{"id":1494,"date":"2009-05-29T07:08:01","date_gmt":"2009-05-29T14:08:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/?p=1494"},"modified":"2013-07-31T11:24:00","modified_gmt":"2013-07-31T15:24:00","slug":"studying-chinese-and-eating-scorpion-in-beijing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/?p=1494","title":{"rendered":"Studying Chinese, and Eating Scorpion, in Beijing"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"camarena\"
Valery Camarena \u201911 (left) with her Peking University roommate, Stephanie, exploring a section of China\u2019s Great Wall.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

While designing her major in Cultural Anthropology, Valery Camarena \u201911 <\/strong>decided to make fulfilling a personal dream a requirement for receiving her degree.<\/p>\n

\u201cStudying abroad is something I had wanted to do since I began college,\u201d said Camarena. So the sophomore figured that making it a requirement for graduation would be the perfect motivator. She was correct: after her proposal for a Cultural Anthropology major was approved in fall 2008, Camarena wasted no time in completing the study abroad requirement, spending last semester studying at Peking University\u2019s School of Chinese as a Second Language.<\/p>\n

But for Camarena, a student in TCNJ\u2019s Educational Opportunity Fund (EOF) Program, making this personal goal a reality took a bit of hard work. She said the cost of studying in China seemed at first to be too much to overcome. \u201cBut I had such an overwhelming desire to study abroad, I decided I couldn\u2019t just give up on the idea.\u201d And so after months of saving money from her job as a desk assistant in Norsworthy Hall\u2014and with the aid of scholarships from the EOF Promise Award, the Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship, and the Freeman Awards for Study in Asia\u2014Camarena was on her way.<\/p>\n

At Peking University, Camarena took part in an intensive language program studying Mandarin Chinese. \u201cMy coursework included classes in spoken Chinese, readings in Chinese, pronunciation, and writing Chinese characters,\u201d she said. With the exception of a course she took in modern history, all of the classes were taught in Chinese.<\/p>\n

Camarena started learning the language in high school, she said, where she also took classes in Japanese and Spanish. \u201cI was always fascinated with languages and the differences and similarities between different groups of people,\u201d Camarena said. \u201cI am interested in many different aspects of culture, including how groups relate to each other, how they change over time, and how culture affects our perceptions.\u201d<\/p>\n

These interests prompted her to enroll in TCNJ\u2019s International Studies Program, but she found that classes focused on government and policy, and not as much on society and people. After changing her major to sociology, Camarena took the class Ethnicity, Race, and Nation. It was then she realized, \u201cCultural Anthropology was the right major for me.\u201d Camarena self designed TCNJ\u2019s first Cultural Anthropology major, which requires her to take 13 classes and eventually write a senior thesis. And of course, there is the study-abroad requirement, which is an experience Camarena recommends every student take part in.<\/p>\n

\"camarena\u201cStudying abroad was such a life-changing experience,\u201d Camarena said. \u201cChina is quite an interesting place. I saw how fast the country is changing and developing, but at the same time, how so much of the old is still holding fast. For instance, you might see an ancient temple right across the street from a new skyscraper.\u201d<\/p>\n

Studying in China also opened her eyes to how vast the world really is, she said. \u201cEspecially coming to the East, you get a sense of how people on the other side of the globe live, while learning more about yourself in the process,\u201d said Camarena. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t until I left the United States that I realized how special a nation it really is.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cLiving in Beijing was wonderful because I was able to meet people from all over this huge country and was right in the midst of everything,\u201d she continued. \u201cAnd did I mention the food there is absolutely amazing? If you ever visit China, be sure to try the scorpion at Wangfujie. It\u2019s not too bad.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Valery Camarena \u201911, a student in TCNJ’s EOF Program, spent the spring semester fulfilling a dream\u2014and dining on some unusual fare. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1525,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1494","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-june-2009","category-on-campus"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1494"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1494\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1525"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.tcnjmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}