Dahe Newspaper Yu video reporter Du Qianwen Photography Bai Zhoufeng
It's that time of year again. Xinxin students have been reading hard for more than ten years, and finally at this moment, they have drawn a stage ending.
However, a few rejoiced and some were worried. Some children don't get a satisfactory score, and some parents don't want their children to go.
Therefore, parents with a certain amount of family capital accumulation chose another path for their children: going abroad to study at university.
Parents make makeshift life-changing choices for their children, and the children are sent to a strange country in a short period of time.
This group of ignorant teenagers and girls aged 17 or 18, either actively demanding or passively choosing, started from scratch and embarked on another uncertain path.
This article selects 3 students who are or have studied in universities abroad, look back at the past, and tell the parallel lives after their respective college entrance examinations.
Xiaoxi, a girl studying in the United States: She gave up her academic status to study abroad after three months of freshman year, and she is still grateful for this experience
In the spring of 2014, Wang Chenxi, an "excellent student" studying in a provincial demonstration high school, successfully passed the independent admissions examination of a well-known 985 university and got an admission "coupon": as long as the college entrance examination score exceeds the provincial line, it can be admitted.
Wang Chenxi's parents were very happy for her, and friends around her also expressed envy. Almost every day, they say to this girl who has just turned 17: "Your college entrance examination pressure is much less!" Just use a line. But the more such words were uttered, the more anxious the girl became.
"If I follow my usual grades, I have absolutely no problem taking a line." But after passing the independent admissions test, my psychological pressure was even greater. In the sprint stage of the third year of high school, Wang Chenxi's mind could not control every day thinking "what to do if you don't cross a line", "what to do if you take the independent admissions exam in vain", "what to do if you live up to everyone's expectations"...
In the three months before the college entrance examination, Wang Chenxi had insomnia all night long.
Fate just likes to joke. On the day the college entrance examination results came out, Wang Chenxi and her parents stared at the computer screen without saying a word. Her grades were only one point lower than a line. It was this one-point difference that made her miss the university of her dreams. "I couldn't cry, I couldn't believe that such a drama (drama) thing could happen to me." Wang Chenxi said with a bitter smile.
Later, her parents chose a second school in the province for her. However, less than three months after the start of the school, Wang Chenxi really could not accept this gap of "famous schools to two books", and resolutely chose to quit school and study abroad. "I said I wanted to go to the United States, and my parents sold the suite and supported me." Wang Chenxi spent nearly half a year passing the TOEFL test and flew to the United States to study in 2015.
The pace of life, eating habits, learning styles... The differences made the girl, who had just turned 18, almost collapse. Unable to eat foreign meals, she learned to cook her own food; Without language advantages, students are not willing to team up to study, so she stays up late to complete all her homework by herself; When she encountered a racially discriminatory classmate, she could only endure and rely on the ukulele to get rid of it.
"I had a belief at the time: I had to climb the path I chose on my knees." Wang Chenxi gritted his teeth and insisted on completing undergraduate and graduate studies, and now he is studying for a doctorate in architecture at a well-known university in the western United States.
Doing experiments, writing reports, holding group meetings, and taking summer students, Wang Chenxi now lives a very full life every day. Speaking about past choices, Wang Chenxi, 26, said: "I am very grateful to study abroad. The scenery on this road now is indeed not something that can be easily seen when I was in one school or two schools. ”
Japanese students are small: "social fear" forced to become "social cows", unfamiliar environment forced them to grow up
Liu Xiaoxiao's study abroad life is not a sudden realization, she has a month more psychological preparation than others.
In May 2014, a month before the countdown to the college entrance examination, Liu Xiaoxiao had insomnia and hair loss all night because of the pressure of studying. Her mother was very distressed about the child's haggard appearance, so she told Liu Xiaoxiao: "The pressure does not have to be so great, if the test is not good, we will go abroad." ”
This sentence really made Liu Xiaoxiao's psychological pressure drop sharply: "In fact, I don't blame my mother, but her words at that time really made me relax and not even go to the evening self-study." ”
In the end, Liu Xiaoxiao's college entrance examination results "sure enough" did not meet expectations. But Liu Xiaoxiao, who did not have any foundation in Japanese, could only study Japanese in China for a year before going to a language school in Okayama, Japan, in 2015.
Once Liu Xiaoxiao lived under the wings of his parents, smooth sailing, everything was worried about by his parents. But when she arrived in Japan, looking at everything strange around her, she was "forced" to grow up.
"I'm an introvert and I have social phobia. In addition, at that time, my Japanese was still very general, and every time I went to the convenience store to talk to the cashier, I could sweat nervously. Even if he is nervous and uneasy, Liu Xiaoxiao, a "social terrorist", decided to work while studying in order to alleviate the financial pressure on his parents. Waiters at restaurants, cashiers at convenience stores, waiters at temporary banquets... Liu Xiaoxiao has worked at most three part-time jobs a day. She said: "The unfamiliar environment forced me to grow up rapidly, and I forgot that I was only 18 years old. ”
When working as a waiter in a restaurant, Liu Xiaoxiao, who had just turned 19, was complained and reprimanded by customers for taking down the plate of leftover tofu in advance. Finally, the store manager took Liu Xiaoxiao and bowed to the customer to apologize together, and the matter was over. Liu Xiaoxiao: "I have never suffered such a grievance. The moment I bowed even felt a little humiliating. Since then, Liu Xiaoxiao, who has been "beaten by society", has begun to feel that his mind is maturing.
After studying at a language school for two years, Liu Xiaoxiao took the Japanese college entrance examination as an international student. In the end, she was successfully admitted to Kobe University and was awarded the "Four-Year University Tuition Waiver" with excellent results. Liu Xiaoxiao: "In fact, as an international student, there are still many advantages to coming to Japan to study at a university. For example, compared with China, the difficulty of the college entrance examination will be much lower. As long as I pass the language level, with my current level, I can get into a good university in Japan. ”
At present, Liu Xiaoxiao is a graduate student at Kobe University, and after graduating next year, she plans to return to China to develop.
Li Yang, an Australian student: "Go with a sense of vanity, return with a sense of loneliness"
Li Yang, who failed the college entrance examination in 2014, regretted the choice to study abroad that year.
"My parents started to object a little, but seeing that I was so insistent, they could only let me go." Gao Yang, who studied IELTS in China for half a year, went to Sydney to study in 2015.
"I was excited when I first went, curious about everything new around me, but then I regretted it." Li Yang felt that the students around him at that time were all "rich second generation", he came from a working family, could not integrate into this circle, and could only come and go alone. "Loneliness" is a word he hangs on his lips every day.
At the same time, the disadvantage of language also made his life a lot more hindered. "My biggest fear every day is to go to the supermarket to buy groceries. Sometimes I'd rather be hungry than go to the supermarket and talk to foreigners. "18-year-old Li Yang is in a foreign country, no friends, no socializing, dare not go out, dare not speak," at that time has been hiding at home, feeling that the psychology is going to go wrong. Li Yang said.
Before the summer vacation of 2019, Li Yang submitted an application for suspension to the school without completing his college courses. He described himself as "going with vanity and returning with loneliness."
Because the university course was not completed, Li Yang never got his graduation certificate. Immediately after the outbreak of the epidemic around the world, Li Yang's return to Sydney to continue his studies has been delayed until now. Li Yang, who could not find a formal job, had previously made money by being a "takeaway brother" and doing some other part-time jobs. "You can't always lie at home, you can only rely on high Chinese to find some coolie work."
In 2020, Li Yang, who is working as a "takeaway brother", has a girlfriend who is two years older than him. With the encouragement of his girlfriend, Li Yang decided to resume his studies. At present, he is studying the online course offered by the school, "if the exams in each subject go well, you should be able to get a diploma next year." ”
Talking about the choice he had made, Li Yang felt that he regretted it very much. "My parents will always blame me for having to go abroad at that time, and I didn't insist on choosing to come back, wasting so much money and wasting a lot of time." Li Yang finally stressed: "If it is only for that little sense of vanity, you don't have to choose to go abroad, this road is not as simple as you think." ”
(The names of the persons involved in this article are pseudonyms)
Source: Dahe News Yu Video Editor: Li Yu