Life in China

What can I say about living in China after almost 9 months? I am not sure. It is so very different, and I quickly found that people simply do not think in the same way as I do. I remember thinking when I was still in America, that if ever a misunderstanding should occur, then I could simply explain it away. What I have found is that it is not always that simple. Sometimes, people believe things, and they will not easily be swayed by an explanation. All people believe certain things about life and human nature, and Chinese people are no different. I am quite sure that my behavior in China is quite puzzling to Chinese people, as their behavior sometimes is for me.

Sorry, the above paragraph may seem a bit like rambling, but it is just something that weighs heavy on my heart, and causes much of the hardships that I face in China.

In many ways, I have a very easy life in China. What makes things difficult is getting involved with the community. This is difficult for me to do sometimes. My Chinese is improving, but the accent that I am learning is best understood by people living in large cities such as Beijing or Shanghai. I have great difficulty understanding the local people. I am conflicted with the understanding that, many times, I am the only foreigner that they see on a daily basis. In some cases, I am the only foreigner they have ever met. Because of this, what I say and do will have a lasting impact upon how they may see foreigners in the future. I understand this responsibility, and try to act generously and kindly. At times, this is difficult because the behavior of the Chinese people can be difficult to tolerate. It is not so much that the behavior is bad, but it is just that it is very repetitive. They ask the same questions, and say the same things. After 80 times of hearing the same thing over and over, it is difficult for me to appear genuinely interested in what they have to say.

The English language has a huge influence on the culture in China. It is interesting to observe how Chinese people have attempted to adapt English into traditional Chinese culture. Often, the result is strange. Sometimes, it is quite funny. There are the signs written in Chinese, with the English translations underneath. The problem is that the translations are not very precise, and in some cases, I cannot understand what is being said. For example 'Keep near, settling the civilization' is intended to mean to keep near the urinal when using them in the restroom. Sometimes, Chinese building will have Chinese writing and also pinyin. Pinyin is the Chinese sounds spelled out using Roman letters. The result is often a really long word that looks, perhaps, something like this; 'baodaoshifeihongdengzailuobingguan' no spaces or capital letters. When I first saw this, it looked quite strange to me.

There is so much to say, but I am too tired. I will write another blog someday. I am not going to make promises or anything. I now know I should not do that. If I do, I may end up not keeping my word. Anyhow, good night.

The life of a Chinese learner living in China...

I think that I can understand how hard it is for a foreigner to learn a new language. I have been living in China for 8 months now, and in addition to that, I had studied Chinese for around 10 months while living in the states. I have some experience with this. I must say, it can be difficult at times. Learning Chinese for an English speaker is probably easier than it would be for a Chinese person to learn English in the United States, because many people can speak at least some English. When these Chinese people see a foreigner, they are often friendly and eager to use the little bit of English that they know. This means that they may be willing to be helpful, and patient when I try to speak Chinese. However, there are not many Chinese speakers in the United States, so this is not very likely.

Anyhow, my life in China is filled with constant frustration, confusion, and irritation. Doing any task in the street is always difficult, because my Chinese is not good. I study Chinese for several hours on most days, but I still know very little after all this time. Everyday, the fact that my language skills are poor is immediately apparent. As I learn more Chinese, I find that, in some ways, it actually gets harder to function. When I knew very little, people were more patient with me. Now, people expect me to be able to speak better than I actually can, so they just get frustrated with me. Sometimes, Chinese people, meaning to be helpful, will sometimes throw English words in their Chinese sentence. This causes problems for two reasons; first, their pronunciation is often very poor, so I don't realize that they are trying to speak an English word until later. And second, they will say the English for words that I already understand the Chinese for anyway. In this way, this is no help and serves only to frustrate matters worse.

I recently hired a Chinese person to help me work on my oral Chinese. I am one of the very few Chinese learners whose reading and writing is better than my speaking. For most people, their speaking and listening is good, but they cannot read or write. After my first lesson, I got discouraged because she spent lots of time talking in English. I might have to find a new tutor.

I get so frustrated sometimes. Some days, I might spend a three hour session studying Chinese, then go to the street to do something, and fumble, stumble, and crawl my way through the most basic Chinese interaction. As I said earlier, I am constantly reminded of my poor speaking ability. My reaction sometimes is to simply say 'screw it, this is too hard. Perhaps I will just play video games during my spare time' but I know that if I practice, I will improve. I know this because I am improving. It is very slow, but I am getting better each day. I just have to maintain the regimen of studying that I have been doing since around January or thereabouts.

I know this is not well written, but it is a first draft, and I don't really care to revise and edit. This is what you get. Sorry.