The Weird Kid in Class

Last week, after running around the university between our department for international students learning Chinese, the school administration building, and the Math and Computer Science department... I was finally able to get in to 2 computer classes as an auditing student. I chose Database Principles (数据库原理) and Software Requirements Design (软件需求设计). Fun fun fun!

So far, I have sat in on 3 sessions of my database class. Will be sitting in on the Software Requirements class for the first time this Thursday.

It is, however, already clear to me that I am... the weird kid in class.

The very first session, I sat in the back corner of the classroom and didn't know any of the 30+ other students. I introduced myself to the teacher at the break, who was very nice. The entire 90 minutes, I didn't talk to one classmate.

The second session, I decided to show up early and sit in the 3rd row, because that's where a whole bunch of students were sitting during the last class. There would be no avoiding me now! But, as the students came in... I noticed that they all sat with one chair's space distance from me. Stay away from the weird kid.

But then, at the break, the teacher introduced me to the class: "Hey, everybody, get to know so-and-so. He has only lived here since 2009, but he can already sit in this class and understand. He is a mei-ji-hua-ren." (美籍华人 means "Chinese American") All the students breathed a collective, "Oooohhh..." Silently, though, they all thought to themselves, "No wonder. He's kind of weird. He has his textbook out and takes notes during the lecture. And he's always looking things up on his phone. I bet that's his dictionary."

One guy did talk to me at the break though. We exchanged phone numbers and QQ numbers. I am making friends... yay!

And then today... the third session. And this time, I did my homework! Everybody passed their homework to the two girls sitting in front of me. I saw them sifting through the whole pile to make sure everybody had turned in homework. And then they got to mine. One of the girls said out loud, "味。。。 这个是谁写的？这么奇怪呀。。。" Translated, it means: "What the... who wrote this one? It's so... weird..."

So I said, "Umm... that's mine."

"Oh. What are you doing in this class again?"

"I'm just... auditing. I can do homework if I want to do it. Or not do it if I don't want to. I'm just... yeah... umm... auditing."

And... that was the end of the conversation.

So why does my homework look so weird? Well, if you grew up in the States and have ever turned in an assignment for school: where do you put your name? In the upper right hand corner. But... not here. Here, your name goes in the upper left hand corner. Oops. So, at first glance of my homework today, you would think that my name was "Database Principles" (which would actually be a pretty cool name). Weird.

In the States, when you're handwriting an assignment, do you copy the question down too? Of course not. That would just be busywork for the sake of busywork. This isn't a handwriting class. This is a database class. But... not in classes here. Everybody copies down the entire question (it was a whole paragraph) before they write out their answer. Who in their right mind would turn in an assignment with just a data model, but not include the paragraph-long question asking for the data model? Oh... it's the weird kid.

At least more people talked to me today. One of the students introduced herself to me. Then I introduced myself. And she said, "Wow, that's interesting. You talk like... somebody from Hong Kong." Sweet. I'll take that as a compliment. Before, I talked like a foreigner from the other side of the world. Then, I slowly made my way towards talking like someone from Japan or Korea. Now, I'm slowly making my way closer to the mainland.