（来源：China Daily 2024-01-01）
Felipe Mora competes in a highline challenge in Taizhou, Zhejiang province. [Photo provided to China Daily]
For Costa Ricans in Central America, UIBE scholar Felipe Mora's compatriots, China may not be the first-choice destination for higher education, given their motherland's proximity to the fabled United States, but Mora would not settle for anything else. He even disregarded his father's advice and decided he would pursue his master's as well in China.
Mora believes it's always better to choose a path less trodden. He prefers to be off the beaten tracks.
Since he grew up and received early education in both Costa Rica and the US, he is fluent in both Spanish and English. Now, he is determined to master Chinese as well, even as he pursues excellence in both academic areas and pastimes like travel and slacklining (more about that in a bit).
Unlike most of his peers, Mora, now 25, gave up the opportunity to finish his higher education in the US in 2018. Instead, he decided to come to China for further studies.
"Going to the US for college is a good option, but learning a third language will give me more value as a person. And for me, China means more than the language itself, because when you study the language, you study the culture as well," he said.
Mora further said he developed an interest in China through movies when he was a kid. Yet, he couldn't even say "Hello" in Chinese when he landed in China. He mispronounced "xiexie" ("thank you" in Mandarin) as "qieqie" at a restaurant.
"I remember how people were laughing at that time. Then I promised myself that no matter how long it will take to learn this language, I'm going to speak it as fluently as a native Chinese does. That has been my goal ever since."
Soon, language was no longer an obstacle for Mora. A quick learner and hardworking student, he finished the precollege language courses in 2019. He is now in the fourth year of a bachelor's degree in international trade at the University of International Business and Economics or UIBE in Beijing.
Mora said he has been particularly fascinated with the ancient Chinese architecture. Layers of bricks impeccably laid on top of each other always catch his attention.
He holds places like the Temple of Heaven and the Summer Palace close to his heart. "They take me back in time and make me imagine how they used to be," he said.
He recalled that China has not been a popular destination for education among his compatriots given the geographical distance. The Pacific Ocean separates the two land masses. Some of them, he said, think China is so far away they may never visit it even once in their lifetime.
"They envy me for having the courage to choose to study and live in a country that is so unfamiliar and they are very curious about China," he said.
"They ask me so many questions. How are the people? Are the girls beautiful? When I show them pictures, they think that's amazing and they get really interested in China."
But the going has not always been smooth. On occasion, he said he found himself dispelling some myths, wrong beliefs and ill-conceived notions about China.
"Imagine you never tried chocolate. Then you'll not know whether it's delicious or not even when other people tell you what chocolate tastes like. A lot of people who have never traveled to China just hear secondhand information about the country, but it's wrong most of the time," he said.
Many young people in Western countries lack in-depth understanding of the richness of Chinese culture and history. They simply see the country as an economic powerhouse, which is a bit of an overgeneralization, even reductionist, he said.
On the other hand, many of the older generation still think China is an underdeveloped country; they don't seem to realize how the country has dramatically developed over the past 30 years. That's because "people like our grandparents never had the chance to interact with many foreigners their whole life".
Mora went on: "But now in my lifetime, I've seen people from Africa, I know people from Europe and I interact with Chinese. This changes me and it changes them as well. Living in a time of globalization, I think it's very important to learn about each other. That's the main reason why I came to China."
Mora is enthusiastic about traveling around China. He has been to quite a few Chinese cities, including Shanghai, Hangzhou in Zhejiang province, Harbin in Heilongjiang province, as well as Hong Kong and Macao.
Just three months after he came to Beijing, he had started to go out with friends and picked up enough confidence to flag down a cab in Mandarin. In 2019, he went to Tai'an in Shandong province and climbed for more than four hours to the top of Tai Mountain to savor the sight of a spectacular sunset.
Now Mora is planning to explore more places across the country with his hobby of slacklining, an outdoor activity of balancing on a webbing between two fixed points high in the air. At first sight, people may confuse it with tightrope walking.
He fell in love with the activity during COVID-19 and the longest distance that he has walked so far was 1 kilometer by walking back and forth on a 500-meter-long line.
In October, Mora went to Taizhou, Zhejiang province, with his new Chinese friends who also engage in this niche activity, to attend a global highline challenge that attracted nearly 100 professional slackliners from different countries.
Mora said he loves Chinese people for their warmth. At his slacklining performances in China, "they always cheer me saying 'Jiayou' ('Come on' in Chinese) and want to take pictures afterward. It's cool and I love it."
He is acutely observant. "China and Costa Rica share a lot of similarities, such as the enthusiasm of people, but language and distance separate us a little bit. Once we overcome these obstacles, we will find that we are more similar than what we think."
Mora has applied for master's programs in several Chinese universities to continue his business school education. He wants to focus on trade, especially e-commerce.
"I've always liked business and I think the world needs more bridges and fewer walls," he said, adding he will probably set up a startup to champion cooperation between China and Latin America once he completes his education.
Mora said his father wanted him to pursue a master's in a different country. "I want to focus on China. It's a very magical place and I'm happy here."
中文翻译稿：
快乐的哥斯达黎加人发现中国“很神奇”
对于中美洲的哥斯达黎加人，对外经济贸易大学的学生Felipe Mora（中文名“吉利”）是他们的同胞，中国可能不是他们攻读高等教育的首选目的地，考虑到他们祖国与传说中的美国的地理接近性。但吉利不愿意安于现状。他甚至不顾父亲的建议，决定在中国攻读硕士学位。
吉利认为选择不走寻常路总是更好的。他喜欢偏离常规的道路。由于他在哥斯达黎加和美国接受早期教育长大，他能够流利地运用西班牙语和英语。如今，他下定决心要在学业和旅行、走钢丝等业余爱好上都追求卓越（稍后会详细介绍）的同时，也要掌握中文。与大多数同龄人不同，现年25岁的吉利在2018年放弃了在美国完成高等教育的机会。相反，他决定来中国深造。“去美国上大学是个不错的选择，但学习第三门语言将使我作为一个人更有价值。对我来说，中国不仅意味着语言本身，因为当你学习语言时，你也在学习文化，”他说。
吉利进一步表示，他在孩提时代就通过电影对中国产生了兴趣。然而，他来到中国时，甚至连中文里的“你好”都不会说。他在一家餐厅里将“谢谢”错发为“切切”。“我记得那时人们都在笑。然后我对自己说，无论需要多长时间学习这门语言，我都要说得和中国本地人一样流利。从那时起，这一直是我的目标。”很快，语言对吉利来说不再是障碍。作为一个学习能力强、勤奋努力的学生，他在2019年完成了大学预科语言课程。如今，他正在对外经济贸易大学攻读国际贸易本科的第四年。
吉利表示，他对古老的中国建筑特别着迷。精湛地堆叠在一起的一层层砖瓦总是引起他的注意。他将天坛和颐和园等地视为心头之宝。“它们让我回到过去，让我想象它们过去是什么样子，”他说。
他回忆说，中国在地理上的距离使他的同胞中的大多数人不太愿意选择这里作为教育目的地。太平洋隔开了这两片陆地。他们中的一些人认为中国太远，可能一辈子都不会去一次。“他们羡慕我有勇气选择在一个对他们来说如此陌生的国家学习和生活，他们对中国充满好奇，”他说。“他们问我很多问题。人们怎么样？女孩们漂亮吗？当我给他们看照片时，他们觉得很惊奇，对中国产生了浓厚的兴趣。”
但前进的道路并不总是一帆风顺。有时，他说他发现自己在澄清有关中国的一些谣言、错误看法和不切实际的观念。“想象一下你从未尝试过巧克力。然后你就不会知道巧克力是否美味，即使其他人告诉你巧克力的味道。很多从未去过中国的人只是听到有关这个国家的二手信息，但这通常是错误的，”他说。许多西方国家的年轻人缺乏对中国文化和历史丰富性的深刻了解。他们简单地将这个国家视为一个经济强国，这有点过于概括，甚至是简化，他说。另一方面，许多老一辈人仍然认为中国是一个欠发达的国家；他们似乎没有意识到过去30年里中国已经取得了巨大的发展。“像我们祖辈一样的人一生中从未有机会与许多外国人交往，”他说。
吉利继续说：“但是在我有生之年，我见过来自非洲的人，我认识来自欧洲的人，我与中国人互动。这改变了我，也改变了他们。生活在全球化时代，我认为了解彼此非常重要。这是我来到中国的主要原因。”
吉利热衷于在中国各地旅行。他已经去过不少中国城市，包括上海、浙江省杭州、黑龙江省哈尔滨，以及香港和澳门。他来北京仅三个月后就开始和朋友一起外出，足够自信用普通话拦下出租车。2019年，他去了山东省泰安市，攀登了四个多小时，登上泰山巅峰，欣赏到壮观的日落景色。
现在，吉利正计划用他的走钢丝爱好在全国更多地方探险。走钢丝是一种在空中两个固定点之间保持平衡的户外活动。乍一看，人们可能会将其与走钢丝混淆。他在新冠疫情期间爱上了这项活动，到目前为止，他走的最长距离是在500米长的绳子上来回走了1公里。今年10月，吉利与在这一小众活动中也积极参与的中国新朋友一起前往浙江省台州市，参加了一场吸引了近百名来自不同国家的职业走钢丝者的全球高空挑战。吉利说，他热爱中国人的热情。在他在中国进行走钢丝表演时，“他们总是为我加油，之后还一起拍照。这很酷，我喜欢。”
他观察敏锐。“中国和哥斯达黎加有很多相似之处，比如人们的热情，但语言和距离使我们有点隔阂。一旦我们克服了这些障碍，我们会发现我们比我们想象的更相似。”
吉利已经申请了几所中国大学的硕士项目，继续他的商学教育。他想专注于贸易，特别是电子商务。“我一直喜欢商业，我认为这个世界需要更多的桥梁，而不是墙壁，”他说，还表示一旦完成学业，他可能会创办一家初创公司，促进中国和拉丁美洲之间的合作。吉利说他的父亲希望他在其他国家攻读硕士学位。“我想专注于中国。这是一个非常神奇的地方，我在这里很开心。”
附：原文链接：
https://enapp.chinadaily.com.cn/a/202401/01/AP6592018aa310f2b58091ebf5.html
