Foreign Studies in The Middle Kingdom

After serving a two year Latter-day Saint Mission in Thailand, Spencer Owens, a junior studying business management, wasn’t finished with the oriental culture.

Upon returning to BYU-Idaho, Owens began taking Chinese courses to make himself more marketable. To become fluent in Chinese, he took his studies to the next level and did a a two month semester abroad in China.

“Because I had served a foreign language speaking mission, I knew the only way to be fluent in Chinese would be to be immersed in the language, so I went to China,” Owens said.

Owens found out about the semester abroad experience in China through BYU in Provo, and took the opportunity with limited details and information.

“I had no idea what I was doing before I left,” Owens said. “I just bought a ticket to China and showed up to this university and I just gave them tuition money and they let me in.”

His university, Nanjing Normal, places students according to their level after placement tests which covered reading, writing and speaking. In his level, Owens attended classes Monday-Friday from 8 a.m.-12 noon. The classes included speaking, grammar and writing.

Aside from being taught entirely in Chinese, Owens said the class work felt about the same as the BYU-I Chinese courses. But, the teachers did not sugarcoat poor student performances.

“The Chinese teachers they would tell you exactly what you were doing wrong in front of the whole class,” Owens said. “In a sense, they tell you that you suck.”

In addition to his studies, Owens traveled in China as well. Owens lived in Nanjing, located in eastern China. He went traveled to northern China, seeing Beijing and the surrounding areas, as well as southern China, including cities such as Guilin, Yangshuo, Guangzhou and Hong Kong.
Among the sites he saw, the Great Wall of China stood out to him.

“My friend and I walked 10 kilometers (6 miles) [on the Great Wall of China], and it was everything I had hoped and dreamed it would be,” Owens said. “The fact that we walked 10 kilometers on it, and that it was still going on for miles and miles each way was the reason it was so great and impressed me. It’s pretty insane.”

Owens is an supporter of foreign experiences as a way to better understand the world.

“I would say, don’t hesitate to do it, because it’s great to experience another way of life,” Owens said. “It’s more than a vacation; you get to experience more of the culture and surroundings. I feel like [study abroad programs] and a foreign mission give you a more broad sense of culture and how huge the world is.”