Q&A: MHS grad will study in Beijing
Teen will study abroad for one year, after being chosen for scholarship
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Recent Marietta High School graduate Nora Torbett is taking a year before heading to college near Seattle, Wash. but she won't be spending that time on the couch playing video games.
Torbett will leave Aug. 28 for China, where she'll spend nine months as part of a Chinese language program, living and studying at a high school in Beijing.
She's one of 600 competitively selected students in the U.S. chosen this year to receive a scholarship to study Arabic, Chinese, Hindi, Korean, Persian and Russian overseas. The scholarship is from the U.S. State Department's Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs.
Question: How did you decide you wanted to spend a year in China? What was the process like?
Answer: I had been to China for a summer program almost three years ago. I had been determined to figure out a way to go on an exchange and at the time, I was studying Chinese at Marietta High School. When I was doing research online, I stumbled upon NSLI-Y (National Security Language Institute). The state department….provides scholarships for people to study what they call critical languages abroad. So I went a couple years ago for the summer and found out they provided a year-long scholarship so I applied in 2016. I'll be in Beijing for nine months.
Q: Does the scholarship pay for everything you need?
A: It even pays for my flight and I get a stipend of $200 a month for expenses.
Q: What will your living arrangements be while you're there?
A: I'll be living at a high school. It's a fairly large high school with over a few thousand students. It's really common for Chinese students to stay in dorms because they take school so seriously. So during the week I'll be staying in the dorm with a roommate and on the weekends I'll be with a host family.
Q: Have you gotten to talk to the host family yet?
A: Not yet. They have someone who organizes that and they like to meet the students and match them so I won't have a host family for the first month and a half or two months.
Q: What will you be studying while you're at the school?
A: The school is set up with basically a separate school specializing in international students. I'm just going to be taking Chinese classes, in language and culture.
Q: Is learning Chinese something you think will factor into your long-term career plans?
A: I think no matter what I do I'll be able to use Chinese in my career. After my exchange year, I'll be going to the University of Puget Sound outside Seattle, Wash., which has a very large Asian population. I don't know exactly what I want to do yet but I think maybe something related to international law.
Q: How many years of Chinese did you take at Marietta High School?
A: Three years and then the last year I took it at Marietta College.
Q: Do you feel fairly comfortable speaking the language now?
A: Unfortunately, not really. My level of learning has been all over the place. Over the four years, I've had multiple teachers and after the exchange I was very advanced compared to other students but there wasn't a higher level to take here. It's been very up and down but after this year, I'm hoping I'll be pretty fluent.
Q: What was that summer experience like?
A: It was an amazing experience. The best part was meeting the other Americans who also got scholarships because I made some really amazing friends. Two of them will also be going to Beijing when I'm there.
I always felt really welcomed in the country. People would be excited to learn I was there studying Chinese.
Q: What are some of the biggest differences in culture you observed?
A: There are some really huge differences. In the U.S. the Christian religion is really dominant in society but I don't think I met anyone who was Christian there. I think I'll really notice that this year when I'll be there during Christmas. As a Westerner, I was always going to stand out, especially with blonde hair, so that was a little different.
I think I made a lot of connections with people. I still keep in touch with my host family.
One of the other big differences was the food. I loved the food.
Q: What drew you to want to study Chinese initially?
A: It kind of has a long history with me. I remember when I was in elementary school my mom had a friend teaching at Marietta College and she would tutor us in Chinese for fun. That started my interest. My brother also took a year of Chinese in high school and really liked it.
Q: Since you're going away for such a long time, is there anything you're worried about or think you'll be homesick for?
A: I think I'm going to be most homesick about leaving my dog. He's a cocker spaniel/poodle mix.
I think I'll definitely have some ups and downs. We've hosted an exchange student from China and the hardest thing is the holidays. What we celebrate here and there are completely different. Just like there's no Chinese New Year here, there wouldn't be Thanksgiving in China.
Kate York conducted this interview.
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About Nora Torbett
¯ Age: 18.
¯ Residence: Marietta.
¯ Education: 2017 Marietta High School graduate.
¯ Family: Parents Jill and David; Brother Thomas, 20.
Source: Nora Torbett.