Last March I called my father to apologize and to speak the dreaded words, "Dad, you were right and I was wrong."
Back in August of 1979, when I was trying to decide which language to study to satisfy the foreign-language requirement of my undergraduate college, my father, a lawyer with almost two decades' experience representing apparel companies, tried to persuade me to study Mandarin Chinese. With the bravado that only a teenager can muster, I told him his suggestion was idiotic because I would never use Mandarin after graduation.
By the time you read this, I will be in Beijing with my four children (Paul, 14; Edward, 11; Michael, 7; and Irene, 5), beginning a 10-month appointment as a Fulbright Scholar at the Beijing Institute of Technology. How I wish I had studied Mandarin.
My journey from Fulbright Fantasizer to Fulbright Scholar began in 1989 when, for the first time, I attended the annual conference of the American Economic Association. At the book exhibit, I stumbled upon the booth of the Council for the International Exchange of Scholars, which manages the Fulbright Scholars program for the U.S. State Department. I picked up the catalog listing both the countries and the different fields in which awards were made, imagining myself teaching in a variety of foreign universities.
Every year from 1990 to 2004, I picked up the catalog to dream about teaching abroad, but the timing never seemed right. In the early years, developing a tenurable dossier didn't seem (in my case) to be compatible with being a Fulbright Scholar. By the time I was tenured, I was also married, and dual-career hurdles emerged. I didn't want to leave my husband to go abroad; and in his profession (nurse anesthetist), it was impossible for him to be licensed to practice abroad.
My life turned upside down in March of 2004 when my husband died unexpectedly, leaving me a single mother of four. To fully describe the difficulties I faced in the year following his death would require a book-length manuscript. Suffice it to say it was a year of infinite adjustments -- for me and my children. Fortunately, I had solid safety nets in the form of a tenured job and a supportive group of friends and colleagues.
By March 2005, I felt I was on top of the learning curve for managing both work and single parenthood. When time becomes an exceedingly scarce resource, it doesn't take a Ph.D. to figure out how to economize. Paper plates, prepared foods, parceling out chores to my children, and outsourcing jobs like housekeeping and lawn care added hours to my days. For a woman with a relatively high income, the job security of tenure, and a strong support network, single motherhood doesn't have to be a nightmare.
However, by that spring, I realized it was time for me to rethink what I wanted to do with my life. I didn't have a dual-career issue anymore and almost immediately my dream of becoming a Fulbright Scholar seemed like a viable option. Upon examining the Fulbright catalog (available online), I found numerous opportunities for macroeconomists.
I needed to make several decisions. First, what kind of award should I apply for? One that focuses on research? Research and lecturing? Or just lecturing? My primary reason for going abroad is to engage with a different culture and with the people of that culture, so I chose a lecturing award thinking that it would provide more opportunities for me to interact with people in my host country. Also, as a professor at a small liberal-arts college, I knew that my comparative advantage in landing a Fulbright lay in a teaching award.
A second decision, easy to make, was whether to apply for a one- or two-semester award. Because I am seeking cultural immersion, a two-semester award seemed like the better choice. Additionally, I decided that if I was going to do all the work of schlepping my kids to a foreign country, we might as well stay there for a while.
The third decision involved picking a country to visit. That decision was easy, too. I wanted to have my Fulbright experience in a place that would enhance my abilities to teach macroeconomics and international economics at my institition, Hampden-Sydney College. I also wanted a country where my children's experiences would enhance their future academic and job opportunities. Those goals led me to choose China.
I spent three weeks in July 2005 preparing my application. While the council's Web site provides all the information you need to apply, I decided to contact the program officer for China, David Adams. That proved invaluable. His insights on Chinese culture in general and Chinese academic culture in particular, provided me with a much better understanding of what I was likely to encounter in China and helped me prepare a stronger application. I submitted all of my application materials via the Internet and then waited.
Midway through the fall 2005 semester, the council informed me that I had survived the first round of cuts and that my application would be forwarded to China's Ministry of Education, where the final selections would be made. Then last spring came the news that I had been selected and that my assignment would be at the Beijing Institute of Technology.
Since then, getting ready to go became almost a full-time job. Mao Zedong said that a "journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." My to-do list has at times seemed 1,000 miles long but it's been good preparation as I am certain that strong logistical skills are essential for Fulbright scholars. Although people at the council, the State Department, and the U.S. Embassy in Beijing have all bent over backwards to be helpful, there is much you have to do yourself.
For me the hardest task was picking a school for my children. I have been fortunate that Beijing, as the capital of a country where many foreigners are working, has lots of international schools. But checking out all of those schools and making a final decision consumed a lot of time. The Internet dramatically eased my search process, and I ultimately chose the International School of Collaborative Learning for its small classes and bilingual teaching (English and Mandarin).
I didn't study Mandarin when I had the chance, but my children will.
I finally began my own study of Mandarin in May, using books to learn the written characters and Pimsleur Language Program tapes to learn the spoken language. I was surprised one night when my son Michael wanted to practice writing Chinese characters with me. In the same night that I learned two new characters, he learned 14. I have found that my study of Hebrew in my childhood has been helpful in learning how to write Chinese characters. The pen strokes required to write Chinese characters have a familiar feel.
Spoken Mandarin is more difficult than any of the foreign languages I have studied. While the grammar seems easier, due to the tonality of the language, the same syllable repeated in different tones can have vastly different meanings. For example, when you say "mai" with a rising tone, it means to bury something in the ground. But when you say "mai" with a falling, then rising tone, it means "to buy." And when you say the same syllable with a falling tone, it means "to sell." As an economist, I am pleased that in Mandarin, supply always equals demand (mai equals mai).
My contacts with faculty and staff members at the Beijing Institute of Technology have been outstanding: Liu Ling (in the management and economics school) and Liu Yanhong (the "foreign experts" liaison). So far, it's been like having a team of academic concierges.
We will be living in a faculty apartment on the campus, so I haven't had to look for housing or worry about my commute. To my surprise and delight, because I have an unusually large family, the institute is providing me with two apartments, a unit with one bedroom and an adjacent one with two bedrooms. I haven't figured out who will be living in which apartment, but I did purchase a baby monitor so I could keep tabs on what the kids in the second apartment are up to.
My course schedule is also excellent: "Money and Banking" on Thursday nights for executive M.B.A. students and "International Economics" on Fridays for undergraduates. That will give me lots of time for my "second job" while I am in Beijing -- learning Mandarin and immersing myself in Chinese culture. Reports on my experiences to follow.
