October 16^th, 2010         Saturday            Fine

It is a special day for me today. I took the HSK exam(HSK——han yu shui ping kaoshi ——chinese text for students learn chinese as a second language) advanced. I got up early to prepare to go to Beijing Language University to take the exam. It felt come the moment I stepted out of my dorm—it is late autum. But it was as warm as sparing in Beijing. But the fine weather which is totally different from that in Tianjin made me feel that I was welcomed by Beijing. Unconcously, I got a feeling that everything should be a surprise for me.

The train took me to Beijing. South Train Station After my arrival, I transferred to subway and got off at Wudaokou staion. It was 7:30—relatively long before the beginning of the exam. Thus I paced to the exam place, listening to the music. There were already a lot of peoplw waiting for the exam to start then I got there. Some were talking while they others were reading their notebooks. I felt I could not waste mt time either. So I decided to open my notebook. But I saw an oldclasmate when I just opened the book which I closed later. Then we started to talk to make ourselves feel less presured.

I took a deep breath after I sat on my seat a moment before the exam started. The questions were not too difficult. I finished all the questions one by one with a smile because I did not feel any pressure. It was like when I did the modle exams at home. We had a ten minutes break after the first part of the exam. Dduring the break I noticed that people there had various expressions. Some looked very low and some were radiant with hapioeness. I recalled all the efforts I made before. In this way, I did the writing and oral test without much difficulty.

Then the exam ended, I was totally prssure-free. It was like I just put down a heavy burden. I met a schoolmate who is studying as a MA in Qinghua University on my way home. I intended to show off that I did very well in the exam but what was beyound my consideration was that he beated me by saying this: It is nothing at all.if I attened this exam, I would be able to pass level 11 without any efforts. I did not feel good for his words, thinking that he should not have said that  to me who is four years younger than him. But I got his text message on the train back to Tianjin. It said:” It will not surprise me if you pass level 11 of HSK. You deserv this honor. I am proud that you are my younger schoolmate. Wish you can make a big progress. Take care on the way and rest well when after you arrived.”I was deeply moved by his words—what a good elder brother.

After my arrival, I tidied my room. It had been in a mass after a long time of not being cleaned. Now, I am sitting in front of my desk, writing my journal. Ah! No matter good or bad the result is, I will not regret or feel pitty because I have tried all I can. There was an old saying: “Try your best and wait for God’s decision.” Now all I can do is to wait for what God says in the end. I have never been so hard-working before. I firmly believe that I definetly can win Level 11.  Iwant to say something to myself in the end: “具本儒(Chianese name:Ju Ben-ru/Korean name:Ku Bon-yu),you really worked hard and now you deserve a good rest. Now, go to bed and relex. Your life of studying aborad is still going on. Hope you can go on persuiting best from good! ” I felt I was a bit wordy so I went to bed.

日记一篇

2010年10月16日 星期六 晴 （韩国）具本儒

今天是特别的日子，就是有“高等汉语水平考试”的日子。我一大早就起来准备去北京语言大学考试。我一出门就感到深秋的寒气，但到北京恰恰相反，北京像欢迎我来考试似的，天气跟春天一样暖和。所以我不知不觉的有了吉祥的预感。

到了北京南站，匆匆地坐地铁到了五道口。那时七点半左右，离考试时间还有很长时间。于是我听着音乐，慢慢地走向考场。到考场一看，已经有很多人等着考场开放。有的人跟朋友唧唧喳喳地聊天儿，有的人看自己以前学习时的笔记。我也觉得不能浪费这段时间，在打开了一本以前的笔记的刹那我遇到了上个学期的同班同学酒井理步。我就合上了本子跟她聊到进入考场的时间，以减轻对考试的紧张。

我找到我的座位坐下，做了几次深呼吸，过了一会儿考试开始了。考试不太难，感觉和在家里做模拟考试问题时一样，所以我带着微笑一个一个地回答问题。前一部分的考试结束以后十分钟的休息时间我看到了人们各种各样的表情，有的人垂头丧气、有的人满面春风，我在悲喜交集的场合里回想我以前的努力，越想越有自信，所以后一段的写作和口语考试也轻轻松松成功地考完了。

整个考试结束，我的心如释重负，开心得很。回家的路上我顺便跟在清华读研究生的学长见了面，我心里想向他炫耀自己，但反而被他打击。他说：“小小的HSK考试应当取得11级，如果我考，用脚趾头也能得到11级”。我当时心情很不好，心想对比自己小四岁的学弟怎么这么说话。可是我在回天津的火车上收到了学长发来的短信：“对你来说取得11级不足为奇，是应该的。我作为一个学长为有你这样的学弟而骄傲，希望你更上一层楼。，考试辛苦了，路上小心，快回去休息。”好个学长，这样鼓励我，我深深地感动了。

回家以后，收拾了好久没整理而乱七八糟的屋子，现在坐在桌子前写着今天的日记，啊！无论结果好还是不好，我尽力了，没有丝毫的遗憾。古话说“尽人力而听天命”，我只能等待这个“天命”下来。我从来没有这么认真地学习过，相信一定能得到我梦想的11级。最后我想对自己说几句话，：“具本儒，辛苦你了。快睡觉去，你的留学生活还没结束，希望你精益求精！”知道啦，知道啦，少罗嗦，我睡觉去了。

My name is Geoffrey Hoffmann, from Indiana in the USA.

I was born in Stuttgart, Germany, since my dad was an American diplomat. When I was two years old, we moved to Baghdad, Iraq, then three years old moved to the USA. All of my studies were done in the state of Indiana (from Kindergarten to Master’s degree).

Interestingly, I never had an interest in China when I was growing up. Ever since I was young, I was a basketball fan, and dreamed of one day playing in the NBA. It wasn’t until my junior year of college that I started to become interested in China.

This was a bit of a tough time for me personally; I couldn’t find a major that I really liked-an ideal career choice. Because I’m a Christian, I prayed to God that he would help me and give me guidance on what to do.

That spring, a great opportunity came my way: a chance to study in Hong Kong for one semester. I had never been to Asia before, so I was a bit nervous.  With thanks to God, I soon found that I loved life in Hong Kong, and most importantly it changed my life.

After I graduated from college, I came to Tianjin to teach English. This experience not only strengthened my interest in Education, but also in my love for China.

After these two years I returned to America to pursue my master’s degree (my goal was to find a stable job). However, after only a few months, I began to miss China again. So, after graduation, I decided to go back to China to work at an international school in Qingdao.

When I arrived at the school, I found that my office was next to the Pre-Kindergarten classroom; I also discovered that there was a very pretty, lively, and friendly teacher there. Every morning we would greet each other and smile.

To make a long story short, that young woman is now my wife and my private Chinese tutor.

At that time, although we both had rather comfortable, stable jobs, I still didn’t feel very content. Since it was an international school, there weren’t many Chinese students; also I had a strong desire to have a career which was more directly related to China. I started to read on the internet about a new trend in American schools: studying Chinese.

After discussing and praying about this with my wife, I decided to go back to the states and get a Chinese teaching certification.

After this semester, I will graduate from Indiana University. I’m now applying for jobs, and hope I can achieve my goal: become a Chinese teacher. I hope to help students understand China better, be interested in China, and love China.

Even if I become a Chinese teacher in the future, I will still continue to study Chinese. Even though I’m already in the Advanced Level 2 class, I still feel that I have just started to study the language. I hope my Chinese can get better, and gradually more rich and fluent. In this way, this will help me to give students more help.

Teacher evaluation:

The content is concrete, is substantial, the sentence is smooth, says very much to own life course clearly, as soon as believes you to be able to become an outstanding Chinese teacher surely.

我的小传

（美国）霍智杰, 2010年春   南开大学

我叫霍智杰，美国印第安纳州人。

因为我爸爸以前是美国的外交官，所以我是在德国的斯图加特出生的。我两岁的时候搬家到伊拉克的巴格达，三岁的时候我们一家才回到美国。我从幼儿园到研究生都是在印第安纳州上的。

有意思的是，我小的时候对中国没有什么兴趣。我从小就是一个篮球迷，我的梦想就是有一天能够当一个NBA的球员。一直到大学三年级的时候我才开始对中国感到一点兴趣。那个时候我碰到一些困难：我找不到一个自己喜欢的专业――一个理想的职业选择。因为我是一个基督徒，所以我祷告神能够帮助我，给我一些引领。

那年春天，我得到了一个特别的机会：去香港学习一个学期。因为我从来没有去过亚洲，所以我有一点紧张。感谢神，我在香港的生活很开心，最主要的是我的人生观也有了很大的转变。

我大学毕业以后来天津教英文，那两年的生活不仅让我对教育工作更加感兴趣，而且也让我对中国的感情越来越深。两年以后，我又回到美国上研究生（教学的技术），为的是以后可以找到一个比较稳定的工作。可是我回到美国仅仅几个月的时间就又开始想念中国了。所以，我毕业以后又再一次回到中国，在青岛的一个国际学校工作。

我到了那所学校以后，发现我的办公室是在幼儿园的教室旁，我还发现幼儿园的教室里有一位美丽、活泼、亲切的老师。我们每天早上互相打招呼、微笑……长话短说，那位姑娘现在已经是我的妻子和我的私人中文老师了。

那个时候，虽然我们都有比较舒适、稳定的工作，可我还是觉得不太满意。因为那是一个国际学校，所以中国人很少；而我的愿望是多做一些和中国有关的工作。那个时候，我在网上看到美国的学校有一个新的发展趋势：学习汉语。

我跟老婆一起祷告，商量以后，决定再回国拿一个中文教师证。

这个学期以后，我会在印第安纳的大学毕业。我现在申请工作，希望我会达到我的目的：当一名中文老师。我希望能够帮助学生更了解中国、对中国感兴趣、热爱中国。

即使我将来当了一名中文老师，我还要继续而学习汉语。虽然我已经在高级二班上学，可是我感觉只是开始学习中文。我希望我的中文能够越来越好、越来越丰富。这样，我觉得可以使我给学生更多的帮助。

老师评语：

内容具体、充实，语句通顺，对自己的生活历程讲得很清楚，相信你一定能成为一个优秀的中文教师。