMPUS Act targets the Chinese government, the Chinese people,” through Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn.
Today’s tensions around the world are exacerbated by linguistic and cultural differences that few people can overcome. Whether as an administrative trial here in the United States, as a professor of sociology in Iraq or as a traveler to China, a gift for languages and a commitment to his examination have enriched my global vision by allowing me to pass beyond the official framework of governments. around the world to interact directly with other people.
Unfortunately, this opportunity can be difficult for others to realize.
From 1966 to 1968, I lived in Baghdad, Iraq, where I taught sociology at Al-Hikma University and learned a master’s degree in Arabic. For me, language is a key that opens the door to some other culture and is a way of perceiving others, of being aware of similarities and differences.
Shortly after the 1967 Arab-Israeli war, I was boating the Tigris to an archaeological site, a day for my colleagues and me, when we spoke to the old boatman and 3 Iraqi soldiers, who were afraid to interact with the Americans given the political climate.
My ability to speak to them in Arabic opened a door, the boatman kept the peace when he said, “If your government and our government need to fight, they can do it, but other people can be friends.
The existing dating time with China reminds me of this because today I have friends and colleagues in China who are also stuck in the middle of a global event.
These friendships began with a possible encounter when I was advised of a Chinese language program at a Confucius Institute in Boston. Having gained a classical education that comes with Latin, Greek, French, German and then Arabic, I sought to broaden my horizons to come with Chinese, because I wondered how you can read the symbols in the Chinese newspapers that I would see in The Kiosks of Chinatown near where I worked as a judge.
At 76, I began a new adventure in Chinese language and culture. The IQ didn’t say: you’re too old, only when you’d like to start.
Although now closed, the Confucius Institute of the University of Massachusetts at Boston is an integral component of the university, subject to the university’s regulations and policies. My courses were taught in an undeniable office in the university’s library, but in less than a year my skills reached the point where I can speak when I visited China as the recipient of the IQ People Award for their language skills, traveling to Chengdu, Sichuan and visiting some of the Chinese cultural and heritage sites in Beijing.
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Contrary to the stories described in the news about IQ programs, my education consisted of building bridges with language and not as a political tool. In fact, in a little-discussed GAO report last year, program officials and participants painted a positive picture of educational freedom under the direction of the schools themselves.
Not once, in a classroom, in a non-public verbal exchange, or at a conference, the discussion addressed Chinese government policies or programs. But an open world in poetry, literature and culture that I hoped to understand. Even in China, we participate directly in un scripted verbal exchanges, connecting through shared experiences. I’m not the only one experiencing this reality.
However, right now, the academics of the new Athenai Institute need to save their fellow programmates that I like and that others enjoy.
In addition: Chinese academics MTSU, where registrations abroad have increased
Read more: The safe campus law anti-China is a return to an older and more discriminatory era Review
IQ systems succeed in many demographic groups, from elementary schools to retirees like me. But regardless of the age or profession of the participants, a shared awareness of the importance of intercultural relationships and the commitment to pursue and expand them brought them together.
Today, I am connected with others with a language hobby, continuing my studies in a virtual virtual world like many others affected through language systems and closed schools.
The old man in Iraq and my friends and former colleagues in China have only the other people here in the United States about the decisions that are made in their country, and it’s disappointing to see a program that has benefited me becoming a point of contention on campuses.
Thanks to CI, I have teams and resources to continue to be informed of the Chinese language, appreciate its culture and meet its people.
If there really is a lesson to be learned from this global crisis, it is that we will have to be able to communicate with each other.
Douglas McDonald is a retired administrative judge in Boston, MA. He is an alumnus of the Confucius Institute of the University of Massachusetts at Boston and lately a student at the Confucius Institute at Tufts University.