Week 1: Can We Be Friends?

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 did you learn it?

I can speak three Chinese dialects which belong to three different groups: Xiang, Gan and Hakka. Oh, of course there is also Mandarin, the national dialect – if you count that as a dialect. As a university student in Beijing, most people around me can speak their own local dialect as well as Mandarin (what a pity for the Beijing kids who only know Mandarin!). However, few can speak as many as three. I am proud of my language skills. Maybe I have the language-learning gift.

As I child, I grew up in a small town in Eastern Hunan Province. At home, I speak Gan with my parents. If you』re familiar with Chinese languages, then you might ask: how come you grew up speaking Gan in Hunan? Don』t most Hunan people speak Xiang? Isn』t Gan mostly spoken in Jiangxi? That』s because the town where I was born borders on Jiangxi and most of the residents』 ancestors are immigrants from Jiangxi, and they brought the Gan dialect with them. So most people in my hometown speak Gan.

However, I always identify myself as Hunanese, not only because I lived in Hunan, but because my mother』s family is an authentic Hunan family where everyone speaks Xiang. In order to communicate with elderly people who cannot speak Mandarin, I had to learn how to speak Xiang also. I picked up this dialect while living with my maternal in the suburb of Hunan』s capital, Changsha.

So, my parents speak Gan and my grandparents speak Xiang, then here comes the weirdest thing: why can I speak Hakka? You see, my father is actually Hakka. If you translate the Chinese word for Hakka literally, it means 「Guest Home」, Hakka people are immigrants and 「guests」 wherever they go. My old, old ancestors originally lived in central China, where Chinese civilization first developed, and were drive south to Guangdong because of warfare. Although many Hakka people settled down in Guangdong, a group of them, my ancestors, moved again and again. They first went to Jiangxi. Then they crossed the border and entered Hunan with some local Jiangxi people. The Hakka dialect was passed down generation by generation, and many Hakka people, who also speak the local dialect, have not forgotten their own Hakka language. My paternal grandparents』 relatives still communicate in Hakka.

So that』s how I mastered three completely different Chinese dialect. And how I can make friends from Jiangxi, Hunan and also Hakka-speaking regions of China.

By Xiongtao

Brian: I especially enjoy the use of rhetorical questions 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 did you learn it?

I want to talk about something I have that some of my friends probably dont have: a firm determination.

A year and a half year ago, I was a senior in high school in China. Just like all other Chinese students, I needed to take the college entrance examination, the most important test for any student in China. People describe the test as a single-plank bridge that millions of students try to squeeze past. Therefore, no matter who they are or what they want, every student in high school is studying day and night for one mutual objective: obtaining a high grade and gaining admittance to a stellar university.

I was one of those students. During the final three months, I woke up everyday at 5:30 am, directly went to classroom without breakfast. I would begin my morning exercises after an hour of reading, run to the campus restaurant for a quick breakfast, then return to the classroom and to start my classes. After four classes, I would run to the restaurant for a quick lunch, and then run back to classroom. I couldn』t afford to 「waste」 my time walking. After a 10-minutes nap, I would start another tedious problem set. Then, classes would continue in the afternoon until 6pm. After dinner and a quick shower, I would return again to the classroom and struggle through problems until 11pm. Back in my dorm, I would sleep at midnight after writing in my diary. That was a normal day for me during that time.

I failed. I failed despite all my efforts. And I failed by one point. One point meant that I could not go to my dream university. Everyone sympathized with me for my loss. When I received my score, I just felt that the grade was ridiculous and it must have been a mistake. I cried beyond control. It was the first time that I cried out loud at home. My parents had nothing to say. They tried to comfort me; when in fact, they were also losing control. No one can imagine what that one point meant to my family. Three years. All of it meant nothing.

Five days later, I made my decision to study aboard.

One year later, I became the first person in the history of my high school to study in America.

Yesterday, I FaceTimed with my Dad. After talking for a while, he asked, 「Have you ever regretted to go to America?

「I haven』t,」 I answered without hesitation. He laughed.

「It looks like you are enjoying your life!」 he said. 「If I were your age, I would never think about studying aboard by myself. Mostly because my family had no means to send me to the US, but the most important reason is that I didn』t have the determination that you have. You inherited your mom』s gene. 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.

Whats the Weekly Writing Club?

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