Chinese students surround Midshipman 1st Class Alex Eagan during his trip to a local school while attending a university in Beijing. Two midshipmen spent the spring semester studying Chinese language and culture as part of a U.S.-sponsored study abroad program. Photo courtesy of the USNA International Programs Office

Midshipmen 1st Class Alex Eagan and Brian Yaptinchay lived and traveled in China for five months, studying the language and culture of the Chinese people.

‘‘The opportunity to spend a semester at an institution in Beijing is an overwhelming prospect for anyone,” said Eagan. ‘‘We were excited and eager to master a foreign language.”

CET Academic Programs rents classrooms, dormitories and other facilities from Chinese universities and uses them to house students and teach its curriculum with its own teachers and staff. The midshipmen’s semester was divided into two parts: an intense, one-month term that focused on speaking only Chinese, and the regular three-month semester that included further study of the Chinese language and various aspects of Chinese culture, society, history and economics.

The initial one-month term, called the Janterm, began immediately upon their arrival near the beginning of January. The mids were required to take a language pledge, promising to speak only Chinese for the duration of the term.

‘‘The language pledge, though helpful in that it forced us to practice Chinese, quickly exposed how little we actually knew about Chinese and how much work we would need to put in,” said Yaptinchay.

The Janterm consisted of a kind of ‘‘trial by fire” method of studying the Chinese language. Students were put through rigorous situations – such as interviews with people in local parks, talking to maintenance workers, and daily oral presentations of information researched the night before – designed to quickly expose them to conversational Chinese.

‘‘The first few weeks trudged excruciatingly slowly, with little time to explore the bustling area around our campus; we were lucky to get out for a few hours during the weekends, and during the week, we hardly had time to get a bite of dinner,” said Eagan.

This intense schedule was mostly self-imposed. To keep up with their classmates who had studied significantly more Chinese than they had, they had to work harder.

The mids did manage to get away from school though. In the first month they visited many historical sites in the city, including ruins of the city wall, ancient guard towers and temples. They ice skated with thousands of Chinese residents on Beijing’s huge Houhai Lake, attended a performance at a traditional teahouse and climbed on the Great Wall.

They found that the language pledge could be frustrating.

‘‘There many lonely times where we felt that we could never really express our feelings or opinions and many frustrating times when we couldn’t clearly express our ideas because of this imposed language barrier,” said Yaptinchay.

However, by the final test at the end of the one-month term, the realized just how much they had improved.

‘‘In the weeks afterward, as we traveled throughout China with our new language skills, we came to be very thankful for the way we had been driven by our teachers and the support our classmates gave,” said Yaptinchay.

Once they completed the Janterm, the mids had time to travel throughout the country and explore. They traveled by train to the southwestern province of Yunnan, stopping first in the province’s capital city Kunming, called the Spring City because its location near Dianchi Lake kept area temperatures in the mid-70s year round.

After seeing the temples and hiking the Western Hills in Kunming, the mids took a sleeper bus to Lijiang, which, with its well-preserved traditional city center, was like stepping back in time, said Eagan.

Before returning to Beijing to start the academic semester, they hiked at the Tiger Leaping Gorge, a canyon running along the Yangtze River.

The return trip to Beijing brought home the realization of how much they had already learned.

The Beijing Airport wasn’t foreign anymore and the were comfortable finding their way around. When they got into a taxi to return to the university, they had no trouble talking to the cab driver. They stopped by the local grocery to buy snack and at a restaurant they had gone to many times for dinner. Returning to Beijing felt like coming home, said Eagan.

The academic semester was less intense than Janterm. The mids could speak English with classmates, and the work load was more manageable. They had time to further explore Beijing and a few weekends free for more travel.

Eagan and Yaptinchay tested their bargaining skills at the Silk Street and Hongqiao Pearl markets, sampled the Chinese bar scene surrounding Houhai Lake and the night life in the Sanlitun District, and attended a Chinese Music Festival.

When they had time to travel outside the city, they went to Shanghai to see the World Trade Expo and to Qingdao to see the world-famous beer factory and beaches.

On returning to the U.S. after five months, they mids thought that they would never miss the noise, chaos, traffic and frustrations that they encountered while in China, but they’ve found themselves reminded of many things that they loved.

Remembering the late-night pool games with Chinese friends in dungeon-like pool halls, team-building and meeting new friends at the local internet cafÈ, the friendly, ever-present street food vendors, and the early-morning walks through the parks, filled with retired citizens dancing, singing, performing Tai Chi, walking, talking, and enjoying each other’s company, the mids realize they miss the Chinese people.

‘‘As we worked our way into the culture, making friends and acquaintances, we developed a deep respect and affection for Chinese culture and the people around us,” said Yaptinchay. ‘‘Their hospitality, kindness, dedication and tolerance continued to amaze and impress us.”