人物名片

艾鹏达（Percy David PaPa Akuetteh）

国籍：加纳

职业：医科博士生

旅居浙江：9年

阿达的浙江足迹

　　9年前，留学生艾鹏达背上行囊，从非洲加纳来到温州，开启了漫长的学医路。艾鹏达这个中文名字还是他的温州老师取的，寓意飞黄腾达，现在，他的朋友都喜欢叫他阿达。

　　2010年，从加纳来到浙江温州，进入温州医科大学求学。

　　2013 年，在“留动中国”才艺赛上，阿达用温州话演唱了《温州是个好地方》，惊艳全场，荣获一等奖。

　　2016年，临床医学专业本科毕业。

　　2018年，在以“中非卫生人才培养的交流与合作”为主题的第二届全球健康青年领袖圆桌会议上，作为代表发言，并受到了加纳总统的接见。

　　2019年，在温医大附一院肝胆外科临床实践和实习。

　　说起到温州的第一天，阿达至今还记得很清楚——2010年11月28日。因为签证的关系，他没有按时到学校报到，但学校考虑到实际情况，还是让他入学了，这让他感动不已，他觉得温州人和温州的学校实在太有爱了。

　　阿达曾受邀参演全媒体情景微剧《跟我学温州话》之《拣过拣，拣个破灯盏》，不到一天时间，网络点击量就超过15万次。阿达说，他也没想到会蹿红的，走在路上还被人认出来。

　　一天，他和同学正往温医大学院路校区走去，迎面走来一位女生。“她把我拦住，很惊讶地说：‘你不是那个……你怎么在这里？’”

　　阿达说，这位女生是《跟我学温州话》微剧的忠实粉丝。不过，他赶着去上课，只是冲女生笑了笑。走红后，还有剧组慕名来找他拍戏呢。

Ta眼里的浙江

　　“我在浙江这几年，浙江有很大很大的变化。与浙江比，别的地方应该没有这么快吧。我和我的一些朋友聊天，我身边的朋友都觉得，中国的发展速度非常快。”不仅中文说得溜，连温州话都字正腔圆，这个加纳小伙，不简单！

　　“浙江人做事效率很高。来温州短短几年，旧城换了新颜，高楼林立，道路宽敞。”阿达说，“现在交通出行也更便捷。以前我来的时候，从温州到杭州，大部分的时候是坐大巴什么的，现在有动车有高铁，所需时间越来越短，转眼就到。”

　　阿达说，中国给了外国留学生很多机会。阿达就在温医大附一院肝胆外科临床实践和学习。

　　“我在医院工作，会碰到一些老年人。一般老年人不会说普通话，我就学了几句温州话，好跟他们交流。这对我在医院实习是很有帮助的。”

　　还有一个好消息是，前段时间阿达订婚了，未婚妻是温州人。阿达将自己融入到温州生活的同时，也不忘以一个“新温州人”的身份将浙江的故事传播到海内外，成为热衷公益的文化使者。阿达说：“我想要让大家知道，外国人在中国浙江、在温州是如何学习生活的，也想让更多人了解温州美食、温州文化，以及当下正在发生的浙江故事。”

Percy David PaPa Akuetteh came from Ghana to China in 2010. His destination was Wenzhou, a city in southeastern Zhejiang. He came to study at Wenzhou Medical University. In 2013, he rose overnight to national stardom as he captured a first prize in an international student competition by singing a song in Wenzhou dialect.

Percy David PaPa Akuetteh still remembers his first day in Wenzhou: it was November 28, 2010. Despite the fact that he was about two months late for his freshman year because of a visa problem, the university took him in. This warmhearted welcome gesture touched his heart.

His Chinese name is Ai Pengda. He got it from his Chinese teacher in Wenzhou shortly after his arrival in Wenzhou. Pretty soon, his Chinese friends called him Ah Da, a Chinese way to say that you are family. 

Ah Da is a celebrity in Wenzhou. Almost everyone in the city knows of him largely because the African speaks Wenzhou dialect perfectly. In modern urban myths, the Wenzhou dialect is infamously the most difficult of all dialects in the country. Even most people beyond Wenzhou in Zhejiang are totally clueless about a conversation in the dialect.

He speaks the dialect so well that he has appeared as a teacher in a mini television series of the dialect learning. And he has won numerous accolades for his dialect proficiency.

In the nine years, he has studied medicine from the very beginning. Now he is a PhD student working as a trainee at the Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery of the First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou University.

His nine-year life in Wenzhou has enabled him to witness fast changes across Zhejiang at close hand. “I have witnessed huge changes in Zhejiang these years. This fast growth tempo is something I haven’t seen anywhere else. My friends agree with me that China is developing at fast speed,” he says. “In the past, I traveled between Wenzhou and Hangzhou by long-distance bus. Now fast-speed trains have shortened the travel time between the two cities.”

As a student now training and studying at the Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery of the First Affiliated Hospital of Wenzhou University, he works hard and appreciates the abundant opportunities international students have in China. He says that the surgery he does in a week is equal to the surgery a surgeon does in one or two months in a hospital in Ghana. 

The Wenzhou dialect he speaks perfectly helps him at the hospital. “I now and then see old people at the hospital. Most old people in Wenzhou don’t speak Putonghua. My speaking the dialect helps a great deal in my communication with them,” says Ah Da proudly.

He is engaged with a local girl in Wenzhou. And he is an ambassador for Wenzhou to promote its culture overseas. “I want more people to know how international people live and work in Wenzhou, Zhejiang and China. I want more people to know more about Wenzhou food and culture and what’s happening in Zhejiang,” says Ah Da.

The 2018 data indicates that there were 37,500 international students studying at various colleges and universities in Zhejiang at the end of 2018. Ah Da is one of these students. In Zhejiang, there are 14 international colleges operated jointly by higher-learning institutions at home and abroad and 142 education programs in partnership between Chinese universities and foreign universities. Sixteen colleges and universities in Zhejiang now operate 28 Confucius Academies in 24 countries and regions across the world.