Chen Qi (left)
 

At the end of August 2013, I arrived in Berkeley, and started my half-year as an exchange student with curiosity, excitement and a little bit of anxiety. Berkeley is a small town in northern California, and is very close to San Francisco. Berkeley, the city, is most famous for the best public university in the United States — University of California Berkeley (UC Berkeley), which is located in this beautiful forested town.

Fresh Experience in Classes

At the beginning of the semester, I was absolutely freaked out by the crazy shopping weeks. Cal students (students of UC Berkeley call themselves "Cal") called the first two weeks of every semester “shopping weeks”, because in this period of time, they can compare, apply and drop courses freely, just like the way people do shopping in the market. It is one of the most interesting times for Cal students; however, it is also one of the top three craziest times for exchange students. Exchange students in Berkeley could only apply for the seats left by Berkeley students, and it usually takes about two weeks to see if there are seats available. Exchange students must take at least three courses each semester to keep their visa valid. Therefore, most exchange students took more than five courses in the first weeks to make sure they could meet the minimum requirement. Trotting among campus buildings and dealing with endless reading materials occupied most of my first two weeks in Berkeley, and the complicated registration as well as all kinds of trivial business made me too occupied to think about other stuffs. When my friend asked me how I was dealing with homesickness, I had to tell her honestly, that I was too busy to miss home.

Although the first weeks were quite challenging, overall, my life in UC Berkeley was quite happy. I only took three sociology courses, so compared to my last two years in Sun Yat-sen University (SYSU), I had more time and energy for each course. Abundant reading and pondering allowed me to have a deeper and more detailed understanding of each course. The training I received from Liberal Arts College of SYSU was greatly helpful for my study in UC Berkeley. Like most American colleges, Liberal Arts College has very high demands for students’ reading, both in quality and quantity. Therefore, the huge amount of reading materials did not make me lost.

There are discussion sections for heavy-loaded courses with large number of students. Sections are usually hosted by GSI (Graduate Student Instructor) twice a week, and aim at reviewing professors’ lectures and doing some further discussions. In my personal experience, discussion sections are great means to truly enroll and engage in American universities. Lectures were mainly about professors’ ideas, but in sections, everyone expressed their ideas and it was a great opportunity to know American students’ opinions and cultural differences.

GSI are the ones that check and grade students’ homework and papers, and for the reason that professors are always too busy to offer guidance for most students after class, GSI are the ones whom students usually turn to for help. My GSI in Politics and Social Change offered me great help in this course. I had some problems in readings and lectures, because I was really bad at history, and lacked sociological training. GSI helped me figure out my puzzles and corrected many mistakes, and thanks to him, I finally got a decent score.

Besides the sections and GSI, there are many other student voluntary programs in UC Berkeley. The one I appreciated most is the writing tutor program. There are students good at writing as writing tutors in the writing center every workday, and students who need guidance in writing can get tutored in turn. At first, I was not familiar about the format and writing style. Writing tutors were really helpful in dealing with my writing problems.

Amazing Teachers

My teachers in Berkeley are all very nice and patient. One professor is a handsome Turk, one is very childlike and outgoing, and my favorite teacher is Jill Bakehorn, lecturer of Sociology of Gender.

Jill totally overturned my stereotype of a university teacher. She kept Mohawk hairstyle with red highlights (changed into purple later), and wore striking earrings, with colorful tattoo all over her left upper arm. Jill came into class in different cool clothes every day, and she even matched her watches (she had more than six watches in different colors and shapes) with her clothes. If I came across someone dressing like her on the street, I would never, ever regard that person as a university teacher of the best sociology department in America.

Although unique in dressing, Jill is serious in class: she barely tells jokes, and sometimes even warns students who talk in class. Jill is also quite strict and demanding about homework, any logical problems or superfluous words will be highlighted in the feedback. Nevertheless, Jill is very nice and obliging after class.

I like Jill so much not only because she is a fantastic teacher and a great person, but also because I benefit a lot from the course she taught, Sociology of Gender. In traditional Chinese society, marriage was seen as the first priority in women’s life. Nowadays, many Chinese girls and their family still believe in the sayings such as “career success can never match a good marriage”, and “a good husband can save you from 20 years of hard work”. Excessive focus on appearance and longing for romantic love are prevalent among my peers. However, maybe because of my grandmother, I have despised points like these since I was a child.

My grandmother is an intelligent and sensible woman, but the patriarchal tradition forced her to drop out of school to give the opportunity for education to her brother, and married early. Grandpa’s bad temper and male chauvinism made her marriage life fairly depressing. I always believe that grandma’s misfortune is due to the wicked gender inequality. She could not have access to schooling, and hence had no ability and opportunity to choose her life freely and save herself from the position of a dependent.

Girls in the 21st century have equal rights and access to education and are not restricted by the old custom. Why would a girl with freedom to live her own independent life want to rest her happiness on someone else? As far as I was concerned (before I went to Berkeley), this is equivalent to trading independence for economic support.

In the class of Sociology of Gender, I learned theories about gender equality. It broadened my knowledge about gender, and reinforced my belief in personal independence. However, the course also changed my prejudice. I learnt that being a career-driven woman or a housewife is just a choice of life, and there is no superior choice or an inferior one. Hence every choice should be respected. However, one of the most valuable things that this course taught me is that every woman deserves the freedom to choose. Every woman should know the abundant choices and possibilities they have for their own life, rather than being misguided by others’ opinions. For this reason, I decide to keep studying gender issues, expose more inequalities and inappropriate stereotypes in life, and do whatever I can to help improve gender equality.