After reading An Official Reply, I noticed that there were some similarities between learning a foreign language in China and learning a foreign language here in the U.S. I think that the throughout Zhao’s letter we can see that he goes through a lot of similar problems that any normal American college student would go through while trying to learn a foreign language, and Professor Fang reminds me of some of my own foreign language teacher throughout the years, although strictly in the sense of teaching style. Seeing Zhao instantly be discouraged and want to give up on learning English is something that I think a lot of people learning a foreign language might go through. I can relate to this as when I initially started taking German I was overwhelmed by how the workload looked. However, much With Zhao and his professor there was positive encouragement to help him along the way. Like Fang said no one really has a natural talent for foreign languages, but you learn them through hard work and endurance. I also noticed another similarity closer to the end of the story during Fang’s lecture in the U.S. After Fang’s lecture when Zhao and the other colleague where taking questions from the audience his English became noticeably worse and he struggled to understand and respond to the questions. I also experience this problem during my German oral assignments. I might think I’m fully prepared but trying to comprehend and respond on the spot makes things a lot more difficult. Although there were many other cultural differences in this story I though it was neat to be able to pick up this similarity between how people learn and struggle to learn foreign languages.
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