在浙江的另一个“飞跃”

方硕

“我本来是来授课的，但是我的学生却教会了我更多东西。”这句话听起来似乎有些老套，但越是老生常谈，就越有真理包含其中。就我而言，在中国生活了20多年，我得到的远不止这些：在我任职英文老师期间，浙江不仅教给我很多东西，更是给了我一个崭新的生活。

2000年9月我抵达上海虹桥机场（那时候上海就只有这么一个国际机场）时，发现它看起来更像是一个拥挤的汽车站。三位中国新同事早已等候在“到达”口：我即将去教授英语课程的学校的校长，名叫“五”先生（当然，这是开玩笑的叫法，他其实叫“武”先生），学校的一位英语老师，还有司机。那位老师一下子看到了我，笑容满面地跟我打招呼。我非常不好意思地打断她：“对不起，我不会讲中文。”她回道：“可是我说的是英文啊！”情况看起来似乎跟我预想的稍微有些不同。

多年来，我一直在墨西哥练习中国武术、学习中国历史，但是只有当你实际踏上这片土地，你才会意识到你之前所学的那些东西有多么不正确——在墨西哥，我的技能和知识受到大家的尊重，而在这里，它们大多派不上用场，甚至有些可笑。看来我要花很长很长时间来重新学习了。

而学习正是我到中国后所“从事”的主要“工作”之一。在浙江东阳中天国际中学任教期间，我教初高中的学生学习英语，跟他们一起爬山，尝试包出“正常”的饺子，去KTV高唱刘德华的《中国人》，合着“小兔子乖乖”的节拍一起蹦蹦跳跳……到了夜里，我伏案研读中文，不断让自己融入中国文化中。正是在东阳，我结识了很多朋友，跟他们建立了最深厚的友谊，直到现在还常常联系。

之后我“转战”杭州，继续一边教英语一边学习。在杭州，我爱上了西湖和有关它的众多传奇故事，爱上了苏东坡的诗和东坡肉，更爱上了中国惊人的变化发展速度。我也开始为当地一个翻译公司做校对工作，结识了浙江大学的留学生团体。在与他们的往来中，我发现来浙江学习的墨西哥学生少得可怜，所以2003年回墨西哥探亲的时候，我联系了我的母校蒙特雷科技大学，并说服他们往浙江输送墨西哥的人才。不久后，母校在中國的第一个办事处正式成立，而母校的学生们也有机会来浙江交换六个月。

但是，半年的交换项目所能起到的效果还不够显著。这些年来，浙江给予我最重要的财富之一是让我变成了一个墨西哥的“中国通”，这也使得我能够有机会接触到两国政府一些相关部门的负责人，并向他们提出想法和建议。因此，2005年时，我向墨西哥政府提出了这样一个建议：将墨西哥的毕业生派驻到中国至少两年，这样他们才有机会成为新一代的“中国通”！

这个点子确实奏效了：从2005年至2011年，共有来自墨西哥20个州的250名毕业生来到浙江学习。而他们中的许多人在学习结束后继续致力于加强中墨关系：就职于政府部门、商业企业，有些甚至创办了自己的公司，包括在杭州开办第一家墨西哥餐厅。自那时起，我也继续努力游说两国的相关人士进行合作：2018年，我的母校蒙特雷科技大学与杭州市政府共同创建了“墨西哥中国中心”，旨在推进两国在科学技术等项目上的合作，两国科学家已经在其中一些领域，如教育技术、微电子和医疗工具等展开了实质性的合作。

一路走来，在中国、在浙江的这些年是一段既充实又让人愉快的旅程，而这段路程最重要的部分毫无疑问就是遇到了我的妻子Lisa以及2012年我的“小龙女”Alicia降生，让我成为世界上最幸福、最自豪的丈夫和父亲。

对Alicia来说，中国和墨西哥之间没有国界，汉语和西班牙语之间没有界限，包子和墨西哥卷饼没有区别……两种文化和思维方式可以很自然地融合到一个新生命里，并形成一种全新的、更丰富的看待世界的方式。人类的这种和谐统一难道不是真正重要的、将不同文化背景的人联系在一起的宝贵财富吗？

2000年时，我的计划是在中国停留六个月。但一晃21年过去了，我仍然在中国，我也感觉自己从来没有这样幸福过。

（作者系墨西哥的工程师、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 （礼记），Zuos Commentary on Spring and Autumn Annals （左传） and Thousand Character Classic（千字文）.