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Hello everyone. My name is Orr Carmel. My first name, Orr, means light in Hebrew. so I chose a Chinese name which has the same meaning: 光明- guangming. Originally I'm from a kibbutz in north Israel, not so far from the Sea of Galilee, called Kadarim. I spent the last 3 years in the north, living in the town of Kiryat Shemone , and studying at Tel Hai College. My B.A is in East Asian studies and economics. I decided to study Chinese because I was very curious about China, and I think its economic growth has made China very important to all the countries around the world. Before I started to study I travelled for eight months in East Asia in six different countries (India, Nepal, Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, and Thailand).
So East Asia studies, was a natural choice when I came back to Israel. After two years of studying, during my summer vacation, I went to China in order to improve my Chinese to travel. I studied together with some classmates from Israel, at Sichuan Normal University in Chengdu. After six weeks of study, I travelled for two more weeks in Sichuan and Yunnan provinces. That was a really good experience! I had to talk with the locals and it starts to feel more natural to communicate in Chinese. After studying in Tel Hai, I found that the history and culture of East Asia is even more interesting thaen I thought. So I decided to take part at the Asian Sphere Program which seems very serious, prestigious and interesting. I'm sure that I want to be part of such a special, unique and unusual group of students from all over the world who wants to study more about Asia.
