各位同学一定要重视自己的申请文书。下面就是李佳峰老师的一篇申请小essay的文章，给各位同学参考。

 

　　Describe an experience of cultural difference, positive or negative, you have had or observed. What did you learn  from it?

 

　　Growing up in Inner Mongolia of China, I was somewhat confused about my nationality. I felt I was just like boundary between my father who is Mongolian and my mother who is Han Chinese, and I just wondered I was more Chinese or more Mongolian. I never doubt that I was Chinese, at least because of the national flag of China in my school yard and the world map in my geographic book. According to the word “Mongolia”, however, I believed that I should have relationship with the people of Outer Mongolia who are obviously not Chinese.

 

　　For a long time my father’s parents remained mysterious to me, when I was a child. Throughout my childhood, my life was typical Chinese style, as my family lived in the city of Baotou, in which most of people are Han Chinese, and the part of the Mongolian people there already assimilate to Chinese culture. For me, visits to my fathers’ parents were like trips to a gallery or museum—experiences I did not have at home, because my grandparents, who lived in an isolated village where were near the Outer Mongolia, fundamentally had a strong Mongolian people lives. Frightened by sheep’s head on the dinner table, I felt uncomfortable and uneasy when I was in my grandparents’ home. When I first time drank the milk tea, I do spent time on considering the method to separate the drink into milk and tea which I was familiar with. I would cry bitterly when I knew the coming visit to my grandparents, even though I knew they substantially like me.

 

　　That was ten years ago. Now I am passionately involved with thinking critically about my grandparents’ culture. I feel the culture absence in my life and become interesting in their culture. I believe I should connect myself to both Chinese culture and Mongolian culture, and I should merger the fragments into a whole which enable to construct my fully identity. If now there is someone asking about my nationality, I will tell him I am Chinese, and more specifically, Mongolian Chinese.