在浙江的另一個“飛躍”

方碩

“我本來是來授課的，但是我的學生卻教會了我更多東西?！边@句話聽起來似乎有些老套，但越是老生常談，就越有真理包含其中。就我而言，在中國生活了20多年，我得到的遠不止這些：在我任職英文老師期間，浙江不僅教給我很多東西，更是給了我一個嶄新的生活。

2000年9月我抵達上海虹橋機場（那時候上海就只有這么一個國際機場）時，發現它看起來更像是一個擁擠的汽車站。三位中國新同事早已等候在“到達”口：我即將去教授英語課程的學校的校長，名叫“五”先生（當然，這是開玩笑的叫法，他其實叫“武”先生），學校的一位英語老師，還有司機。那位老師一下子看到了我，笑容滿面地跟我打招呼。我非常不好意思地打斷她：“對不起，我不會講中文?！彼氐溃骸翱墒俏艺f的是英文??！”情況看起來似乎跟我預想的稍微有些不同。

多年來，我一直在墨西哥練習中國武術、學習中國歷史，但是只有當你實際踏上這片土地，你才會意識到你之前所學的那些東西有多么不正確——在墨西哥，我的技能和知識受到大家的尊重，而在這里，它們大多派不上用場，甚至有些可笑?？磥砦乙ê荛L很長時間來重新學習了。

而學習正是我到中國后所“從事”的主要“工作”之一。在浙江東陽中天國際中學任教期間，我教初高中的學生學習英語，跟他們一起爬山，嘗試包出“正常”的餃子，去KTV高唱劉德華的《中國人》，合著“小兔子乖乖”的節拍一起蹦蹦跳跳……到了夜里，我伏案研讀中文，不斷讓自己融入中國文化中。正是在東陽，我結識了很多朋友，跟他們建立了最深厚的友誼，直到現在還常常聯系。

之后我“轉戰”杭州，繼續一邊教英語一邊學習。在杭州，我愛上了西湖和有關它的眾多傳奇故事，愛上了蘇東坡的詩和東坡肉，更愛上了中國驚人的變化發展速度。我也開始為當地一個翻譯公司做校對工作，結識了浙江大學的留學生團體。在與他們的往來中，我發現來浙江學習的墨西哥學生少得可憐，所以2003年回墨西哥探親的時候，我聯系了我的母校蒙特雷科技大學，并說服他們往浙江輸送墨西哥的人才。不久后，母校在中國的第一個辦事處正式成立，而母校的學生們也有機會來浙江交換六個月。

但是，半年的交換項目所能起到的效果還不夠顯著。這些年來，浙江給予我最重要的財富之一是讓我變成了一個墨西哥的“中國通”，這也使得我能夠有機會接觸到兩國政府一些相關部門的負責人，并向他們提出想法和建議。因此，2005年時，我向墨西哥政府提出了這樣一個建議：將墨西哥的畢業生派駐到中國至少兩年，這樣他們才有機會成為新一代的“中國通”！

這個點子確實奏效了：從2005年至2011年，共有來自墨西哥20個州的250名畢業生來到浙江學習。而他們中的許多人在學習結束后繼續致力于加強中墨關系：就職于政府部門、商業企業，有些甚至創辦了自己的公司，包括在杭州開辦第一家墨西哥餐廳。自那時起，我也繼續努力游說兩國的相關人士進行合作：2018年，我的母校蒙特雷科技大學與杭州市政府共同創建了“墨西哥中國中心”，旨在推進兩國在科學技術等項目上的合作，兩國科學家已經在其中一些領域，如教育技術、微電子和醫療工具等展開了實質性的合作。

一路走來，在中國、在浙江的這些年是一段既充實又讓人愉快的旅程，而這段路程最重要的部分毫無疑問就是遇到了我的妻子Lisa以及2012年我的“小龍女”Alicia降生，讓我成為世界上最幸福、最自豪的丈夫和父親。

對Alicia來說，中國和墨西哥之間沒有國界，漢語和西班牙語之間沒有界限，包子和墨西哥卷餅沒有區別……兩種文化和思維方式可以很自然地融合到一個新生命里，并形成一種全新的、更豐富的看待世界的方式。人類的這種和諧統一難道不是真正重要的、將不同文化背景的人聯系在一起的寶貴財富嗎？

2000年時，我的計劃是在中國停留六個月。但一晃21年過去了，我仍然在中國，我也感覺自己從來沒有這樣幸福過。

（作者系墨西哥的工程師、作家）

All That Zhejiang Has Given Me

By Alfonso Araujo

It may sound cliché to say that “I came here to teach， but then my students became my teachers.” Well， clichés have truth to them， and in my case， having lived in China for over 20 years， it certainly goes well beyond that： Zhejiang not only taught me more than I taught during my time as an English teacher： Zhejiang gave me a whole new life.

I arrived in Hongqiao Airport in September 2000， back when that was the only international hub in the city and looked more like a crowded bus station. Three people awaited me at the Arrivals gate： the principal of the school where I was bound， Mr. Five （of course， his name was Wu）， one of the English teachers at the school， and the driver. The teacher spotted me and greeted me， speaking briskly and smiling broadly. I interrupted and said， “Im sorry， I dont speak any Chinese.” She answered， “but Im speaking English！”

I realized I had got more than I bargained for.

For years I had practiced martial arts and studied Chinese history in Mexico， but it is not until you actually arrive to a place， that you realize how much you had gotten wrong. In Mexico my skills and my knowledge were well respected， here they were laughable. I was in for one long， long time of learning.

But learning I did. During the time I was a teacher at Zhongtian High School in Dongyang I pored over basic language books at night， while during the daytime I taught middle and high school kids， went out with them to climb the mountains， patiently tried to make decent dumplings， practiced Liu Dehuas （Andy Lau） song “中國人” for karaoke night， and jumped around with the Rabbit Song. In Dongyang I made some of the best and most enduring friendships in China， whom I still keep in contact with to this day.

Then I moved to Hangzhou， where I kept teaching and learning， and where I fell in love with the West Lake and its dozens of legends， with Su Dongpos poems and pork， and with the amazing pace of change in China in general. I started working as a proofreader for a translations agency and became acquainted with Zhejiang Universitys wonderfully cosmopolitan community of foreign students.

It was there that I realized how very few Mexicans were studying here， so during a trip to my hometown， I got in touch with my alma mater to convince them to send students here： it was 2003. I helped them open their first office in China and in 2005 I thought， all these kids are coming for six months and going back home， we need more than that！

One of the most important things Zhejiang gave me， was becoming a “China hand” and， there being so few of us at the time， I could actually get in touch with government people in both countries to pitch ideas. In 2005 I convinced the Mexico government to do a more ambitious thing： send graduate professionals for a whole two years， so that they can become the new China experts！

It worked. From 2005 to 2011， over 250 Mexicans from 20 states came to Zhejiang to study， and since that time， many of them have went on to work in China-Mexico relations： in government， private enterprises and even creating their own companies， including the first true Mexican restaurant in Hangzhou. From then， I went on to keep convincing people on both sides to do more and more cooperation： starting in 2018， my university， TEC de Monterrey， together with the government of Hangzhou， created the Mexico-China Center. This time， the aim is to push binational cooperation in science and technology projects， of which several have already started working. Scientists and inventors from both sides have already started doing wonderful joint work in things like education technology， microelectronics， and medical devices.

This has been a wonderful， incredibly fulfilling journey but， without question， the greatest thing that Zhejiang has given me has been meeting Lisa， my wife and becoming the happiest， proudest father in the world in the year 2012： my little dragon girl， Alicia， is the treasure of my life and the light of my eyes.

She knows no bounds between China and Mexico， between Chinese and Spanish languages， between baozi and tacos： for her， our two cultures and ways of thinking can merge easily into one life， into one new， richer way of looking at the world. Isnt this unity of mankind what is truly important， what binds us together and how we can become true bridges between one another？

My plan in 2000 was coming to China for six months. I didnt expect to find a completely new life， but twenty years on， I cant be happier that I did.

I love you， Alicia.

Mr. Alfonso Araujo is a Mexican engineer， writer and internationalist living in China since 2000. He has worked in bi-national collaboration since 2003， in the fields of education， culture exchange， and science and technology. He founded the Asia-Pacific Center for TEC de Monterrey in 2003， and was a founding member of the China-Mexico Center of Mexicos National University in 2007. Mr. Alfonso Araujo is currently the Director of the IHUB Innovation Center in Hangzhou， a platform for joint science and culture cooperation. He has translated and published several Chinese classics into Spanish， including Caigentan （菜根譚）， Book of Rites （禮記），Zuos Commentary on Spring and Autumn Annals （左傳） and Thousand Character Classic（千字文）.