love and hate
A love-hate relationship is a relationship involving simultaneous or alternating emotions of love and hate. That is what has been going on with French and me. I have been a member at French Floor for one year. About one year ago, due to this intense admiration for French like many other naive starters, I took my first French class. However, French to me was more like the stepmother in Snow White. I haven't really looked into myself and tried to figure out what was my motivation for language learning until this spring. This May, a Chinese exchange student's commence speech at University of Maryland went viral on social media outlets. Not in a good way. Her praise about fresh air and democracy in the United States and description of smog issue in China vexed an army of Chinese and has been the trending search on Weibo for days. And millions of Weibo users lambasted her for putting her home country in a bad light and reprimanded her for being a shameful traitor. With experience of living in both countriesI didn't think she deserved this. But it was not how this bothered me that was the problem, but how this drove so many Chinese people crazy that confused me. Later that day, I wrote a post- I said " Sometimes what one wants to say and what others think s/he is saying tend to be different. But with confidence in our home country, her comparison can just be an entertaining joke. Smog issue in China has bothered so many of us deeply. And many of us may have some problems with our government. Why can't we say it out loud? I guess there is no single perfect country. But only because of that we cannot praise other countries and cultures? Is that an in-confidence within? " Later, I experience, the first time, a social media disaster. I received over 12 thousands down-vote comments; and suddenly I became a "backstabber" to my country. I cried the whole day, and deleted everything under my account. But it was then and there I figured out why I want to and should continue to learn French- because I am not proud of shouting door at other civilizations and refusing to see the truth. And I don't want to let others control my head. I take no pleasure in others agreeing with my opinion but meeting with people coming from different backgrounds but with similar goals. Because I experienced in flesh how narrowmindness could hurt innocent people I would think twice before I do that. So I love the concept of French House-- a number of people from France or not are willing to learn not only just the language but the culture and custom in that country. I hope I could continue to be a member in French House and also part of forum like ''culture shock'', because there is nothing I want more than a group of like-minded people with different backgrounds and similar ambitions.
