TIANJIN, Jan. 14 (Xinhua) — Inside a classroom at Nankai University in north China’s Tianjin Municipality, Trkan Hamza, a Turkish scholar majoring in Chinese-English translation, practices Chinese calligraphy with quiet focus.
“It was the Chinese language that brought me from thousands of miles away,” Hamza stated. “Here, I’ve found my direction for study, life and the future.”
Born in 2003, Hamza has lengthy been interested by overseas languages, having beforehand discovered English, Japanese and Korean. However, the Chinese language significantly captivated her resulting from its distinctive construction, lengthy historical past and wealthy tradition.
Her curiosity started after she watched a Chinese historic drama. “I was immediately drawn to the tonal variations and unique rhythm of the language,” she recalled.
At first, Chinese seemed like a music she’d by no means heard earlier than. But little by little, with the assistance of subtitles, she began choosing up easy phrases like “hello” and “thank you” and even began repeating traces from the reveals.
The sense of feat motivated her to actively be taught Chinese by means of movies and TV sequence. The extra she watched, the extra curious she grew to become, and that pushed her to maintain exploring the language.
Driven by the curiosity, she enrolled within the Chinese language and literature program at Istanbul University. But after two years of examine, she felt restricted by her studying setting.
“The entire department had only one Chinese teacher, and most of the learning was confined to textbooks and grammar,” she stated. “I wanted to hear the vivid language used in daily life, to immerse myself in the local society and culture, and to understand the warmth and logic behind the words.”
She then determined to go to China for her undergraduate research, although her mother and father have been hesitant at first.
“To them, China was still a distant and unfamiliar country. I spent a lot of time explaining China’s safety, development and educational opportunities,” Hamza recalled.
Her persistence paid off when she obtained an admission letter from Nankai University.
In September 2023, she arrived in Tianjin for the primary time. But town, positioned close to China’s capital Beijing, didn’t match her earlier expectations.
“The city wasn’t as dazzlingly modern as I had imagined. Instead, it had an everyday, down-to-earth vibe,” she stated.
After visiting cities like Beijing and Shanghai, she got here to see China as a rustic of placing regional range slightly than a spot with a single identification.
At Nankai University, she’s finding out way more than simply the language. Her lessons cowl Chinese tradition and historical past, and even topics like math and programming. For her, this wide-ranging curriculum reveals how Chinese universities worth well-rounded improvement. It’s additionally helped her join extra deeply with the language.
While having fun with the problem and pleasure of constructing connections between Turkish, Chinese and English, Hamza stated she is usually impressed by the depth and richness of the Chinese language.
“The tones, idioms and classical Chinese often make me ponder. Many expressions cannot be translated literally,” she defined.
For Hamza, the language is greater than a communication device. Learning Chinese has given her perception into the emotional logic and social ideas prevalent among the many Chinese individuals.
She cited the time period “chunyun,” or the Spring Festival journey rush, which embodies the profound Chinese sentiment in direction of household and reunion.
Outside of sophistication, she will get concerned in all types of cultural actions, like making zongzi (sticky rice dumplings) and mooncakes, which give her an actual style of conventional Chinese customs. She has additionally taken half in a Turkish “Silk Road Letters” contest, documenting her observations and emotions about China by means of writing.
As her research proceed, Hamza has additionally been following the rising financial and commerce ties between China and Trkiye.
From Chinese corporations collaborating within the building of native tasks to new power car producer BYD asserting plans to construct a manufacturing unit in Trkiye, she stated that cooperation between the 2 international locations is changing into more and more tangible for peculiar Turkish individuals.
Whether returning to Trkiye or pursuing a profession in China after commencement, Hamza hopes to make use of her language abilities to function a bridge between the 2 nations, selling mutual understanding in areas like tradition, schooling and commerce.
“For me, China is no longer just images on a screen or words in a textbook,” Hamza stated. “It has become part of my everyday life. With the Chinese language serving as a key, I am unlocking door after door to new worlds.”