Alabama Student Covers The Olympics in Three Languages

I love to hear stories about people who have accomplished amazing things, and I love to read about experiences that I wish I could have but probably never will!

That's why getting to know University of Alabama student Lu Zheng just a little bit has been so interesting.

She's a Beijing, China native and third year doctoral student in mass communication at Alabama.

Talk about the job of a lifetime!
Right now she's in Beijing working as a trilingual reporter for Village Life, the official daily publication circulated inside the Olympic Village.

Zheng writes her stories in English, French and Chinese.

She earned her bachelor's degree in western languages and literature from Beijing University. Then she came to America, where she earned two master's degrees, one in French studies from Rice University and one in advertising and public relations from UA.

According to Alabama's Media Relations Department, Zheng worked as a news reporter at Xinhua News Agency from 2000 to 2001 and for Ruder Finn, a New York-based PR firm in Beijing last summer.

Check out her blog at: http://uanews.ua.edu/blogs/olympics/blog081108.html. She's got great stories and fabulous pictures!

I tried to interview Zheng via phone, but technical difficulties and time zone constraints proved to be too much! So this is my email interview with her:

Jen: What is your daily routine like in China?

Lu Zheng: I wake up at 6 a.m. and begin to think about that day’s schedule in bed. I then grab something quick for breakfast. If I have interviews in the morning, I will take a taxi cab to the Olympic Village directly. If not, I’ll stay at home to write stories. We have a daily meeting at 11a.m. sharp at the editorial office inside the Village, so I need to show up at the meeting if I don’t have interviews at that time.

I’m in charge of reporting of Team USA, Team Canada, Team France, as well as some French-speaking countries. Nevertheless, my reporting priority has been Team USA largely due to my educational background in the United States, especially my days spent at UA. I love my professors at UA: Dr. Bryant, Dr. Phelps, Dr. Berger, Dr. Zhou, Dr. Leeper, Dr. Cooper and many others. They are all renowned scholars in their fields yet they treat me and other students with great respect, and they always work diligently, and stay humble. They helped me a lot in one way or another during my stay at UA. When I first told them about this work opportunity, they all felt extremely happy for me and encouraged me to go back. As Dr. Bryant, the chair of my Ph.D. committee will be retiring in 2009, I got to take my comps ASAP. If I go back to Beijing, I have to postpone my comps and become the last one in my year to take the test. After thorough reflections and my discussion with Dr. Phelps and Dr. Bryant, I finally made up my mind to go back to Beijing and take my comps in October. Meanwhile, to make good use of my work opportunity inside the Olympic Village, Dr.Zhou and Dr.Berger have been thinking hard about possible research for me to conduct inside the Village. Dr. Zhou designed a neat survey on sports reporting for me to do. Dr. Berger suggested some questions on PR research. Dr. Bryant sent me a pertinent article to read and Dr. Phelps who is like a loving dad to me at UA, told me to enjoy every minute of it and don’t overwork to stay healthy.

Way before the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games, I went to the press office of the U.S. team to introduce myself to everybody there. I become a frequent visitor there and become a good friend of almost all the volunteers for the U.S. team. Then someone passed my name card to the press officer Keith Bryant. I met Keith Bryant and we became good friends soon after our first conversation. I really would like to thank Keith for all his kind help. He is a very good Christian and I think we trust each other after our first encounter. He has been trying his best to arrange interviews for me with every available athlete, team leader, and coach. Thanks to his help, I got to interview a number of athletic celebrities such as Deontay Wilder, and Corey Cogdell. Right now, we have been trying to set up times with Michael Phelps and Coby Bryant. If this thing really happens, I will ask them to say something to UA students and have my pictures taken with them for sure.

For other teams, such as Team Canada, I interviewed two top fashion designers for Canadian team’s uniforms. Besides that, I just walk around in the Village, on Business and Culture Avenue, game room, internet cafe, or just anywhere to search for potential interview opportunities. I believe that I need to stay proactive; I don’t think famous athletes will come to me by themselves. Instead, I need to look for them actively. I speak French, and I have good years, if I hear some athletes, or chef de missions speak French, I will just introduce myself to them directly and ask them politely if I can do a short interview with them. Usually, if they have time, they are very willing to accept my interviews. By so doing, I interviewed the chef de mission of Congo, top tennis player from Bahamas, and junior national champion of badminton in France to name just a few.

In addition, regarding picture-shooting, I just take my Nikon D40 digital camera with me whenever I go, if I find interesting scenes or people, I just eternalize that moment. Then I always ask them if I can put their pictures in our newspaper.

After my interviews, every day I need to write at least one feature story about a famous athlete in three languages (English, French and Chinese) for Village Life and send the story in these three languages along with a picture of my interviewee to the editor of Village Life. If I think it is worthwhile to write a long feature story, I just get my interview notes, find an interesting angle and write the story at home after work. I usually work until 2 or 3 a.m. in the morning.

Jen: Are you having a good time?

Lu Zheng: I’m having a terrific time there. I feel fulfilled and I really think it is a great and rewarding experience for me. It is a once in a life time opportunity, you know. I got the chance to stay so close with famous athletic celebrities from all over the world. I believe every athlete I run across in the Village is a celebrity in his or her own country. How lucky I am! Besides, I got to interview so many famous U.S. athletes, coaches, team leaders! And all of them are so friendly and our conversations went on always smoothly. And we all had a fun and relaxing time together. I got to thank God for his every-lasting blessings and spiritual support.

Jen: How does the city look? Is it really as beautiful as the television pictures make it look?

Lu Zheng: Beijing looks very pretty. It is actually more beautiful and more charming than the one depicted on TV. The city per se is a very modern one, and I personally find it more magnificent and lovely than NYC, and Paris. Beijing has so many places of interests, such as Great Wall, Forbidden City, and Temple of Heaven. In Temple of Heaven, you can find trees of more than 800 years old. It is also the favorite place to go for President Clinton in Beijing. Moreover, Beijing is a truly international city where you can find a lot of huge shopping malls in Beijing. I love shopping so much and I can always find my favorite brands in Beijing like Club Monaco, Diesel, and Zara. If you are really rich, you can shop from top designers, such LV, Fendi, Gucci, YSL, Chanel, Guerlain, etc.

Jen: We’ve heard a lot about how the Chinese are “covering up” the undesirable elements?” Have you seen much of that?

Lu Zheng: I believe that Chinese government and Chinese people have been trying their best to be hospitable and welcoming to all the athletes from all over the world. All the volunteers have been selected rigorously and they need to work for more than eight hours for free. Many volunteers are college students from top universities in China; others are from USA, Europe and Africa. All the taxi drivers received trainings in English and they can converse with foreigners in English. You must to keep this in mind that some of the drivers are more than forty years old and they didn’t know any English word before their training. I met with one driver who is more than 50 years old and he told me he feels very proud to be a Beijing taxi driver. And he listens to English recordings many hours a day and repeats the English phrases and expressions while driving. He told me that he often sacrifices his spare time to study English so that he can better serve the foreign guests.

Jen: Do you think the Olympics will bring any lasting change to China?

Lu Zheng: Yeah, definitely. At least, everybody in China is learning English, not only kids, but also older people. The air condition in Beijing is much better as well. Many people switch to public transportation such as subway and bus to commute. More and More people from foreign countries come to Beijing, and once they are here, they become fall in love with the local people and the city. Beijing people are very friendly to Americans, especially the younger generation who grow up watching American TV programs, such as Friends, Prison Break, ER, Everybody loves Raymond.

Jen: What has American response been to China?

Lu Zheng: All the U.S. athletes I met think highly of China, Beijing, Olympic Village, volunteers, and food. And everyone has received warm welcome in Beijing and they are having a terrific time here. They all told me that they will go to the Great Wall after their competitions and visit other places of interest in Beijing. I wish all of them the best of luck!!!