{"id":11899,"date":"2026-07-21T20:05:35","date_gmt":"2026-07-22T01:05:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2026\/?p=11899"},"modified":"2026-08-02T16:05:19","modified_gmt":"2026-08-02T21:05:19","slug":"five-languages-one-summer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2026\/07\/five-languages-one-summer\/","title":{"rendered":"Five languages, one summer"},"content":{"rendered":"

This year, among 90 cherubs, there were nine international students from China, the United Kingdom, Ukraine and South Korea. While every student experienced the same lectures, field trips, assignments and fun activities, they found different words to describe the program.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u767e\u611f\u4ea4\u96c6<\/span><\/p>\n

For Sihan Liu, a student from Tibet, <\/span>the program encompasses so many different things that he said it\u2019s difficult to find the right word in English. Luckily, there\u2019s one in Mandarin. According to Google Translate, the word \u201c\u767e\u611f\u4ea4\u96c6\u201d means \u201c<\/span>a flood of mixed emotions.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

At cherubs, Liu said he tried to balance work, social life and sleeping. While sleeping was the hardest to accomplish, Liu said work and social life made the program\u2019s slogan, \u201cthe best summer of your life,\u201d come true.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI feel the beauty of the friendship we have here,\u201d Liu said. \u201cI\u2019ve never had such a friend group like I\u2019ve found here.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Liu said he succeeded in lectures and assignments, despite tight deadlines and preparation for future college applications.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cI had tons of opportunities and lectures during the program, and it helped me to hone my journalism skills.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u0421\u0443\u0446\u0432\u0456\u0442\u0442\u044f<\/span><\/p>\n

Vlada Hordiichuk of Lutsk, Ukraine said she learned to not be afraid to make mistakes. As a student from Ukraine, she was worried the language barrier would put her behind other participants in the program. Yet, she was wrong.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018\u0421\u0443\u0446\u0432\u0456\u0442\u0442\u044f\u2019 means \u2018buds of flowers on the tree that bloom in the spring,\u2019\u201d Hordiichuk said. \u201cLike different flowers in c\u0443\u0446\u0432\u0456\u0442\u0442\u044f, cherubs come from various backgrounds. But when we are together, we form a beautiful bouquet that makes us create better stories.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\uc6d0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Sophie Lee of Daegu, South Korea, associates the program with the Korean word for \u201ccircle.\u201d For the past four weeks, many of her evenings <\/span>have been full of storytelling and listening to each other\u2019s hardships and joys.<\/span><\/p>\n

Lee said that these deep late-night conversations helped her to reflect on herself and get to know more cherubs around her.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cYou can sit in a circle, look at each other\u2019s faces and talk about stuff you normally wouldn\u2019t talk about,\u201d Lee said. \u201cIt shows how genuine the program is, how it can change you and how you can make lifelong friends.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u0906\u092d\u093e\u0930\u0940 or grateful<\/span><\/p>\n

Meher Sareen of London said she had always dreamed about getting into cherubs. She said she is grateful for the opportunity to meet people who are eager to hear her experience, but also to share theirs.<\/span><\/p>\n

In Hindi, \u201c\u0906\u092d\u093e\u0930\u0940\u201d means being grateful for a physical thing. Sareen said people use the word in Indian culture to acknowledge people\u2019s actions.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

For the past four weeks, Sareen has been \u0906\u092d\u093e\u0930\u0940 many times.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn the second week, I got pretty sick, and my wonderful roommate and other friends took so much time and effort to make sure I was OK, even though we were all busy juggling so many stories,\u201d Sareen said. \u201cKnowing that their shoulders were there to lean on made such a difference.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

No matter where the cherubs came from, when they got in the program, they spoke a common language \u2014 one of friendship, diversity and passion.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

International students show that stories can translate words, but not feelings.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":354,"featured_media":11694,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,340],"tags":[],"ppma_author":[707],"class_list":["post-11899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-experiences","category-front-page-experiences"],"acf":[],"authors":[{"term_id":707,"user_id":354,"is_guest":0,"slug":"shymon26","display_name":"Arsenii Shymon","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/ec864ef28220058000cd4051da2ab9655acac8567c15d136a29e15f8d9c234ac?s=96&d=mm&r=g","author_category":"","user_url":"","last_name":"Shymon","first_name":"Arsenii","job_title":"","description":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/354"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11899"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11899\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12896,"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11899\/revisions\/12896"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/11694"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11899"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cherubs.medill.northwestern.edu\/2026\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=11899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}