文/羅納德（Erik Ronald Omara）

我們?yōu)醺蛇_有句俗話：“你想學(xué)到更多知識，那么，你得去圖書館！”同樣，如果你想了解其他國家的文化，那么出國一定是你最好的選擇！于是我決定來中國留學(xué)。

被方方正正的漢字“圈粉”

剛到中國，我就被這個美麗的國家吸引住了！中國文化有上下五千年的歷史，要想深入了解它，就得從學(xué)習(xí)漢語漢字開始。因為作為來華留學(xué)生，漢語成為我們和中國人交流的橋梁?！皾h字很早就在我心里扎了根，我很喜歡漢字。”說起我與漢字的緣分，那就不得不提到一個人——成龍。我可是成龍的超級“迷弟”，成龍主演的中國電影陪伴我度過了爛漫的孩童時代。在觀影的過程中，我對電影里成龍書寫的字產(chǎn)生了濃厚的興趣，雖然我不明白字的意義，但卻被方方正正的漢字“圈粉”了。從那時起，中國漢字便深深刻印在我的心底。

剛開始學(xué)漢字時我發(fā)現(xiàn)寫漢字有點像畫畫，但是要從上往下，從左往右寫。我覺得這個并不難，所以在寫漢字作業(yè)時，我經(jīng)常任意發(fā)揮，很快就能寫完！結(jié)果我卻受到老師嚴(yán)厲的批評。老師說，寫漢字，就像一個人，站著要挺直，可是小羅寫的字，不是胳膊短了，就是腿跨到一邊去了，太不好看了！老師的話，讓我無地自容！從此，我就注意觀察老師寫漢字，橫短豎長怎么搭配，很快我就成了班里寫字好的。

但我認(rèn)為了解中國文化絕不僅是寫好漢字。記得剛到中國那一年，我跟著中國朋友去他家過春節(jié)，走到門口，就看到門上貼著一個大大的字，我好像在哪兒見過，仔細(xì)看，覺得好像貼反了，我再歪著頭一看，哦，這不就是幸福的“福”字嘛！ 一回頭，對面門上也是這樣反貼著。這時，朋友才告訴我，在中國過春節(jié)時，很多人家都倒貼“?！弊?， 就是要利用諧音“福倒了”，寓意幸福來到了！原來如此，漢字還可以這樣利用，真有意思！

ERIK RONALD OMARA is from Uganda, the pearl of Africa. Currently studying a master degree of oil and gas well engineering at Xi'an Petroleum University. He graduated from Xi'an Petroleum University with a bachelor degree in petroleum engineering in July 2017. He has been in China for almost more than 6 years now. He possesses Chinese proficiency test level (HSK5). He consecutively received Chinese government scholarships, got outstanding graduate award in 2017, and became a member of the Xi'an Shiyou University Alumni Association.

In Uganda, we have a saying : “If You want to learn more, then you have to go to the library!” Similarly, if you want to learn about the cultures of other countries, then going abroad must be your best choice! So I decided to come and study in China.

Be “encircled” by the square Chinese characters

When I first arrived in China, I was attracted to this beautiful country with immense dimensional culture! Chinese culture has a long history of 5,000 years. I was told if you want to understand the Chinese culture in depth, you have to start with learning Chinese characters. Because as a foreign student here, Chinese language becomes a bridge for us to communicate with Chinese people. “Chinese characters had rooted in my heart very early. I like Chinese characters very much.” Speaking of my encounters with Chinese characters, I have to mention one person - Jackie Chan with whom that I can be associated as a super Jackie Chan’s “fan”, and always many Chinese films starring Jackie Chan accompanied me through out ally my childhood. In the process of watching movies, I got a strong interest in the Chinese characters or words written by Jackie Chan in the movies. Although I didn’t understand the meaning of those characters or words, I was already “encircled” by the square Chinese characters. Since then, Chinese characters have been deeply imprinted in my heart.

When I first started learning Chinese characters, I found that writing Chinese characters was a bit like“drawing”, but you have to write from left to right, from top to bottom. I didn’t think it was that difficult; so when I could write Chinese characters, I often took it easily carelessly and I would finish it so fast! As a result, I was severely criticized by the teacher. The teacher said that writing Chinese characters is like a person, standing straight, but the characters written by “me” often had short arms, or with legs crossed to the side, too ugly to read! The teacher’s words made me feel more encouraged! From then on, I followed, how the teacher wrote Chinese characters, how to match the strokes’ lengths and heights, and soon I became one of the best Chinese character writers in the class.

但是，后來的一件事，更讓我感到漢字的神奇！一天，我跟外國朋友去飯館吃飯，朋友指著墻上的一幅畫說，咱們今天就點這種飯嘗嘗吧，服務(wù)員告訴我們，這是陜西很有名的特色小吃： biangbiang 面， 我一聽這個名字挺有意思， 就問服務(wù)員， biangbiang 面的漢字怎么寫， 服務(wù)員笑著立馬用陜西話說：“面好吃，字難寫！”因為我自信自己寫漢字很不錯，所以馬上就問服務(wù)員：“真的嗎？讓我試試?！狈?wù)員指著墻上另一幅畫說：“你看，就是這個?！蔽乙幌麦@呆了， 那幅畫里有很多個漢字呀！在我以前學(xué)過的漢字里，從來沒見過這么多字組合到一起，才是一個漢字，真是太奇妙了！

為此，我請教了我們學(xué)校優(yōu)秀的漢語老師汪老師，她告訴我，這是陜西地方獨有的漢字，是民間自己創(chuàng)造的一個字，在漢字中筆畫最多，也最復(fù)雜，在字典里也是找不到的。更有趣的是，關(guān)于怎么寫這個字，還流傳著幾種歌謠。聽了老師的介紹，讓我不勝感慨：一個字，就代表一種面食，更代表了當(dāng)?shù)氐囊环N民俗，也體現(xiàn)出陜西人耿直、倔強的品格。可見，中國文化多么博大精深，中國漢字多么神奇！后來就學(xué)成寫“biang”字的傳統(tǒng)繞口令！

But I think that understanding Chinese culture is not just only about writing Chinese characters. I remember that when I first arrived in China, I moved with my Chinese friend to their house for the “Spring Festival”. When I reached the door, I saw a big Chinese character hanged on the door. I seemed to have seen it on doors of many Chinese homes. I looked at it carefully and felt it was like it was reversely printed and hanged. I looked at it again, then I asked my Chinese friend: Isn't this the character “福 (Fu) ” of Chinese words “幸?！?which means “happiness”. When I turned back, the opposite door was also reversely hanged. At this time, my friend told me that during the Chinese New Year“ Spring Festival”, All Chinese families reversely hang the word “Fu”, that is, they want to use the homophonic “福倒了”, which literally translate to “?！?meaning “Happiness” and “倒了” meaning “arrived” and then combining the two then it all becomes “Happiness has arrived”. The I realized that Chinese Characters turns out that it can also be used in this way, which is really very interesting!

However, one thing later that made me feel the magic of Chinese characters! One day, I went to the restaurant with my foreign friend. The friend pointed at a painting on menu on the wall and said, let's order this meal for today. The waiter told us that this is a famous snack in Sha’anxi: “Biangbiang Noodles” . I, Listening to this very interesting name. Then I asked the waiter, how do you write the Chinese characters of the “Biangbiang” Noodles, the waiter smiled and immediately said in Sha’anxi dialect: “面好吃，字難寫” which loosely translates “The Noodles is delicious, but the character is very difficult to write!”. At that time, I nearly felt overly confident that I could write that Chinese characters of “ Biangbiang ” Noodles very well, so I immediately asked the waiter, “Really? Let me try.” The waiter pointed at another painting on the wall and said: “You see, it is this.” when I looked at it, I was deeply surprised, that the “ Biangbiang ” Noodles character has several complex Chinese characters that I had learned in my previous Chinese characters writing class, all combined together forming it. But I had never seen such so many characters combine together to form one word. To me, that was what made me feel Chinese characters are so wonderful and magical!

There after, I asked Mrs. Wang, a good Chinese teacher in our school; she told me that this is a unique Chinese character in Sha’anxi, a word created by the people themselves, with the most strokes and the most complicated in Chinese characters; in the dictionary, normally can't find it either. What's more interesting is that there are several songs about how to write this word. After listening to the teacher's introduction, I was overwhelmed that one complex character, can represent a kind of pasta, a more representative of a local folk custom, but also reflects the straightforward and stubborn character of Sha’anxi. Finally we can see how profound Chinese culture is and how amazing Chinese characters are! Later I learned how to use the traditional tongue twister to write the “Biang” character of “Biangbiang Noodles” !

The tongue twister helps me understand faster. Though it’s not the officially recognized English version, it could loosely be interpreted as:

“一點飛上天，黃河兩頭彎。八字大張口，言官朝上走。你一扭，我一扭，左一長，右一長，中間夾個馬大王。心字底，月字旁，拴鉤搭掛麻糖。推著車車走咸陽。”

收獲知識，收獲友誼

2012年，我從烏干達北方的里拉市來到中國。在五年多的時間里，我先后去了上海、南京、北京、蘇州、無錫、天津、秦皇島、西安、延安等城市。身處異國他鄉(xiāng)，我不僅體驗到中國歷史文化的豐厚，還感受到了中國美食文化的獨特魅力。特別是中國南北地區(qū)的氣候差異以及食物差異，讓我直呼中國的神奇?！拔曳浅Ｏ矚g南方的食物和北方的天氣，我很喜歡吃生煎包子和肉夾饃?！?/p>

2013 年，我來到西安石油大學(xué)就讀石油工程專業(yè)本科。黝黑的皮膚、直爽的性格、幽默的話語、豁達的人生態(tài)度，使我在班上人氣頗高。對于活潑好學(xué)的我來說，積極參加各種比賽是我生活的一大樂趣。在老師的建議下，我開始準(zhǔn)備參加一些校內(nèi)外活動，比如我們學(xué)校的“緣聚中國，激揚青春”留學(xué)生漢語朗讀比賽，也交了很多中國朋友，這樣能幫我提高漢語聽說讀寫能力，而且還可以幫我一步一步學(xué)習(xí)中國人聊天兒的習(xí)慣。

在西安石油大學(xué)期間，我不僅收獲了扎實的理論基礎(chǔ)和實操技術(shù)，還收獲了珍貴的友誼。談到自己所學(xué)的專業(yè)，我深刻體會到師長們所說的“石工專業(yè)是一個如果你不天天學(xué)習(xí)就不會有好成績的專業(yè)”的含義。每天除了努力學(xué)習(xí)就是刻苦學(xué)習(xí)，我永遠(yuǎn)都不會忘記為了背誦一些專業(yè)名詞和一些巖石的名字特性，我的好兄弟鐵軍總會在課余時間循循善誘地幫我渡過難關(guān)。在每次考試前，鐵軍都會和我一起認(rèn)真復(fù)習(xí)，督促我專心看書。鐵軍是我的良師益友，我永遠(yuǎn)會記得他對我的幫助。

將來碩士畢業(yè)后，我希望回到家鄉(xiāng)從事石油行業(yè)。我會把在中國生活的點點滴滴牢記在心，特別是教我書法藝術(shù)的汪老師、在專業(yè)上給我大大幫助的鐵軍同學(xué)。我會記住這所有的一切。盡管從事石油行業(yè)很累很苦，但我絕不后悔！一天是石油人，一輩子都是石油人！我衷心感謝我所有的中國朋友們！向在中國遇到的每位外國人說，謝謝你們的友誼！

“A little fly to the sky, the Yellow River bends at both ends. The eight-Character opens big mouths, the yán character extends inside. You twist, I twist, you cháng, I also cháng, in the middle is a big horse. At the bottom is a heart character, one lateral is the moon, the other an hook Hanging up the sugar candy. Pushing the car going to Xianyang.”

Gain knowledge, gain friendship

Talking of my journey to China. In 2012, From the Ugandan northern City of Lira, I came to China. In these almost more than six years here, I have already traveled to Shanghai, Nanjing, Beijing, Suzhou, Wuxi, Tianjin, Qinhuangdao, Xi’an, Yan’an and other Chinese cities. Being in a foreign country, I have not only experienced the richness of Chinese history and culture, but also felt the unique charm of Chinese food culture. In particular, the climate differences and food differences in the north and south of China make me feel the “magic of China”. “I really like the food in the South and the weather in the north. I really like to eat the Chinese fried bun and the Chinese sandwich Rou Jia Mo; ròujiāmó in pinyin (肉夾饃) ”.

In 2013, I came to Xi’an Shiyou University to study undergraduate petroleum engineering. Dark-skinned, with straightforward character, humorous words, and open-minded attitudes made me very popular in the class. For me who is lively and eager to learn, actively participating in various competitions is a great pleasure in my life. At the teacher’s suggestion, I began to prepare for some on-campus and off-campus activities, such as our school’s “Gathering China, Inspiring Youth” Chinese Language Recitation Competition for International Students, and I also made many Chinese friends, which could not only help me to improve my ability of Chinese listening, speaking, reading and writing but also help me learn the habit of chatting with Chinese people step by step.

In addition to food, during the period of my stay at Xi’an Shiyou University, I have not only gained a solid theoretical foundation and professional practical skills, but also gained precious friendship. When talking about the majors I’m studying, I deeply understand what the teachers said to me at the beginning that “the petroleum engineering profession is a profession that you will not have good results if you don’t study every day”. During Learning, in addition to studying and working hard every day. In case I would forget to recall some professional terms and some rock names and characteristics, my good dearest brother would, in his spare time always help me through the difficulties. Before each exam, my dear Chinese friend, Tie Jun would carefully review with me and urge me to concentrate on reading. Tie Jun is my mentor and friend, I will always remember his help to me.

In the future, I will graduate from the university and hope return to my home country to work in the oil industry. I will keep in mind the bits and pieces of life in China, especially Teacher Wang, who taught me the art of calligraphy and Tiejun who helped me a lot in studies. I will remember all of this. Although I know oil industry is a tiresome and hard job, I will never regret at all! Once an oil industry man, and always all life will be an oil man! I sincerely thank all my Chinese friends! Say to every foreigner I met in China, thank you for your friendship!