Angela
Zheung is a native Chinese student who has lived in New Zealand for over 10
years. In 1999, Angela took the Certificate Course in Japanese at the (then) Christchurch Polytechnic, and finished top of her class. This success inspired her to enrol in the full degree course at the same polytechnic. She started the degree course in 2000 and was offered a scholarship to study at Osaka University in 2002. The scholarship was worth about 700,000 yen and included 2 daily meals and tuition. Angela stayed with 2 different host families, for 3 months and 7 months respectively.
Angela had a fantastic experience in Japan, learning much of her spoken Japanese skills through the friendships she made. In particular, once every two weeks, she went mountain climbing with a group of elderly women she had met. Angela was able to enjoy a lot of traditional aspects of the culture through her friendships. She made “Mochi” rice cakes with a wooden sledge hammer-like implement used to pound rice. She continues to keep in touch with friends she made in Japan by e-mail.
The food and the shopping in Japan also greatly appealed to Angela – particularly the fashion which she described as “other worldly.” She was in awe of the fact that in Japan, virtually anything she wanted to purchase, she could.
While in Japan Angela travelled widely around the Kansai region and learned the distinctive Osaka dialect.
Angela initially began studying Japanese with the view to becoming an interpreter or to be involved in trade in some way as she had previously worked in China for a trading company. She is still interested in one day becoming an interpreter but realises she must improve her English in order to achieve this goal. She also hopes to one day use her Japanese in the growing trade between China and Japan.
Angela has just completed her Teacher Training at Christchurch College of Education, specialising in Japanese and Chinese, and is seeking teaching work in these areas. Angela uses her background in Chinese to good advantage with her teaching of kanji, as the meanings of kanji are similar in the two languages. She is a shining example of what an immigrant can do with skills in three languages.
Compiled by Fiona Howat, 2005