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Instead of going home to a summer job waiting tables or cashiering at a department store after her freshman year of college, junior Becky Olson hopped on a flight to China and didn’t return for a year.

Olson went to China to teach English to grade-school children at a private boarding school in Zibo, Shandong Province, during the 2001-02 school year.

Along with teaching about four classes a day, Olson spent her year learning Chinese, making friends and falling in love.

Getting started

Olson first went to China and taught American culture the summer before her freshman year at UW-Eau Claire through Global Language Villages, a program run by Concordia College, she said.

For the program, Olson spent one week touring Beijing and another two weeks teaching in Zibo.

While teaching in Zibo, she asked the teachers there if they could help her find somewhere to teach after she graduated from college because she already knew she wanted to teach in China.

“I like to travel, and I like different cultures,” Olson said. “When I was there I loved spending time … with the students.”

Still, she was a little surprised when she received an e-mail in December of her freshman year from Century Talents Foreign Languages School, a new private school being built in Zibo, asking her to come teach English during the next school year, she said.

“I wanted to do it, but I was worried,” said Olson, who realized teaching in China would mean dropping out of school.

But Olson decided she wanted to go when she heard the school’s offer, she said.

Senior Kaye Finne, a friend of Olson’s since freshman year, wrote in an e-mail about Olson’s excitement when she finally decided to go to China.

“I remember that it was a real easy decision for her. She was positive that this is what she wanted to do and she was determined not to let anything get in her way,” Finne said. “I knew it would be a great experience for her, and I was proud of her for taking such a chance.”

Olson returned to China with the Global Language Villages program and then stayed at the school in Zibo until classes started in late August.

Teaching

Olson taught English to first- through fourth-graders at the school. She also planned cultural lessons about the United States, including lessons about holidays, she said.

“It had its challenges, and it got easier and easier as I went along,” Olson said. “When I went over there I didn’t know a word of Chinese except for maybe ‘hello.'”

Olson now speaks Chinese fluently and knows some local dialects as well, she said.

Her lack of Chinese didn’t really cause her any problems in the classroom anyway, she said.

“I spoke almost all English to (my students),” she said, “except for outside of class or explaining difficult words like ‘somebody’ where you can’t draw a picture.”

Her cultural lessons had to be taught by other teachers because the complicated subject matter required the lessons to be taught in Chinese.

Most of the lessons she created resonated with the Chinese teachers, but one lesson, which called for snowflakes made from white paper, made them pause, she said.

They wanted to use colorful paper to cut the snowflakes from, she said, but she told them they had to use white because snowflakes are white.

“After it was done and (we) hung them in the window, I learned that white is the color for death,” Olson said. “So having white paper cuttings in the window, it makes it look like someone died.”

White paper and death aside, Olson said she loved teaching in China.

“One of the huge benefits was that the children were far better behaved than American children,” she said. “Even when they were bad they were better than bad American kids.”

Making friends

When Olson first arrived at the school, the students hadn’t turned up yet, so she had plenty of time to get to know her new surroundings and co-workers.

“I had nothing to do all day and all night,” Olson said. “So at night I would hang out with the guards or whatever teachers happened to be around.”

It was one of the guards and one of the teachers who became Olson’s closest friends in China, she said.

The teacher, Ella Wang Min, spoke English like a native speaker and asked Olson to be a bridesmaid at her wedding while Olson was teaching there.

Little did she know, another of her closest friends in China would become family.

Seth Zhou, the guard, and Olson became good friends right away, and it wasn’t long before she realized she liked him as more than friends, Olson said.

Zhou would have none of it at first, however, and Olson had to explain to him three times how much she liked him before he believed she was serious about the relationship because in Chinese culture people don’t date for fun, they date to marry, she said.

The two were worried that when Olson left they’d drift apart and find other people, she said.

“But deep down we both knew we didn’t want to give it up,” Olson said. “We basically knew we were going to get engaged and get married.”

Looking to the future

During winter break, Olson went back to China for that engagement.

Before the engagement though, Olson and Zhou spent about a year-and-a-half without seeing each other, Olson said.

Now, after the engagement, she said being apart is harder than ever.

But Zhou wrote in an e-mail that he thinks their long distance relationship is romantic.

“I don’t think it’s too difficult,” he said. “She often calls me and tells me how much she loves me.”

Olson and Zhou are applying for a fianc license that would allow Zhou to come to the United States to marry Olson; they hope he will be able to come to America in the summer of 2005.

After he arrives, they would have 90 days to get married, and after the wedding, they plan to live in the United States for awhile, Olson said.

Zhou is not worried about coming to America and meeting most of Olson’s family for the first time when they get married, he said.

“She has told me so much about America and her family, so I am not worried about going there,” Zhou said. “The most important thing is I love her, wherever I go is OK.”

Even with the wedding so far away, Olson may not have to wait another year-and-a-half to see her fianc again.

Olson and two other students, senior Mary Vorndran and freshman Teri Sanders, applied last week for a grant to study the most effective methods of teaching English to Chinese students in China, which works toward their Teaching English as a Foreign Language certificates.

“Becky is an incredibly fascinating individual who doesn’t let any inhibitions get in her way,” Vorndran said. “It’s an amazing opportunityto go with someone who’s familiar with the language and the culture.”

They will have to wait for about a month to learn if they will get their grant or not, Olson said.

“I loved (teaching in China),” Olson said. “I want to go back there.”