He felt confident about his Chinese when taking courses at the UW tothe point where he even admired his own talent for language. However，Eric experienced a rude awakening once he got to Beijing， and discoveredthat he could neither make himself understood nor understandothers. “Too depressing，” said Eric with an exaggerated expression ashe recalled the experience.
That wasn’t the only thing that had him depressed. “I only realizedthat I forgot to bring a coffee grinder when I arrived in Beijing. Iam used to freshly brewed coffee and can’t go back to the instant stuff.
OK， forget it then. But it wasn’t until I started getting daily poundingheadaches that I realized I was addicted to caffeine. However， askingmy family to send a coffee grinder all the way from the States wasn’
t the most practical of solutions. I was later told though that one couldget a coffee grinder in Beijing. I rushed out immediately to get one.
When I got to the store I found that not only did the store have a coffeegrinder but all the name brands were there too. In reality， anythingyou could want， you can find in Beijing.” With the ability to make hisown coffee again， the headaches disappeared.
However the language problem proved to be a bit more challengingto solve than the coffee one. It’s a good thing that Eric is not onlysmart but a hard worker as well. With the favorable language learningenvironment， Eric made huge strides in his Chinese. His progress reallyskyrocketed when he met his schoolmate Ma Dongxiao from theEnglish Department of CUN.
It is probably a short cut in foreign language learning： to have asentimental sweet transnational marriage with a native of the foreignlanguage that one is studying. In the process of emotional exchange，the dating lovers would surely improve their linguistic skills by teachingeach other their mother tongues. Unlike many other foreign studentswho speak fluent Chinese but are afraid of reading and writing，our fellow-student Tao boasts all-round excellence in listening， speaking，reading and writing. This should be attributed to mutual study andprogress with his fellow-student Ma.
At CUN， around 80-90 percent of the student body is composedof Chinese minority nationalities. Ma is a member of the Muslim Huinationality whose customs differ from the Han — the ethnic Chinesemajority. However， when it comes to language， there is no differenceat all between the Han and the Hui. Consequently， Ma provided Ericwith a perfect linguistic environment. With the aid of his fellow studentat CUN， Eric made daily progress in their dual world.
Foreign Son-in-Law of a Chinese FamilySpeaking honestly， Eric’s oral Chinese was still lacking by the timehe graduated from CUN. This was partly due to the fact that the “dualworld” that he shared with Ma simply hadn’t existed long enough. Hisspeaking ability was still not quite up to par when he paid his first visitto Ma’s family in Changchun， Jilin Province. Ma’s parents， artists bytrade， were people of traditional Chinese culture. The arrival of theirdaughter’s international date took them a bit by surprise. The father，in particular， was having trouble with the idea. In private， the fatherscolded the daughter for her decision. “There are so many nice youngChinese guys out there. How on earth did you end up with a foreigner?
He can’t even speak Chinese well. The next time that Eric would meet Ma’s family was after he hadlived in Beijing for quite some time. His speaking ability was no longeran issue. He had also become familiar with the Chinese way of lifeand thinking. Because of his knowledge of the Chinese culture， peoplelooked at him differently. The would-be father–in-law began to warmup to him as well.
During this trip to Changchun， they had to stay longer thanplanned as they were confined to Ma’s home because of the SARSsituation. This unexpected layover surprisingly resulted in great leapsof progress in both Chinese and love. It also resulted in the parentsfinally approving of the relationship. As a result， the mention of theSARS incident conjures up nothing bad or horrible for Eric. Instead， aslight feeling of sweetness and pride comes to him as he described themoment saying， “This is truly what you call ‘turn bane into boon’，” hesaid in a meaningful way.
After having spent four of his five years in China dating MaDongxiao， the couple ended their long distance love race in the sacredbonds of holy matrimony. They set up their love nest in a rented tworoomapartment. Eric works at home as a free-lancer while Ma worksat a radio station. They still communicate in both English and Chinese.
The newlyweds don’t have high materialistic expectations but valuethe quality of their cultural life. All their friends wish that the two canlive forever in their honeymoon.
As his wife is Muslim， Eric gave up eating pork when he begandating her. “Giving up pork is out of respect for the customs of mywife’s people. I do it for the sake of love — not out of religious reasons.
With so many other foods on earth， it’s not a big deal. Besides， ithelps avoid high cholesterol. Both of them enjoy dabbling in the kitchen with their “ok” cookingskills. So it’s no surprise that cuisine cultures from the East and theWest are frequently intermingled in their little world. Their day jobskeep them busy and so they often have dinner with each other outsideas well as at home. When eating out， they make an appointment tomeet at a particular restaurant and leave directly from their respectiveoffices. They enjoy eating out this way as it gives them a sense of occasion，meeting each other like secret lovers.