Education, education, education.

These blogs are evidently becoming sparser and finding the time to write them is proving more difficult.  Thus, the next few blog updates will be shorter, because it has become almost impossible to find a free moment in the new term.  Check out this timetable: Monday – Friday is a 7 a.m. start, getting to university for 8 and having lessons until 12.  Monday and Wednesday I’ll go to the gym directly after university and get home around 3.  Tuesday and Thursday I’ll have a Chinese writing class in the afternoon, so I’ll study before this class starts also. Every evening is spent revising Chinese too (if I have the energy).  On Friday I go from university to Aston, to lesson plan and to begin teaching in the evening.  This is followed by a whole weekend of teaching from 8 a.m. to about 7:30 p.m., but there’s no respite, as the week is then repeated the very next day.

            As much as I sound like I’m complaining, I’m enjoying the busy schedule and the workload.  In fact, I love every moment, well, almost every moment.  There’s no denying it’s exhausting, but my Chinese is coming on leaps and bounds.  However, the amount of time and energy I’ve committed to this new lifestyle has already caused me to catch a cold twice, which is strange because I’ve only had one cold the whole 6 months prior to this.

            It’s slightly surreal being back at university, especially as I only finished a short while ago.  I wasn’t entirely sure what to expect.  To be honest, it’s not that much different from before, except there’s a much greater workload with the amount of Chinese characters we are expected to read, revise and know for the very next day.  I wouldn’t say my speaking has improved a great deal, nor my listening.  The real leap forward has come with my reading and writing, seeing as I only knew about 10 symbols before the start of the course. 

After one month I’d say I know, or at least could recognise, approximately 100 characters.  Recognising and recalling them are two completely different mental attributes.  The former is definitely easier; it involves seeing the symbol and acknowledging both it’s sound and meaning.  The latter, however, means attempting to remember the character from your own memory, as you place pen-to-paper.  After just one month of studying Chinese at university though, there a large number of sentences I can now string together in Chinese:

-       我学习汉语。

-       你是哪国人？我是英国人。

-       他是谁？他是我的朋友。

-       你要什么？我要茶， 谢谢你。

Translated into English, this becomes:

-       I study Chinese.
     Where are you from? I'm from England.

-       Who is he? He is my friend.

-       What do you want? I want tea, thank you.

It can be very difficult to translate Chinese directly, because there grammar and way of speaking is often extremely different from our own.  Take the second sentence for example, which would be translated like so: “You are which country person?  I am England country person.”  To be honest, this translates quite well in comparison to other sentences.  Lets take one more:

-       你的名字是什么？

-       你叫什么名字？

Translated literally, this is: “Your name is what?” and “You call what name?”  Again, these sentences are actually comprehendible when translated literally, there are some that are much more difficult to understand.

            Aside from university, there have been some interesting events in China lately.  I’ve noticed it’s been making front line news on the BBC repeatedly, which has mainly been in concern with the “Anti-Japanese riots”.  I couldn’t condemn these riots more; they are absolutely ridiculous.  I’m not saying the reasons behind the riots are ridiculous; as a foreigner here it’s definitely not my place to.  However, the way these “protests” have been carried out is despicable.  Japan has claimed islands within Chinese waters, which I understand.  What I don’t understand is why the Chinese have felt the need to go out onto the streets to needlessly abuse Japanese people, Japanese restaurants and Japanese products.  All of which is unbelievable, seeing as these Japanese restaurants hire Chinese employees, providing them with jobs.  Not to mention that it was Chinese people that owned the Japanese phones, cameras and cars that were being smashed.  During the riots, the center of Xi’an became a very dangerous place to be as a foreigner of any nationality.

            Unfortunately, it just so happened that these incidents coincided with the build up to a national holiday here in China, known as “National China Day”, which seemed to help in stirring things up.  On the bright side, however, this too coincided with a Chinese festival, known as “The Moon Cake Festival”.  The Moon Cake Festival is a time when the moon is at its fullest and can be most clearly seen, but it is also seen as a time to reignite old family ties, bonds and eat moon cake.  This means that many Chinese will make a special effort to go and visit their families, even travelling across the country to see their relatives and siblings etc one more.  That’s great, but what it basically meant for everyone working at Aston was a week’s holiday, meaning a group of us used this as an excuse to travel to Chengdu.  Chengdu is renowned for three things: spicy food, Pandas and “the most beautiful girls in China”.  Apparently the girls in Chengdu are seen as the most beautiful for their facial structure and skin colour, which is much more pale than the rest of China (China’s advertising companies promote an “idyllic” white, skin colour).

            Chengdu was great, offering pretty much what it said on the tin:

As one chapter ends, another begins!

I should probably start by providing an explanation as to my lack of communication over the past month; it all comes down to a small piece of poorly made plastic.  My original laptop charger lasted three years, finally breaking here in China.  The Macbook charger is magnetic, fitting snugly and easily into the entrance of my laptop.  When the last one broke I purchased a new one from Xi’an’s biggest electronics department; it’s also a minefield of stalls and stores selling goods both fake and real.  I purchased a fake one, which seemed to work fine, for a while at least.  After three months, however, it broke in exactly the same way the old one did: the wire became detached from its magnetic counterpart.  Being tight-fisted I decided to buy another fake one, which lasted an incredible three days.  Finally, I gave in and bought a real one for 628 kuai.  That’s over £60, which is expensive back home, so it’s ridiculously expensive here, taking a sizeable chunk out of my pay check.

            My first semester at Aston is coming to an end and it’s a strange feeling knowing that originally I would have been going home in little more than a few weeks.  It seems that now I’ve signed my name onto a one-year contract everything feels … a bit heavier.  Initially this was a short break before settling into a career back home, but now my plans have completely changed. This semester has been a roller coaster ride of experiences and emotions.  I’ve grown close to a lot of people both Western and Chinese.  I’ll be gutted to see many of these people return home, but for the majority, working at Aston or being a TEFL teacher is generally more of a short-term job or experience.  Despite the language barrier it’s easy to attach yourself onto people here and become friends.  For example, I see cleaners and other staff members here at Aston whenever I come into work.  They can’t speak a word of English and I can regurgitate some very poorly spoken Chinese, but despite the distance between us we’ve laughed and grown closer as the semester has progressed.

            I’ve been seeing a lot of my Western friends lately, trying to squeeze in as much time as possible with them before they leave.  The other week I went on a trip with Jonnie to a near by city called Baoji.  We took a high-speed train there, which took about 2 hours and cost about 40 kuai.  Upon arrival we were disappointed to discover there was very, very little to do (if at anything at all).  Just to be sure we weren’t missing anything we contacted a friend from Baoji and asked, “What’s the best thing to do here?”  To which they replied, “Try the cold noodles”, and, “Take the number 9 bus around the city”.  At first I thought this was a joke. “Take the number 9 bus … to see anything in particular?”  “Nope”.  As you can guess, our trip to Baoji didn’t last long and after 3 hours we were on our way back home.  The trip would have been even shorter if we didn’t need to wait 1 hour for the return leg of our journey.

            There was also a leaving party for Jonnie/welcoming party for Jorge’s girlfriend recently.  I won’t offend her by incorrectly spelling her name out on here!  I arrived late as I had been invited - for the first time - to a Chinese friend’s home for dinner.  They were incredibly welcoming and I had a great time.  My friend is called Will and his family treated me to a banquet of food.  They made sure I tried all the dishes before they had any of the food themselves, and they were also sure to get my opinion on each and every dish individually.  It’s fair to say the food was amazing and my first experience of visiting a Chinese person’s home was terrific.  My only disappointment was that it took me almost 6 months to make it into a Chinese person’s home for dinner!

            So afterwards I arrived at the party late and everything had well and truly kicked into gear.  The moment I walked in a beer was put in my hand and it didn’t take long to catch up with everyone else.  We danced and sang in Jonnie and Jorge’s home, which then continued as we went onto KTV.  This was my second time visiting KTV and we didn’t leave until at least 5 in the morning … when we were asked to vacate the premises.  Nobody felt well the next day, which was made worse by the fact that Jonnie and I had to be at the police station for 9 a.m. to deal with our Chinese visas.  I don’t want to see the I.D. photos the police took of us that day, ever.

            Anyway, as time draws to an end, people are moving on: Jorge now has his girlfriend to accompany him; Brian has a one year working-holiday visa for Australia; Andy and his girlfriend, Jonah, are having a baby and moving to Canada to be with Jonah’s family; Jonnie is going to Beijing and then heading back home to settle into a career.  These have been my closest friends here and I will always remember them as a fundamental part of my experience in China.  Thank you.  

Hello - Goodbye

It was only a few weeks ago I was saying how normal everything had become, but in the blink of an eye everything’s changed and a few more weeks have flown by.  The pace of life in Xi’an is rapid: the weather is changing day-by-day; I’ve learnt to play the oldest Chinese game in the world, Majiang; I’ve had more adventures with Aston colleagues and my family has come and gone.  Never before has my life been so hectic, but I love it, because there’s never a dull moment.  It’s not peaches and cream 24/7, as any expat will tell you: “You’ll have your good days and you’ll have your bad days.  Some days you’ll hate China and some days you’ll love China.  And just when you think you’ve seen it all, just when you think you understand this place, it’ll catch you off guard and surprise you one more time.”

Summer is here, bringing with it an intense amount of heat, sunshine, and oddly, umbrellas.  Many Chinese women don’t like to tan, so when the sun comes out, so does their umbrellas.  As it gets hotter it also becomes more and more risky eating from the local barbeques.  Some of these places are unsanitary at the best of times, with meat being left unrefrigerated for hours on end.  Combine this with the rising temperatures and you’ve got a glorious safe-haven for all kinds of inglorious bacteria (not that the locals seems to care).

My Chinese lessons at Aston have finished, providing me with a great grounding and teaching me a lot of essential, survival Chinese.  I’ve retained at least half of what was covered and it’s proved extremely helpful for everyday transactions; it’s amazing what you can achieve knowing a minute amount.  I love using what I know everyday and it’s reaffirmed the decision for me to continue learning Chinese at university in September.

In addition to teaching us Chinese, our teachers also taught Andy, Brian and I to play Majiang.  Majiang is probably one of the oldest games in the world, not to mention extremely simple.  If any of you know how to play Rummy then you’ll pick up Majiang in a flash.  The only reason this game is alien to many in the West is probably because of the Chinese characters it employs.  To be quite honest though, it’s still possible to play it knowing only a few of the characters.  In the grand scheme of the game the meaning behind the characters isn’t that important.  We learnt to play the game within a few hours, and when my Dad arrived in China a few weeks ago, we passed on what we’d learnt to him too.

During my Dad’s stay he got a real taste for life in Xi’an, but more importantly for him, he got a real taste for my life in Xi’an.  He saw my apartment, my hangouts and many of my friends.  I took him to our local restaurants, barbeques and bars.  Not to mention the tourist attractions: Xi’an’s city wall, Dayan Ta (The Big Goose Pagoda) and Bing Ma Yong (The Terracotta Warriors).  Purely by coincidence, the week of my Dad’s arrival, a group of Aston teachers had planned to visit the Zhashui caves.  The caves are located about an hour or so outside of Xi’an, but having to get three separate buses more than doubled the journey’s length.  As I’ve said before, nothing here is ever simple!  Especially when you’re dealing with an incredibly difficult language barrier.

Despite our lengthy journey, our efforts were rewarded upon arrival at the caves, as staggering, breath-taking mountains greeted us.  Little did we know, however, we would soon be left literally staggering and breathless, as we had to climb hundreds of steep stairs in order to reach the entrance to the caves.  The caves were magnificent, juxtaposing a journey of small crevices, elongated stalagmites and large, black, empty spaces.  The caves were lit up by shades of blues, greens and pinks.  Overall, this had quite a positive effect, but there were times when this artificiality hindered the natural beauty of the surroundings.  Mind you, considering the scale and beauty of the caves – not to mention the need for light of some sort – this was easily forgivable.

Before I knew it, it was time for my Dad to leave and the very next day my Mum, her partner, Mel, Mel’s daughter, Helen, and my brother, Neal, were due to arrive in Beijing.  Whilst they toured China’s capital I worked and met them a few days later in Xi’an.  There stay in Xi’an didn’t get off to a great start.  Many of the taxi drivers wanted nothing to do with the laowai (foreigners) and there copious amounts of luggage.  We were also hindered further by the piece of paper displaying their hotel address; most of the taxi drivers assume it’ll be written in English and drive off, or some of them are unable to read and pretend to be completely clueless as to where it is.  Eventually we arrived at their hotel and after settling in I took them to a local bar.  They’d only been in Xi’an an hour or so by this point, but already they could see some clear differences between Xi’an and Beijing.  The biggest difference, they noticed, concerned Xi’an’s interaction with Westerners.

A "charming" toilet sign

Despite Xi’an’s history as an international hub and former capital of China, it is still very wary of foreigners.  In some cases, this wariness borders on distrust, even dislike.  Having lived here for almost five months I’ve come to observe and interpret this spatial detachment for myself.  China and the entire West really are, in many ways, worlds apart in terms of both language and culture.  When travelling much of Europe you are often able to find someone that speaks a small amount of English, or there are sometimes some linguistic similarities that allow you to culturally cross borders and transfer some sort of meaning with an interlocutor.  This doesn’t work in China; Chinese and English are two completely separate languages in almost every way.  Thus, slowing your pace of speech and shouting may sometimes work in the Western world, but in China, it will do little more than offend or embarrass someone.  Furthermore, you’ve only done yourself an injustice, because you’ve managed to enact the exact stereotype of an ignorant Western foreigner from the eyes of the Chinese.

Xi’an has a lot of history and is quite a traditional city, especially in comparison to other major cities such as Shanghai and Beijing.  From what I know of Shanghai, it seems to attract big business, so this industrialisation has probably furthered it’s pace of modernisation and also Westernisation in comparison to Xi’an.  There are far fewer Westerners in Xi’an, which is why Westerners are still treated in such an alien manner, with people staring and making “laowai” comments every time a Westerner steps outside the tourist spots.  There are some days when this can be extremely annoying, but if you let it get to you all the time, you’d go mad.

After taking my mum and co. on more or less exactly the same tour I’d given my Dad, I travelled with them to Hong Kong.  Wow… What a city.  Hong Kong surpassed my expectations from the word go.  The flight into HK paints a picturesque image of a city spread over multiple, beautiful islands, which are intricately connected via spaghetti-like-highways.  Everybody surrounding you speaks or understands English, even if it’s only a small amount.  Trust me, after coming from a city like Xi’an this is a luxury that makes life a hell of a lot of easier.  In many ways it can’t be compared to the rest of China, because it is completely different in so many respects.  After meeting with an old school mate in HK I think it’d be fair to say that the locals wouldn’t want to be compared to the rest of China.  Similarly, the Welsh/Scottish/Irish wouldn’t want to be called/compared to the English.

It was great to see my entire family, despite the fact it flew by far too quickly.  It’s hard not knowing when I’m going to see them and many others again, but this is why my life here is so hectic: by keeping busy I’m keeping my mind off of home and preventing homesickness from settling in.  Come September I’ll start university once more and embark on a four year Mandarin degree – I don’t think I’m going to have time to think about much else!

Is the adventure over?

Summer in Xi'an

For those I haven’t told, I’m going to be extending my stay in China.  Before I explain why, I just want to say sorry to those I’ve hurt back home with this news.  None of this was ever planned.

            This is the hardest decision I’ve ever had to make and it’s been on my mind for a while now.  I’ve been thinking about what I can expect when I get back to the UK and in my mind it doesn’t seem to paint an optimistic picture.  Whilst the UK and much of the West struggle to get their economies back on their feet, China is on the rise.  Thinking back four months ago, lying in bed and waiting to start this trip, I remember reading the news.  I remember reading about a bleak economy and a distinct lack of jobs, regardless of what you’d studied or achieved at university.  Taking a glance at BBC news today, not much has changed.

            It’s made me take a more serious look at my life here, what I’m doing now and what I could do if I worked hard enough.  I currently work Friday evening, Saturday and Sunday all day.  The real irony is that I earn more than four times what most of the locals earn working a full week.  Not to mention the fact that I have my accommodation paid for, free Chinese lessons and a contract completion bonus.  However, despite the benefits of living in Xi’an and working for a school like Aston, I don’t see this as a career (at least not yet).  It is, however, a great stepping-stone, which is why I did it in the first place.

Probably the coolest kid in Aston!

            After contemplating my future more seriously I’ve begun to realise the full potential of the situation I’m in and what I could be doing with my time.  Working in China as a Westerner is, well, too easy.  The opportunities to earn a decent living wage (by Chinese standards) are great.  You can earn anywhere between 100-300 kuai an hour teaching English privately; that’s between £10-30.  By my standards that’s a lot of money, but by Chinese standards that’s silly money.  The opportunities to earn a lot increase tremendously if you can speak Mandarin too.  I know, I know – easier said than done.

Xi'an "Jiaoda"

           Like I said though, I work Fri-Sun, leaving my weeks completely free.  Therefore, I’ve decided to enrol at Xi’an Jiaotong University to study Mandarin as an undergraduate degree, starting in September.  Apparently each term is four months long and the year is split into two terms, providing me with four months off a year.  Lectures run from 8 a.m. – 12 p.m. and so this leaves me with the rest of the day to revise and still have some free time.  The biggest contrast to the first six months of working here without studying formally will definitely be the amount of free time I have, which will be next to nothing.

            As I’ve mentioned previously, Mandarin Chinese uses a character based writing system.  There are over 60,000 characters in Mandarin.  You’re not expected to know all of these, or even half.  Few Chinese people do.  It’s said that you can get by on approximately 5000 characters; this will allow you to read everyday symbols, signposts and newspapers.  Any specific or more professional/technical areas will obviously require further revision.  If I wanted to set myself a challenge then I’ve certainly done that.

            I guess a part of me isn’t ready to come back yet either.  I think I’ve still got some growing up to do and this experience definitely has a lot to offer in terms of my own self-development.  One of the biggest realisations I’ve come to is just how young I am.  When I first arrived in Xi’an I had a lot of surprised and supportive comments from people saying how “brave” they thought I was for doing this at the age of twenty-two.  They say brave, I call it naivety and perhaps a slight lack of direction.  There are, however, people here who are 10 years my age and have lost none of their desire to continue travelling.  In conversations with people like these I’ve realised it’s never too late to continue studying and directing, or redirecting, your future in the manner to which you see fit.

            Obviously, the hardest thing about all of this – besides the distinct leap of faith – are the sacrifices I’ve had to make in turn.  I’ve now given up everything to be here.  I’ve given up the one thing that meant more to me than anything in the else world.  I hate myself for that, I’m sorry.  I hope things get easier for both of us and I hope I don’t live to regret the decisions I’ve made. I’m also gutted I won’t be seeing my family and friends for what could be a very, very long time.  If you’re ever stopping over, don’t hesitate to look me up and don’t be a stranger.  I’ll try my best to keep in contact.  I hope you do the same.