My unimaginable story with China and Chinese

My name is Maximiliano Benatti, I am from Argentina and I have been studying Chinese since 2009. Learning Chinese has been changing my life since then, the first time was in 2014 when I came to China for the first time with a Confucius Institute Scholarship to study Chinese at the University of Jilin. In that unforgettable semester, I not only made a lot of friends from China and all over the world but also went to many famous places. I gradually fell in love with the Chinese scenery, Chinese culture, and especially the kind and friendly Chinese people.

Because good things are better shared, after returning to Argentina I've started to share my experience and the joy of learning Chinese, but I realized I needed to be professional because the richness and variety of the Chinese language and culture demand it and deserves it. To fulfill my objective, I came back to China in 2017 to study for a Master in teaching Chinese to speakers of other languages with a scholarship from the Confucius Institute, and of course, I chose to study at Jilin University again, my beloved alma mater. In the two years of the master's, the joy of learning Chinese became the joy of spreading the Chinese language and culture. I have the opportunity to explore China like a local, and to understand the Chinese language and culture by participating in related activities and competitions, and I also discovered my passion for researching Chinese in depth when writing my thesis.

After my graduation, and with the support and encouragement of my teacher and tutor, who is helping and guiding me since 2014, I've decided to continue researching the Chinese language in-depth, and after a lot of work, I have been admitted to the China Studies Program of the Center for Language Education and Cooperation to pursue a doctoral degree in Linguistics and Applied Linguistics in Jilin University. Since then, I have been studying with top professors not only in my field but also in related fields, and the CLEC continuously gives us opportunities to grow as professionals. I have also started a bilingual blog called "马西学汉语" to share interesting facts of both Chinese language and culture, to tell the readers a firsthand experience of living and studying in China.

In the last five years, I have been fortunate to get to know closely the Chinese people and their ethical and moral values that have been influenced and shaped by so many great characters in China's long history. Over two thousand years ago, Confucius changed Chinese society with the "Five Constants" proposed by Confucianism: benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and fidelity. Although there are only five simple characters, each one of them contains a profound meaning that it's still alive in modern China, for example, in the core socialist values promoted by President Xi Jinping for each citizen: "Prosperity, democracy, civility, harmony, freedom, equality, justice, the rule of law, patriotism, dedication, integrity and friendliness". These values were put into evidence during the hard period that we are currently living in the fight against COVID-19: the dedication of medical staff fighting tirelessly to treat patients or the people of the food delivery service who despite the risk did not stop working; the integrity shown by the merchants who did not take advantage of the situation to increase prices or by the students who, despite not being able to go to the classroom, but didn't stop studying using the internet; the friendship of the neighbors who shared their masks with those who couldn't buy, and the huge donations made by all the people, all this done with the deepest patriotism of all the people of China. For all this, and much more, is why, for me, the greatest treasure of China is its people.

What about me and China five years from now? After travel these beautiful lands and discover the treasure of its people, I hope to finish my studies and start working to build bridges between China and Occident, so that everyone can know how this beautiful country is, the country I chose as my new home, for a lot more of five years, I hope.

My name is Maximiliano Benatti, I am from Argentina and I have been studying Chinese since 2009. Now I'm pursuing a doctoral degree in Linguistics and Applied Linguistics in Jilin University.

The opinions expressed here are those of the writer and do not necessarily represent the views of China Daily and China Daily website.