Week 1: Can We Be Friends? (Weekly Writing Club)

01-28

(This is an archived post. For new Weekly Writing Club posts, please visit Weekly Writing Club)

What an exciting start to the Weekly Writing Club!

Over 50 people joined in the first week and I received over a dozen writing submissions. The engagement level has honestly blown me away.

The theme of the first weeks writing prompts was Friendship. And Id like to share several of the writing submissions.

Tell me about something you can do that most of your friends can』t. How didnyou learn it?

I can speak three Chinese dialects which belong to threendifferent groups: Xiang, Gan and Hakka. Oh, of course there is also Mandarin,nthe national dialect – if you count that as a dialect. As a university studentnin Beijing, most people around me can speak their own local dialect as well asnMandarin (what a pity for the Beijing kids who only know Mandarin!). However,nfew can speak as many as three. I am proud of my language skills. Maybe I haventhe language-learning gift.
nn
As Inchild, I grew up in a small town in Eastern Hunan Province. At home, I speaknGan with my parents. If you』re familiar with Chinese languages, then you mightnask: how come you grew up speaking Gan in Hunan? Don』t most Hunan people speaknXiang? Isn』t Gan mostly spoken in Jiangxi? That』s because the town where I wasnborn borders on Jiangxi and most of the residents』 ancestors are immigrantsnfrom Jiangxi, and they brought the Gan dialect with them. So most people in mynhometown speak Gan.
nn
However,nI always identify myself as Hunanese, not only because I lived in Hunan, butnbecause my mother』s family is an authentic Hunan family where everyone speaksnXiang. In order to communicate with elderly people who cannot speak Mandarin, Inhad to learn how to speak Xiang also. I picked up this dialect while livingnwith my maternal in the suburb of Hunan』s capital, Changsha.
nn
So, mynparents speak Gan and my grandparents speak Xiang, then here comes the weirdestnthing: why can I speak Hakka? You see, my father is actually Hakka. If yountranslate the Chinese word for Hakka literally, it means 「Guest Home」, Hakkanpeople are immigrants and 「guests」 wherever they go. My old, old ancestorsnoriginally lived in central China, where Chinese civilization first developed,nand were drive south to Guangdong because of warfare. Although many Hakkanpeople settled down in Guangdong, a group of them, my ancestors, moved againnand again. They first went to Jiangxi. Then they crossed the border and enterednHunan with some local Jiangxi people. The Hakka dialect was passed downngeneration by generation, and many Hakka people, who also speak the localndialect, have not forgotten their own Hakka language. My paternal grandparents』nrelatives still communicate in Hakka.
nn
So that』s how I mastered three completely different Chinesendialect. And how I can make friends from Jiangxi, Hunan and also Hakka-speakingnregions of China.

By Xiongtao

Brian: I especially enjoy the use of rhetoricalnquestions throughout the piece. The questions create a rhythm that encourages the reader to find out whatll happen next.

What does friendship mean to you?

A friend is a mirror.
I still keep in touch with my friend of twenty years, even though we live 400 km apart.
Back when I was a teenager, my friend, Shui, would visit his grandmother in the countryside regularly on the weekends and during summer vacation. Since I lived near his grandmother and we were similar ages, naturally we became close. During that time, it seemed like we couldn』t spend enough time together.
He read a lot and often told me about the funny characters in those books. Back then, I always listened and gave no feedback, because I never read books. How embarrassing! Things have changed since then: I gradually started reading more and now we discuss books in our monthly letters.
Back then, we also played around with different exercises. Whether we pretended to have a Taichi competition or perform acrobatic fighting like in the Chinese dramas, I always had the advantage over him. The more times I won, the more confidence I gained.
Through sharing, we found that we were never the same type of person. But the difference helped us to gain a perspective of ourselves. We molded ourselves from this comparison. Thus, a friend is like a mirror, showing you your true self.

By Mingming

Brian: I enjoy the extended metaphor of a friendship as a mirror that reveals more about you. I think its a unique idea and I wish the piece had more examples of that.

Tell me about something you can do that most of your friends can』t. How didnyou learn it?

I want to talk about something I have that some of my friendsnprobably dont have: a firm determination.
nn
A yearnand a half year ago, I was a senior in high school in China. Just like allnother Chinese students, I needed to take the college entrance examination, thenmost important test for any student in China. People describe the test as ansingle-plank bridge that millions of students try to squeeze past. Therefore,nno matter who they are or what they want, every student in high school isnstudying day and night for one mutual objective: obtaining a high grade andngaining admittance to a stellar university.
nn
I was onenof those students. During the final three months, I woke up everyday at 5:30nam, directly went to classroom without breakfast. I would begin my morningnexercises after an hour of reading, run to the campus restaurant for a quicknbreakfast, then return to the classroom and to start my classes. After fournclasses, I would run to the restaurant for a quick lunch, and then run back tonclassroom. I couldn』t afford to 「waste」 my time walking. After a 10-minutesnnap, I would start another tedious problem set. Then, classes would continue innthe afternoon until 6pm. After dinner and a quick shower, I would return againnto the classroom and struggle through problems until 11pm. Back in my dorm, Inwould sleep at midnight after writing in my diary. That was a normal day for menduring that time.
nn
I failed.nI failed despite all my efforts. And I failed by one point. One point meantnthat I could not go to my dream university. Everyone sympathized with me for mynloss. When I received my score, I just felt that the grade was ridiculous andnit must have been a mistake. I cried beyond control. It was the first time thatnI cried out loud at home. My parents had nothing to say. They tried to comfortnme; when in fact, they were also losing control. No one can imagine what thatnone point meant to my family. Three years. All of it meant nothing.
nn
Five daysnlater, I made my decision to study aboard.
nn
One yearnlater, I became the first person in the history of my high school to study innAmerica.

nn
Yesterday,nI FaceTimed with my Dad. After talking for a while, he asked, 「Have you evernregretted to go to America?
nn
「Inhaven』t,」 I answered without hesitation. He laughed.
nn
「It looks like you are enjoying your life!」 he said. 「If I werenyour age, I would never think about studying aboard by myself. Mostly becausenmy family had no means to send me to the US, but the most important reason isnthat I didn』t have the determination that you have. You inherited your mom』sngene. I am proud of you, son.」

By Zhixuan

Brian: This is probably a story that resonates personally with many of you. The turning point of the piece, "I failed. I failed despite all my efforts." is especially forceful.

Whatsnthe Weekly Writing Club?

ThenWeekly Writing Club is an online group that practices writing English. Learn More.