Fifteen Years in America Chapter 4: College in America Part 3 & End

This is a continuation of my family’s immigration story originally written by my dad in Chinese. For more of my dad’s narrative see the category marked Fifteen Years in America. If you can read Chinese you can read the original at my dad’s Yahoo blog. He has just finished Chapter 8. Enjoy!

In addition to “Introduction to American Economics” and “Mathematics for Business”, I also chose “English” and “Basic Accounting”. At that time the college had an English requirement. Every student must pass “English 100″ to get a diploma. I’m not sure what level of English this is equivalent to in China, but at that time I only scored 540 on the TOEFL and I did not qualify for “English 100″, yet. Under “English 100″ there were “English 10″, “English 20″, and “English 25″. After I took a placement test, my student advisor suggested that I should take “English 25″, which is Basic English Writing.

The professor of Basic English Writing was a tall and slender British woman named Cary. She was a bit over 30 and spoke with a heavy British accent. When I learned English in China my professor had a Russian background, and did not speak with a standard accent. Additionally, my college class was the first class after the end of The Cultural Revolution, and we did not have a lot of great educational materials. Additionally, since my major was agricultural economics in college, I had to learn a lot of Marxist political and economic theory. At that time I bought a full set of “Das Kapital” and read it through, so I didn’t have time to learn English. After I moved to America, I realized that British English sounds different from American English. When I worked in Duke’s Lane, I could distinguish different English accents such as Australian, New Zealander, and Singaporean.

Cary is very strict with her students. Every time I received my papers back I would see her edits blooming like red flowers. Behind each paper she would write very detailed and helpful comments. I remember I wrote an essay titled “My Daughter Xin”. The essay chronicled how Xin started to learn Chinese at age two and how she was able to read at age three. When she was nine I brought her to America, and when she just came she did not know any English so we let her stay back one grade in school and repeat fourth grade. After half a year, she managed to catch up to her classmates. Additionally I wrote about her hobbies such as collecting coins and stamps. Finally, I wrote that my wife and I wished that Xin would have a bright future. I think Cary was also a mother because she really loved this essay. After some edits, she sent my essay to the school’s English magazine and published it. Unfortunately, I no longer have a copy of the magazine, but my wish for my daughter to have a bright future has been realized.

In a blog post I wrote on 7/27/07 titled “When can parents let go?” I wrote, “If someone asks me what the greatest benefit of leaving China is, I would say that we have found a place where children can freely develop.”

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Basic Accounting was a course that related to my future job. I had an excellent professor named Rose Kar. She was a little over 30, and already had an PhD in Accounting from the University of Texas. She taught at Kapiolani and also the business school of The University of Hawaii at Manoa. After my wife Helen switched to the business school she was also a student of Rose.

Rose Kar’s teaching style is very focused and logical. She also built upon the material like links upon links of a chain. Another thing I noticed is that she likes to save time. When you listen to her lectures, you must be very focused. From the beginning of the lecture to the end, she would start from the left side of the blackboard and work on one problem. After the lecture is done the entire board would be covered and the problem is done. When she is demonstrating a problem she would welcome questions from students. I remember that I liked to ask some weird questions. For example, in several different types of transactions, how would you balance several depreciation methods and find the best method?

A Chinese proverb says, “professionals watch for special techniques, and amateurs watch for entertainment”. Since I was a professor, I felt that I gained quite a bit from Rose Kar’s class. Her class definitely gave me a great foundation in accounting, and that helped me in my future job immensely. Rose Kar also liked a student like me who liked to ask questions and challenge the professor. After one semester, I received an A in the class, and she recommended that I should become a tutor at the student learning center and tutor other students in accounting.

After one semester, I received an A in all four of my courses. In the second semester the school gave me the coveted Pacific Scholarship, and that waived all of my tuition. That was a great boost to my confidence and life.

Chapter 5 is coming up next. In the next chapter my dad learns how to make hamburgers. If you don’t want to miss a thing, feel free to subscribe!

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