This is the story of the 590th real person we have told
My name is Zhuo Bingyue, I am a Thai girl, after 90 years, married to China for two years already.
I grew up as a top student, and I was accepted to nine universities in Thailand at the same time during my entrance exams. But I chose to study in China. I thought it would be easy for me to learn Chinese since I was already proficient in three foreign languages, but I didn't realize how difficult it was until I started learning. I even wanted to quit, but I persevered.
After graduating from college, I joined a Sino-Thai travel company. From chief secretary, translator to chief assistant, I grew up in my work and gained love. Now, my husband and I started our own business together, and China has long become my second home. I like who I am now, and I look forward to a better me in the future.
I am a Thai girl born in 1993 and my hometown is in Bothram, Thailand. There is an offshore bay there, where the sea and the river meet, which is the sea and not the sea, and the scenery is very unique.
There are many beautiful scenes in my hometown, and the most beautiful scene I remember is the herd of buffalo at the bay.
They will roam in shallow water and will dive to the bottom of shallow water to eat water plants. The sunset, the reflection of the buffalo relaxing in the water, that image is particularly beautiful and attracts many tourists to take pictures there.
But tourists do not know that those buffaloes are privately raised, and I guess even the owner of the buffaloes did not think before that he had inadvertently created an attraction.
I am the eldest in the family, there is a younger brother than me five years younger. Mom and Dad opened a small store, the family also has an orchard, the economic conditions are considered to be more than the top, than the bottom.
Mom and Dad are usually busy with business and don't have time to take care of the kids, my brother and I grew up with our grandmother and aunt.
When I was a child, I did not like sports and was a chubby little girl. Most of the time, I stayed at home, reading and taking care of my brother.
Every morning, I help my brother pack for school and brush his hair. When we had breakfast, we took my brother to school with us. When something happened to my brother at school, he used to ask me for help too.
Our sibling relationship is very good, and I have gradually learned to be independent in the process. Grandma often smiled and praised me for knowing how to behave. She also used to say, "Girls must study more, study more to have a future."
She often encouraged me by saying, "Your mother is a bachelor's degree student, you can't be worse than your mother." It was just that as a young girl, I did not understand what studying had to do with a way out.
But for children, parents are the biggest and best role models. I wanted to look up to my mother, and this became my biggest motivation to study. Interest is the best teacher, I don't like to go out, the biggest entertainment every day is to read books.
At that time, my mother was very busy at work, but she would still try to find time to help me with my homework in the evening, listen to foreign broadcasts with me to learn some simple foreign languages, and tell me many interesting stories. This ignited my passion for learning languages, and I got the best grades in all subjects.
In my eyes, it is especially interesting that every time I learn a foreign language, I open the door to another cultural world.
Maybe I have a few talents in reading, or maybe it's thanks to my mother's guidance. Since I started school, my grades have been good, almost every test is in the top three of the grade, which makes me feel confident inside.
But I didn't expect to see a small waterloo in my academic career in my senior year.
At that time, the German Embassy in Thailand hosted an all-Thai German language contest, where the first place winner would receive a German study grant sponsored by the Embassy.
In that competition, each school could nominate two students to participate, and with thousands of participants from all over Thailand, the competition was fierce.
I went to the competition with the intention of winning, but unfortunately I did not play as well as I would have liked, and I ended up in second place, losing the opportunity to study in Germany at public expense. I always thought I was a top student, but what happened? The moment I learned the result, I was a bit depressed.
In 2011, I graduated from high school and was accepted to nine colleges, and each year I was able to apply for scholarships for college.
I finally chose Hua Hin University. At that time, I also wanted to continue learning a foreign language. My mom said, "China is developing very well now, and learning Chinese will be good for employment and useful in the future."
It just so happens that Hua Hin University has an exchange student program with universities in Wuzhou and Nanning, China. In total, Hua Hin University has 15 places to study in China.
Because of my good English, I was one of the first students selected to study international economics and trade at a university in Wuzhou, China. I thought it would be good to learn Chinese together, so I was excited to leave.
When I first arrived in China, I couldn't even count from 1 to 10, and at that time I could only speak two words in Chinese, "What's my name?" and "How much is this thing?" I had no way to attend classes, so I had to take a month or two of Chinese lessons.
I had never studied Chinese before this, but I had already studied English, German and Korean one after another, so I thought it would not be difficult to learn another Chinese language.
But I realized how difficult it is to learn Chinese. In other foreign languages, learning the 26 letters of the alphabet and the phonetic symbols is only half of the success.
But Chinese, after learning Pinyin, there are still polyphonic characters; after learning a word, we find that the same word can have completely different meanings because of the different tones; even two words with one meaning can have many different meanings.
Anyway, the tones, polysyllabic words, polysyllabic words, quantifiers ...... which all make me dizzy.
When I was a freshman, class was like listening to a book from heaven, I couldn't understand a single word. I was always a top student, but now I am a poor student, and the psychological gap is very difficult for me.
I couldn't communicate with my classmates in class because of the language barrier, and I couldn't see my family, so I was very homesick and cried quietly in my dorm room when I was most upset.
There was a time when I even regretted choosing to study in China, and at one point I was discouraged, thinking that choosing a new language would be better than learning Chinese.
Soon after, a very small thing happened that changed my decision.
One time in PE class, students from other classes wanted to talk to me and first asked me which major I was, and I didn't know how to say it in Chinese, so my face turned red and naturally I couldn't chat anymore.
When my Thai friend found out, he was surprised and said, "You can't answer such a simple question?"
The surprised look in my friend's eyes made me wish there was a crack in front of me for me to burrow into. Besides, I am a very stubborn person at heart, I will insist on doing what I want to do, and I will not give up halfway after making a choice.
I finally gave up the idea of going back to Thailand or changing my major, determined to gnaw on the hard bone of Chinese and not to lose face of the Thai people.
Subsequently, I put all my energy into my studies. Other people go to college and fall in love and join various clubs, I put most of my energy into my studies.
If I didn't understand the class during the day, I went to ask my classmates in my major for advice at night and asked them how to write their assignments. I really want to thank my Chinese friends who were always patient with me and gave me all kinds of help.
I also carry a small notebook with me, filled with the vocabulary I have learned, and I always take it out to review it. I also had notes all over my bed in the dormitory, so I could see them when I looked up. I learned one word at a time to increase my vocabulary.
By the second year, I was able to keep up with the classes and communicate with my classmates in Chinese, and only then did I slowly feel the joy of Chinese.
Gradually, I fell in love with Chinese language, Chinese food, and this charming country. And then, Chinese became an inseparable part of my life.
In 2015, I graduated from university, returned to Thailand, started looking for a job and received several offers one after another.
Finally, I chose a foreign-related travel company. This company's tour program is related to China and Thailand, and I was happy to think that I could go to China more often.
When I first arrived at the company, I was doing operations work. Not long after, I was transferred to the big boss's office and became the chairman's secretary.
Going to China's attractions to talk about cooperation, going to promotion meetings to introduce Thailand's attractions, and giving meetings to people in branch offices ...... The big boss has a very busy schedule.
I have to arrange my boss's schedule, and I am also the person in charge of part of the business, and I also have to act as the translator accompanying my boss, so I can say that I am quite busy. During the peak travel season, there were no holidays for three or four months in a row, so it was still very hard.
Hard work is hard work, but there are also many interesting things about being a translator.
Our boss is a particularly exaggerated people, such as the boss like to say what fate ah, God arranged ah and other words, at that time still do not know how to say these words in Chinese, the translation is very headache.
Every time I go to China, I wish the Chinese branch would arrange for a better translator. But the boss is not willing to let others translate for him, so I just have to keep doing it with hard hair.
Once, when I was doing on-site translation for the big boss, I needed to translate a sales amount. China uses Arabic numerals, even if it is 100,000 million is very good to express, but there are no Arabic numerals in Thai.
I would have to switch back and forth between RMB and Thai Baht. When my brain couldn't do the math, I used a calculator.
I had to translate one sentence after another before the numbers were clear, and I had to translate one sentence after another without lagging. That kind of tension and pressure is really hard to understand if you are not a peer.
In order to avoid mistakes, I often record the translation and listen to it again when I go back, and if I have any doubts, I will confirm with the other party. My hard work has not been in vain, and my ability has been improved through the day-to-day trivial work.
Once upon a time, I was just a good student who studied hard. A few years later, I learned to negotiate, to operate, and to work with different types of people.
In 2018, I was promoted to General Assistant, officially in charge of the China business in Shanghai and Nanning, almost based in China. This also indirectly contributed to my relationship with Mr. Future.
He is the assistant general manager of the China branch, and has been a colleague for several years, only that his work did not intersect much in the past, and he is nothing special to me.
After being stationed in China, I realized that he was a very gentle and caring person because I had to deal with him a lot at work.
After more contact, I realized that we are both Pisces people born in February and have many similar preferences, and we get along very well.
Once, we went to Shanghai together on business, walking in the streets of Shanghai, drizzle. I was wearing less clothes and subconsciously hugged my arms, he immediately put his jacket draped over me.
A burst of warmth came from my body, and at that moment I was moved.
After I found out he was single, I said to him half-temptingly, half-jokingly, "Do you want me to help you find a Thai girlfriend?" He laughed, but didn't say anything. For a moment, I was a little apprehensive, is this a yes or no?
Four months later, our relationship had gone beyond that of ordinary colleagues, but we never broke through that barrier. One normal night, I went back to Thailand on business.
In the evening and his video call, the video end of him suddenly said, "Bing Yue, you want to be my girlfriend?"
I froze for a moment, and soon, like a flower blooming in my heart, I responded, almost impatiently, "I do."
I have to say that the pace of our relationship was fast. Not long after the establishment of the relationship is the National Day, he had to go back home to the north for the holidays, so he took me straight back to meet his future in-laws.
Before I went, I was worried that I would be rejected because I was a foreigner. But they all treated me with special warmth, and I felt like I was back home.
My father-in-law is also very good to my mother-in-law, will help with household chores, respect her opinions, and occasionally buy her some small gifts. It was like I saw my future with my boyfriend, beautiful and down-to-earth. In those few days, I made up my mind to spend my life with him.
I've had a few relationships in Thailand before, and each one took a long time before I settled on a relationship.
My Thai sister asked me, "Why did you decide so quickly this time?"
I said, "Now I understand that how far two people can go is not determined by time, but by the people themselves. The person is not right, talk for a long time will be divided. If you choose the right person, there is no need to keep dragging, to fall in love, as long as you recognize it, it's good to be cool."
In 2020, my boyfriend decided to start his own business.
I think in the company to continue to stay also can not learn new things, want to change the environment, so simply from the company to leave, and boyfriend to start a business together. Doing trade, customs clearance, logistics, brand operations and so on. My previous study of international trade also came in handy.
To be honest, starting your own business is much more tiring than working part-time, you have to worry about everything and keep an eye on everything. Especially in the start-up period, there are no conditions to recruit too many people, so many things have to be done personally, very tired, but especially fulfilling.
In 2021, the company was basically on the right track. My boyfriend and I also got married with a license and became a real Thai daughter-in-law settled in China.
Unknowingly, China has become my second hometown. I love Chinese food, I love Chinese scenery, and I love Chinese culture. But as a Thai, there are things in life that I don't quite understand.
For example, whenever I am not feeling well, my husband and mother-in-law always tell me to drink more hot water. Eat food is also, melon eat too much will fire, meat eat too much will fire, even some fruit eat too much are on fire, a fire husband told me to drink more water.
What is the fire? Can drinking water solve it? I really do not quite understand.
What else can not take a cold shower, saying that cold water is not good for the body, but I was in Thailand when the cold shower.
You can't take a bath during New Year's Eve either. What's the relationship between New Year's Eve and bathing? There are so many Chinese customs that I don't understand, but I'm slowly adapting to them as I follow the customs and seek common ground.
In the past two years, in addition to the company's regular business, I am also experimenting with live streaming and e-commerce. Every time I help my friends' products open up sales through live streaming, I have a special sense of accomplishment.
In June this year, I was also invited to participate in the China-ASEAN Youth Anchor Creation Camp to tell my story and China's story. Right now, I am still in the registration and preliminary selection stage, standing on the stage with some apprehension, some nervousness, and more pride.
Looking back on my life, everything seems to be going pretty well, nothing special. If there is, maybe it's the word "perseverance". Whether it was learning Chinese at the beginning, working as a translator later, or starting my own business now, I have all encountered difficulties, but I have persevered every time.
The so-called years of quiet, in fact, after paying a lot of effort the result. I like myself now, and I look forward to a better me in the future.
[Dictation: Zhuo Bing Yue]
[Editor：Avril
We can't walk through different lives, but here we can feel the real stories of others, and, each story has real photos! If you like real stories like this, please follow us! @RealPeopleInterviews
