Jeremy Kitchen cooks up lost Chinese knowledge

Kitchen’s exploration of the Chinese language started in high school, as most of his friends spoke Chinese at home. As such, many of his recreational activities and the pop culture he was immersed in were heavily influenced by Chinese culture and language. 

“We used to go to Karaoke a lot, so I got interested in learning the language,” Kitchen said.

In college, Kitchen took Chinese classes for three years and spent a lot of time with friend groups who spoke Chinese. This motivated him to become fluent in the complicated language as a vessel to connect with those around him. 

“Since I had learned Japanese, I really liked seeing the similarities and differences between Japanese and Chinese,” Kitchen said. 

Kitchen took a Chinese 4 vocabulary test. The test was written in fill-in-the-blank style, for which the taker chooses the correct Chinese characters from a word bank and places them into the proper sentence. Although the test was difficult because of the advanced vocabulary involved, Kitchen found it to be fun. In general, his experience mimicked those of other teachers involved in this project: a nostalgic return to high school days and the trauma of test-taking.

“I’d rate my experience an 8/10,” Kitchen said. “It was fun taking the test and it helps that I don’t really need to worry about what grade I get on it. I also thought the format was interesting.”

Although Kitchen no longer takes Chinese classes, he still sometimes watches Chinese dramas and gets plenty of listening practice being at Lynbrook.