02/14/2020
UPP student Kai Luo describes his participation in our premier 'Packpals' Program. Congrats to him and his packpal, Brendan, for setting the bar high! Their experience shows how engaging in the risky endeavor of intercultural friendship-building can transform our self-assessments. While an initial dismissal of language ability stunted Kai's confidence, this connection across boundaries--given time to flourish--later inspired positivity and trust. It's our hope that future UPP students embark on a similar journey, assured by the eventual payoff of investing in domestic student relationship building. Connecting with locals, understanding their humor, and generating lasting relationships with them happens not overnight, but months after the first step is taken in the right direction.
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"For the first time I meet my pack pal, I was really not confident. I am a person who is not good at communicating, especially if it's not my mother language. I was afraid I cannot get a good conversation, or maybe even cannot understand his ideas . I was worried a lot about an embarrassing meeting. But on the other side, I was excited about this meeting. I know it should be a valuable opportunity for me to make an American friend and we can share our ideas from different perspectives and culture backgrounds. Actually that was also something I am literally looking for. The first meeting between us was a good beginning of our friendship. I found that he was outgoing, friendly, and the most important point is he is really a good listener. He can always get my idea from my undeveloped sentence and help me correct my language errors. And he can always share special ideas about our topics or give some significant comments to my point. I enjoy the communication between us. I know I can learn a lot from him. On the next meeting, he took me to his hometown. And we went a restaurant that he always went in his childhood. That really surprised me. In this way, He was trying to share his life, experience and feeling with me. And I opened my mind to share my ideas and experiences. The most unforgettable experience is that he took me to visit his high school. He talked about the his high school life and the feeling of “nostalgia” at the moment.
For the next few times, we went to the some Chinese restaurants, tried some traditional American flavor, we went bowling, pooling and even made a documentary project together. I really learned so much from him and will be excited to continue building our friendship."
会面之前，我一直很担心我和packpal的沟通问题，尤其是用英文交流。我担心他不能听懂我说的口语，我也不能理解他的想法。但另一方面， 我其实对这次会面充满期待， 我能够结实一位美国朋友， 可以从不同的角度和文化背景交流我们的思想， 这对我们彼此都大有裨益。而这一次的会面着实给了我一个惊喜。在我们的交流中，packpal有更好的英文能力， 但他却充当了一个倾听者的角色，他会从努力的理解我的表述，评论我的想法，同时分享他的观点， 甚至会有时还帮我纠正我的语法错误。我在我们之间的交流中学到了许多。
之后， 他邀请我去他家的城市，请我吃了一顿当地的特色菜。他向我分享他的生活的经历和趣事，拉近了我们之间的距离，我们一起去了他的高中，在那儿，他教给我一个词“nostalgia”（乡愁），我发现即使我们扎根于不同的文化背景，我们之间仍有许许多多的共同点，这让我也开始逐渐更加敞开心扉的分享我自己的故事与想法。接下里的一整个学期，我们一起吃中餐，打保龄球和台球，甚至一起参与一个纪录片的项目，这些活动实实在在的丰富了我们的生活。
