Humans of HUST: Michael

Meet Michael.

I meet Michael at the west playground on a hot, sunny day. We make ourselves at home, sitting down on the artificial grass in the middle of the track. Kids play around us as their grandparents look on.

Michael will always be one of the first students that I ‘noticed’ at HUST. The first few weeks of teaching in the fall were a blur. I looked out over a sea of emotionless faces. I didn’t know names or personalities, which is terribly disconcerting as a teacher. Then, I got to know Michael, due to his adorable personality.

I’ve been lucky to have him as a student for the entire year. Michael messages me questions about English over wechat, like “what does this word really mean?” Once he messaged me about the pragmatics of the word “hunk,” and whether we use this more than ‘handsome.’ So, he’s curious, bright, and seemingly always joyful.

Michael’s full name is Zhang Rui Hao. ‘Zhang’ is his surname. ‘Rui’ means luck and ‘Hao’ to be confident, generous, and successful. The English name ‘Michael’ was given by a teacher long ago; although he couldn’t pronounce it at first, he has grown to love it, especially because he shares it with people such as Michael Jackson.

Michael is from ZhengZhou, the capital of Henan province. “Henan province used to be the center of China for many, many, many years in ancient years. Many ancient capitals were in Henan province. Dufu is a famous poet is from my hometown. The specific location is Gongyi. I’m really proud of my hometown; it is one of the first 10 counties that is awarded with high quality of life, the town I came from is awarded of one of the top 10 towns in China.”

Michael is a junior student and although he currently is a Translation & Interpretation major, he started out in college as an electromagnetic field major, which I assume has something to do with time travel. Michael loves translation/interpretation and is happy to have found it. He explains, “ I like the translation process, it is really good. I don’t know the reason. Both English-Chinese, Chinese-English. Some words are really interesting.” About adapting to college, Michael feels like he successfully has. “I enjoy the slow pace of life; you can see that everyone here is really enjoying their life on campus (at the playground). I can control my life by myself; right now, I can chase my dream. It’s really free, I can do what I want.” Not all my students are as well-adjusted, so I am happy to hear this.

I ask Michael a bit more about his major, because I am fascinated by it. For some reason, the students studying T&I seem so different than all my other students. They seem more confident and in love with the world. He tells me, “The most interesting part is the mistakes that we make. Sometimes we will have difficulty understanding some sentences, and that will cause a lot of interesting things.” About his classmates, he tells me that, “I feel they are the most dynamic people I have ever met; one of my classmates said that, if you couldn’t have found where our classroom is, you can guess due to the noise. Some people are really interesting in our class and that will cheer all of us up.” This is absolutely true. This particular class of students is far and beyond my favorite bunch. They are loud, funny, and interesting. Here’s a picture of them all:

Although HUST wasn’t Michael’s top choice, he is still glad to be here. Hilariously, Michael ended up choosing HUST due to their cafeteria food. “The reason I chose HUST, because someone told me the school is filled with delicious food, so I came here. It is true. I’m fond of the dishes in Yiyuan canteen; I like most of the dishes.” This is indeed an important factor in choosing a school in China, since students are not allowed to cook in their dorm rooms. I probe more into what he usually eats. He thinks and then says, “Oil bread stick: i tried that recently and I’m fond of it.” There’s not always an appealing English translation available for Chinese food, so we’re going with it. Michael also likes HUST because of the decent living conditions for students. I’m a little surprised with this. He explains, “We have 4 people in one room; that’s a good condition. Other schools have 6 or 8 students in one room. There’s air conditioning at HUST. I have a bathroom and I have hot water. We even have a vending machine, with beverage, food.” I ask him what it’s like to have roommates. “My roommates are really nice but a bit noisy sometime. One likes reading books and he really reads loudly- that kind of reading. Another one is fond of games; the last one has a really restrictive schedule. I want to be strict but as long as I don’t have classes, I will sleep in.” A loud reader!

I know that Michael is really interested in language but I ask him about his other interests and hobbies. “I love to walk around cities and I will find a lot of interesting people and their habits. When we were in Nanchang, we woke up really early to see what their life is like; in one square, I found a lot of old people playing swords, and after they finished it, they are dancing after that. I find that really interesting. I like to see how their life is like. I like traveling but I like to go to the mountains; the green makes me comfortable. There’s a scenic spot near my home. I have a lot of interest in netizens; they are humorous. Talking with them, sharing interesting thing with them.” I tell Michael that I’d never heard the word ‘netizen’ before coming to China; I hear it all the time here! Especially in student essays. Well, I guess I’m interested in netizens too.

Here is Michael around the mountains that he loves:

Michael has a clear picture of what he wants to do in the future. “Interpreter; I know some interpreters, they are not only doing an interpreting job, they also have another job. I want to be an interpreter; it is a free job, so I want to be strict about myself, but I often fail to do so. Interpreters need to be strict about their clients, because some are really nonsense. One interpreter said that sometime a client will simply come to me and say, ‘can you do an interpreting job tomorrow morning’ and no information was provided about the job. They will think that it is just a simple job, like I say something, and you can translate. We need to be very strict with ourselves. My teacher says that we won’t do the job related to our fields; we don’t know anything about the medical, aerospace, mostly we will do that kind of job, so before the interpreting we need to do massive research. The reason why that interpreter can do a great job is that he or she did a lot researches before about the person giving the lecture and the professional knowledge about that field. So we need to be really strict with ourselves.” I can see what he means. It seems like going into interpreting requires a lot of motivation and detective work. It really isn’t just about popping up onto a stage and improvising.

Michael is literally always happy so I smile when I ask him, ‘What makes you happy?’ He answers, “Like everything. Everything that fails to make me unhappy makes me happy. My friends make me very happy. Some videos. Mostly it’s because of my friends, they are really nice and humorous. I will argue a lot with one of my friends and the process of argument is really interesting.” It isn’t surprising then when he tells me that the thing he loves most about himself is that he can “always find a way to make myself and others happy.”

Michael’s most treasured aspect of China is this: “we are willing to adapt other things from other cultures and other people. We have 55 minorities and during the long history, we didn’t have so much fighting with each other, because we have this sort of characteristic. We learn from others. You can see from modern China that that still works. We are really willing to learn from others.”

Something that he finds frustrating is the divisive arguments between netizens on certain issues. He believes in civil discourse and valuing intentions and is annoyed to see people picking fights over small issues online. He draws the apt comparison to American politics and I can’t help but agree with him. About this polarization he says, “really, really, I don’t like that, they can come together in a more friendly way.” Michael exemplifies this ‘friendly way’ with his very existence and behavior towards others. Frankly, I am honored to have been his teacher.

On an ending note, he wishes to tell all of you: “I know that there are some stereotypes that we all have, but only when we talk to someone from the different country, can we break the stereotypes. Wish you all happiness in the future.”