USC junior heads to China for language program
To know another language is like having a second soul. That’s a paraphrased quote from King Charlemagne headlining a post on Anthony Abinanti’s travel blog, “Xiamen Showdown,” as the 17-year-old Upper St. Clair student leaves for the namesake city in China on June 29. Abinanti will spend a little over a month and a half in the country learning a third language. He studied abroad in Spain in 2013.
“I’ve been studying Spanish since I was in elementary school, and I started Chinese two years ago,” he said.
After a 36-page application, five essays and an interview, Abinanti beat out 620 other competitors for a language scholarship through the U.S. Department of State’s National Security Language Initiative for Youth program. Though he said he has an interest in linguistics and international affairs, the high school junior is presently seeking a career path in business over one in diplomacy and foreign affairs.
“China is such an important country to the world and the United States. And if you understand the language, you get a whole new connection to the people and their understanding of their own place in the world,” he said.
Romantic disposition aside, it’s far from a vacation trip.
“Immersion language acquisition allows you to learn things through your daily actions instead of trying to apply examples in a classroom,” he said, “but it’s exhausting, because your brain in constantly translating. It’s tiresome.”
Abinanti, saying he regretted not keeping a daily journal while he was in Spain, plans to let the world know exactly how tired or thrilled he is day-to-day through his blog, https://xiamenshowdown.wordpress.com. He said he’s fortunate to have a dad who travels – also to China – and to have met a professor in Spain, Angela Rodriguez, for sparking his interest in language.
“Language is a big thing that’s sacred to the world. Each race or culture has their own identity. All people are people, but language is what separates people from each other. To know one more element of a type of people helps us understand each other and ourselves.”