Going to China 'good business' for local student

When we moved to Japan in the mid-1970s, my family thought we were moving to the moon.

Back then it was a 17-hour flight via Alaska and a 13-hour time difference ahead of Lisle. After Japan, we moved to Saudi Arabia and that was yet another planet. When we eventually moved to England, everyone thought it would be easy after the two previous moves. However, England was the worst culture shock I experienced. There are cultural differences everywhere, perhaps not as drastic as Japan and Saudi Arabia, but still different, particularly in the village in which we lived in England.

It took our daughters several years to appreciate the experience of growing up outside the United States, because they knew nothing else. When we moved to Belgium and subsequently Singapore, several of their friends came to visit us and also shared their experiences.

We've always encouraged teenagers to travel overseas and were particularly pleased to hear a friend's son was going to China. Rob Esposito, a native of Lisle, is enrolled in the International Business program at Benedictine University. Last August, Esposito and a dozen other students spent two weeks touring China.

"We focused on the impact of globalization," he said. "We went through a couple factories and met a couple environmental groups. There was no requirement to speak Chinese."

The group stayed in Western hotels to ease the travel. They were originally scheduled to travel in May, but the H1N1 flu prevented their travel in the summer.

"The Chinese quarantined anyone that had a fever on the arriving flight," Esposito said. "We went in August instead and still had to walk through some specialized areas to probably check for fever."

Esposito was surprised at what he found in his travels.

"To me, a lot of what we're told about China is not true. People talk about no human rights, and there's probably more free markets than in the U.S., and there was also so much building going on," he said.

Esposito said there was only one instance where the students encountered resistance, and that was at a small railroad station in a remote village.

"The guide said the person who was giving us a hard time was 'old' China," he said. "Other than that everyone was really nice."

As part of BU's International Business program, every May the group travels to another country. Last year Esposito and the students traveled to Costa Rica. Next May, the group will travel to Venezuela.

"When I picked the major, business and economics, I thought why not international business," he said. The benefit of being part of a smaller, close group within the university appeals to Esposito.

"After visiting Costa Rica, I got the travel bug," he said.

Tim Goines is chairman of Benedictine University's International Business and Economics Department and is now on sabbatical in China.

"The course that I taught this past spring was called 'Global Interdependence' and one of the course requirements was that the students had to participate in the China trip," he said.

According to Goines, in preparation for the trip, students met on a regular basis, had assigned readings and had to do research on a globalization topic of their choice that would apply to China. Goines invited guest speakers to come to class, including Helen Feng, who taught courses on Chinese and Chinese culture, and Jingmei Zhao, who taught courses on doing business in Asia.

"They were an amazing resource," Goines added.

"This is the fourth year that the department has been offering short-term study abroad trips that were part of a course," wrote Goines from Beijing.

While Goines was hired at Benedictine under a Latin American grant, his heart has always been in China and the sabbatical has offered him the opportunity to not only pursue his interest, but share his insight with Benedictine students.

"It's been over 20 years since I've studied Chinese and I'm using this opportunity to work on that," wrote Goines. "I also want to help out the China Institute and the BU College of Liberal Arts as they expand in this direction."

Esposito is a junior at Benedictine University and works as a manager at Culver's in Downers Grove. He's not sure what the future holds for him, but believes China holds the economic future.

"I don't know if I can learn Mandarin," he added. "But getting to know how to do business with China and their culture will be good business."

Janet Wilmoth was raised in Lisle. She lived in five countries in 15 years and in Hinsdale for 10. She moved back to Lisle in 1998. Contact her at jans944@aol.com.