Today I wrote my first proper article in Chinese! It’s very short and very simple, but it still made me very happy when I finished it! Here it is (after a few corrections from my teacher…)
上节课，我们看了一个电视节目了，名字叫《汉语桥：我与中国第一次亲密接触》。几个在北京学习的外国学生去一个中国的农村，试一试在农村生活。他们先要买菜，可是他们只有两百元钱。他们先坐船，再坐公交车去商场。他得在商场找最便宜的菜。他们回家的时候，船卡住了，所以他们回家回得非常晚，没有时间吃饭！次日，他们开始工作。他们都应该养鱼。一个学生给鱼做饭，一个给鱼吃饭，一个补网，一个给人做饭！他们都非常喜欢这样的生活。我觉得有点儿奇怪，因为他们都是年轻人，都是外国人。我觉得很多外国年轻人最喜欢的生活是在城市生活，不是在农村生活。但是，他们都决定从他们国家来中国学习汉语，他们都非常喜欢中国的生活。他们中有几个学生跟农村的年轻人聊天，问他们喜欢不喜欢农村的生活。他们都说，要去城市生活。外国学生不明白。我觉得，如果这些外国学生住在那儿很长时间的话，他们就明白了为什么佷多人宁可在城市生活。这样的生活太难了，每天做一样的工作。城市有别的机会，可是机会可能很难找到。
Translation:
Last class we watched a TV program called “Chinese Bridge: My first close encounter with China.” Some foreign students who study in Beijing went out to a rural area in China to experience living a rural life. First they had to buy food, but only had 200元 to spend. They had to take a boat and then a bus to get to the market. Once at the market, they had to find the cheapest ingredients. On their way home the boat got stuck, and they got home so late that they didn’t have time to eat the food! The next day, they started work. They were all working on a fish farm. One student made food for the fish, one fed the fish, one fixed nets, one made food for the people! They all really liked this kind of lifestyle. I found this quite strange, since they were all young people and all foreigners. I think many young foreigners’ favourite type of lifestyle would be city life, not rural life. However, these young people had all made a choice to leave their home country and come to China to study Chinese, they must all really like life in China. Some of the students spoke with the local young people, asking them whether they liked the rural lifestyle or not. They all said that they wanted to go and live in a city. The foreign students didn’t understand this. I think that if these students had to live in this area for a long time, then they would understand why so many people want to go and live in the cities. This kind of life is very tough, every day doing the same work. The cities give other opportunities, although, these opportunities can be hard to find.