Final Thoughts of a Year Away In China

Well where to start...

First of all, I'm happy I started this blog, without this.. I feel I would had forgotten some of the moments I had this year (2007) ... There just has been so much that has happened, so much I have seen, so much... and to summaries seems almost to cut this all short!

The Humble Beginning...
The Beginning is always hard to look back on, yet as I reflect back... I would have to say I had no clue or other experience that would had prepared me for the shock I would receive in terms of...
- Culture
- Living in China
- Leaning to Speak Chinese
- Getting Around
- Shopping
- How People would treat me
- Humbleness... I was knocked clear off my feet... I thought I knew how the world worked... I really didn't....
- and a million other things....

The Shock for me literally was boarding the plane in London, from the bang go, stepping into the cabin of the plane, Chinese was spoken to me all the way to Beijing, China.

Finding work, was a difficult start... because your overwhelmed with the amount of jobs for English teachers... It is not hard to be a English Teacher in their eyes (in China) as you speak the language is good enough for a lot of people.
However one needs to be careful, So you need to ask yourself these questions....
- What is available?
- Who do you want to teach?
- How many Hours would you like to teach?
- Will you get a chance to learn Chinese?
- How much time do you get to do your Chinese Homework?
- Can you budget on what they pay you? do you need more pay?
- How long do you want your contract to be?
- How far do you want to be from Foreigners...
- Will be nearing Foreigners (english expats) help make friends make you less homesick..?
- Will you end up only speaking english as a result?
- Do you feel making friends with expats easier then making Chinese Friends?

What I decided to do, was to dedicate more time to my Chinese studies, I would teach on weekends via private jobs and pick up a weekly job for an English school as well.
My Speciality ended with my Charge in Language Exchange, with a Big focus on Everyday English.

Shock Shock Shock.... for me was living with a Chinese Family for a while, Stuck to using Chinese everyday as my means to ask, talk and communicate to the family.
- Another part of this was having to share a room with the son of the family,
- Having to be home everyday by 5pm...
- Travel for an hour each day to and fro to...Chinese School... in the Rush Hour!
- Strictly Shanghai Chinese food... No Meat... No rice.

Getting around I was forced many times to use Chinese, countless times I would be asked in the streets or the shops for directions or the time. It scared me a lot @ the start with the amount of questions that would fly at me....
- Where are you from? 你是哪国人?
- Why do you say your english? ... your Chinese 为什么你是英国人?.. 你看中国人
- Why is your 中文 (Chinese) so bad ? 为什么你的中文水平不好?
- Cantonese is not good enough... 汉语 (普通话 mandarin) is!!!!
- Are you sure your an english teacher?
- Where are your parents from? 在那里你的父母? 你的父母是哪国人?
- Where are your ancestors from?

The internet has come a long way... hunting for Chinese schools was very easy.
Really if one hopes to push their chinese a lot more I would advise going to a Chinese University. The one in Shanghai to go to even for foreigners is Jiao Tong University.
My post on the below link will guide you to places to go to....
http://lifeinthefareast.blogspot.com/2007/08/studying-chinese-in-shanghai-china.html

In the end I settled on Mandarin House, after studying for 3-4 months I decided to also pick up
Hanzi 汉字 as well... to read Chinese Characters. It is vital for one's Chinese education as you will be able to read maps, buses and find your way in a Shopping Mall or Department Stores.

If your stuck like me, who learned Cantonese first... you must drop everything you know... people in North China aren't too happy with people speak Cantonese... to them... it just doesn't count or cut it!
My 1st 2 months I was stuck in Cantonese tones, and my chinese Teacher would reap me for stuck in my ways!





The Rest Of It...
After my Chinese barrier was broken down, I wasn't so scared going out with a textbook, or phrase book!
So that left me loads of places to go, by myself granted... and it did take me a while to finally get the balls to drop my fear of making friends in a strange place.

Generally all expats are very friendly, wish to network, hang out with new friends and are very upfront about everything.
As a Oversea's chinese guy I can blend between both worlds, now I can speak a bit, I can talk to both worlds... Obviously to both parties I'm a surprise when I start talking...
Cost of living is so reasonable, I can now understand why so many expats work in China and end up staying sometimes a bit longer then they expect to do so.


What Have I Learned?
- Confidence from somewhere very hidden in me, to face a challenge of a year away and not buckle the pressure and run crying back to London.
- Chinese Culture, History and Way of Life.
- Body language is not the same all over the World.



What Will I Take Away From This?
- China isn't just some strange far away place next to HK to visit... It's a vibrant places with so many changes happening, One can feel embarrassed being left behind!

- I do want to work in China in the future, even for a couple of years!
- Chinese isn't so hard, if you make the time to practice all the time!