英闻天下——336 Latvian Student in Lanzhou

 　　The place to meet Jana Danica is at the Lanzhou University library. Jana has been studying Chinese for 6 and half years, and earned a bachelor's degree in sinology. For the last 2 and half years she's been working on an environmental law program taught in Chinese in Lanzhou University. On the phone she says nothing makes her more comfortable now than being surrounded by knowledge and Chinese, and that makes the library the perfect place to meet.

 

　　Jana looks energetic with her short blonde hair and a neat Chinese style shirt. After a short introduction, she began to excitedly share her love of all things Chinese.

 

　　Jana says Chinese is one of the two things she loves the most in her life, but how she discovered it was quite accidental¹.

 

　　"I was studying Arabic, but one day one of my friends asked me to go to this Chinese lesson with her. After this one class I went there every day and I changed my major to sinology. Then I came to Lanzhou for my master's degree. There are two things that I love the most in my life. One is Chinese; the other is environmental protection. And now I'm studying environmental law in Chinese!"

 

　　Jana admits though her major seems like a perfect combination² of her two passions the class work is often just as boring as many other students find it around the world.

 

　　Talking about why she picked Lanzhou instead of bigger cities like Beijing or Shanghai, Jana says she wanted to find a relatively³ unknown city where there aren't a lot of other foreigners and with new discoveries. Lanzhou fit the bill and beef noodles were her first major discovery.

 

　　"I like to eat a lot of noodles. I remember when I was in Latvia, I didn't like noodles, but when I came to China, I found they were great. They're really spicy⁴; without spices they aren't interesting at all. Back in my country we put a lot of sauce on pastas, but the most beautiful thing about beef noodles in China is the minimalism--just noodles, spices and a little bit of meat and it tastes great."

 

　　Beef noodles aren't the only Chinese culinary delights she discovered in Lanzhou. Jana says she also loves jian bing and ji dan guan bing – two Chinese style pancakes often made and sold by street vendors⁵. She's now friends with the vendors and they now give her a friendly discount every time she buys some.

 

　　Jana says she loves to make friends everywhere, and while Lanzhou contains two major ethnic⁶ groups--the majority Han Chinese and minority Islamic Hui – she hasn't find any problem making friends with any of them.

 

　　"The Han here are not so formal. They are quite open. They are happy-go-lucky kind of people who love to get together and love to play a lot of drinking games like Hua Quan. And there are a lot of Muslim restaurants here. The Hui are very kind. They love to see foreigners and if we go to one of the restaurants a few times, it's easy become friends with the owners. You can become really close to people in a very short time. "

 

　　Jana says she speaks Chinese with her Chinese friends most of the time and gradually has begun using commonplace⁷ sayings such as "en," to affirm⁸ what the other person is saying, with Chinese and her Latvian family alike⁹.

 

　　"En, en. Chinese people say this when they are on the phone. And it just sticks to you. But we don't do this in Latvia. And my family finds it strange. Last time I was home, they were like, 'what happened to you?'

 

　　Jana says China has become essential to her life and she can't imagine living somewhere where there are no Chinese at all. There are very few Chinese in Latvia so Jana is seriously considering settling down in Lanzhou.

 

　　"Everyone has the biggest love of their life. But to me it's not a guy or a man; it's everything Chinese at the moment. Sometimes I like to take a walk by myself in the evening along the Yellow River side. During the summer you see a lot of people there, boyfriends and girlfriends. You can have some drinks, a cup of tea, and it makes me feel cozy¹⁰. Feeling cozy is like feeling at home. And all the little things like drinking tea and seeing people enjoy one another makes me feel as if I'm at home."

 

　　Jana says she has a Chinese boyfriend and they are in a very good, stable relationship. Her boyfriend has taught her how to handle everything in a more Chinese way and Jana says she is quite used to everything in China now. She simply hopes that Lanzhou and China can stay the way she loves it.

 

　　"I just hope that traditional Chinese things won't disappear. Every city is getting so similar to other cities. I hope that things in Lanzhou will remain the same, like the beef noodles and the customs that other parts of China don't have, and won't be influenced by other countries like America. That's my wish for China."

 

　　For CRI, I'm Wang Wei.

1 accidental   

adj.偶然的；意外的；无意中的

参考例句：

• It was an accidental meeting.这完全是一次偶然的相会。
• Our meeting in New York was quite accidental.我们在纽约的会见完全是偶然的。

2 combination   

n.组合，合并，联合；

参考例句：

• He carried on the business in combination with his friends.他与朋友们合伙做生意。
• The materials can be used singly or in combination.这些材料可以单独使用也可以混合用。

3 relatively   

adv.比较...地，相对地

参考例句：

• The rabbit is a relatively recent introduction in Australia.兔子是相对较新引入澳大利亚的物种。
• The operation was relatively painless.手术相对来说不痛。

4 spicy   

adj.加香料的；辛辣的，有风味的

参考例句：

• The soup tasted mildly spicy.汤尝起来略有点辣。
• Very spicy food doesn't suit her stomach.太辣的东西她吃了胃不舒服。

5 vendors   

n.摊贩( vendor的名词复数 )；小贩；（房屋等的）卖主；卖方

参考例句：

• The vendors were gazundered at the last minute. 卖主在最后一刻被要求降低房价。
• At the same time, interface standards also benefIt'software vendors. 同时，界面标准也有利于软件开发商。 来自About Face 3交互设计精髓

6 ethnic   

adj.人种的，种族的，异教徒的

参考例句：

• This music would sound more ethnic if you played it in steel drums.如果你用钢鼓演奏，这首乐曲将更具民族特色。
• The plan is likely only to aggravate ethnic frictions.这一方案很有可能只会加剧种族冲突。

7 commonplace   

adj.平凡的，普通的；n.寻常的事物，常见的事

参考例句：

• Soon it will be commonplace for men to travel to the moon.人们去月球旅行很快就会成为常事。
• What he has said is a mere commonplace view.他所说的不过是尘俗之见而已。

8 affirm   

vt.断言，坚持声称，证实，确认

参考例句：

• We can not affirm that what should be done the next step.我们不能肯定下一步该做什么。
• I dare not affirm whether we can use so this word.我不敢肯定我们是否能这样用这个词。

9 alike   

adj.同样的，相像的；adv.一样地；同程度地　

参考例句：

• The twins are so alike that I can't tell which is which.这对双胞胎一模一样，我分辨不出谁是谁。
• All stories seemed dreadfully alike,no matter who told them.看来，不管谁讲，故事都是千篇一律的。

10 cozy   

adj.亲如手足的，密切的，暖和舒服的

参考例句：

• I like blankets because they are cozy.我喜欢毛毯，因为他们是舒适的。
• We spent a cozy evening chatting by the fire.我们在炉火旁聊天度过了一个舒适的晚上。