China Defies Preconceived Ideas

Everything Mama Lundstrem has learned about safety, hygiene and fashion have been challenged by 12 days in Beijing and and Xi’an. (I thank Georgina I.for that phrase.) Some of my observations follow.

Bicycles, new BMW’s and other late model cars, pushbikes,mopeds, motorbikes, trucks, double decker buses, taxis and pedestrians are all trying to progress from a different point A to some point B.  There is some structure to the navigational pattern (I’m assuming the driver knows where he is headed), but horn blowing and survival of the biggest reigns.  There are often 8 lanes of traffic with all types of vehicles and pedestrians jockeying to move forward or go in the opposite direction in the SAME lane!!!!  Fortunately I haven’t seen any head on collisions yet.  I cross the street on a wing and a prayer, plus my head is swiveling from right to left with every step I take.  That being said, there are crosswalks and the green walk signs, but if a vehicle needs to drive through the crosswalk, so be it. By the way, where are bike helmets made??? Not one of the hundreds of bikers sports a helmet!!!!  Nor have I seen a seat belt in any of the dozen taxi rides that I have taken.

Pungent, unpleasant and tantalizing odors greet you the minute one ventures outside. Babies and toddlers all wear split pants and relieve themselves wherever it is convenient. For the most part public toilets mean squat toilets and no tissue or paper towels.  The solution is limit your consumption of water and carry hand sanitizer.  No problem there.  The markets are filled with fragrant meats, noodles, curries, and other spices.  We have ventured out of our comfort zone and have tried the wonderful barbecued skewered meats, and all sizes of noodles with vegetables.  Our choices have ranged from 5 Star Hotel duck dinners to, skewered lamb and chicken wings from local vendors to nice sit down dinners at the Terra Cotta Warriors site. We have stayed healthy and enjoyed the various offerings, and have entertained other restaurant patrons with our very rudimentary chopstick skills.  On occasion half of my dinner has ended up in my lap, and napkins are not provided.

The fashion mix and match is quite bold.  All patterns and fabrics are fair game.  How about pink and green paisley tops with orange striped pants or plaids with polka dots, why not?  Women shop in pajamas with heels or dressed to the nines with gorgeous silk dresses and everything in between.  Three inch heels are the perfect shoe choice for scaling mountains.  My understanding is that the women have freedom now to wear whatever shoe they want and do not have to worry about binding their feet, and consequently shoes and shoe styles are extremely varied.  Women sport “sunbrellas” to insure that their complexion remains creamy, porcelain white.   When men get hot they just roll up their shirts and expose their midriff.  They will soon be sporting an interesting tan line.

The headlong rush into entrepreneurial capitalism means that the faster buildings including high rises are constructed the sooner people can be piled into the buildings. Think instant cities.  Beijing and Xi’an are in a frenetic state of tear downs to clear land for the high rises.  Unfortunately the quality of construction and the corresponding infrastructure leave much to be desired. The bamboo scaffolding certainly inspires confidence.  I doubt building codes have been invented here and if there is a building code then I am certain that a few hundred RMB judiciously paid could substitute for the code and inspection. In contrast Chinese icons and tourist destinations including Forbidden City, Summer Palace, the Terra Cotta Warrior site, the Great Wall and, Tiananmen Square are meticulously maintained and repaired on a regular schedule.  The historical landmarks were built during the Imperial reigns for the Quin, Ming and Han Dynasties and the highest possible quality of construction was emphasized and expected.  The landmarks are gorgeous treasures that China showcases to Chinese nationals and foreign tourists.

Our visit is approaching the end, and I am looking forward to adding another couple of comments in a subsequent post.  Thanks for the opportunity to share.

Learning Chinese: 7 Tips for Beginners

People keep asking me, “So now that you’ve been in Xi’an since August, are you fluent in Chinese?”

The answer is a very hearty, “no” (said with a smile because I’m only at a “survivor Chinese” level).

But I’ve learned a lot about learning languages–specifically Chinese–and armed with this information, I think I will continue studying Chinese. Here’s what I wish I had known when I first arrived in China:

1. Don’t think that learning Chinese is impossible! I can’t even remember how many people told me, “Oh don’t bother trying to learn Chinese. I gave up after 1 year.” I think that having that attitude set me back a few months (well, that and trying to get used to living in a new country and being a first year teacher–one of the harder tasks I’ve set for myself).

2. Learn some of the characters. I have picked up about 20 characters from self-study and osmosis, but I wish that I had actually put an effort into learning how to read some Chinese. People told me to start off with the oral/listening component of the language, but now that I’ve dedicated some time to learning characters, I’m kicking myself for not starting earlier. The language is just reinforced so much when you can read a character and try to figure out the structure and the meaning of several characters together. Plus, it’s an awesome feeling to “decode” Chinese.

3. Pimsluer’s Chinese is really boring, but it works (for me at least). No, I didn’t learn Chinese in “10 days” like they advertised (lies!), but taxi drivers could understand what I was saying. My problem was that I wasn’t as consistent as I needed to be, and I wanted to learn some of the things like, “What’s your name?” much earlier than the second CD. Shouldn’t that information be on the first CD?

4. Rosetta Stone taught me random words, but I also thought it was really boring. I learned how to say things like, “dog,” “plane,” “the ball is under the boy.” I never made it all the way through the program though. I’m going to give it another go, but also try Chinese Pod, which I heard works well for people who want to study on their own. Also, OpenCulture has some great language learning resources. I especially liked Chinese Lessons with Serge Melnyk!

5. You will learn what you use. Duh. The words that I will remember in Chinese are the ones that I actually use on a regular basis–things I say in grocery stores, taxis, and post offices.

6. The best way to learn a language? Stop talking in your native one! I work with people who speak English, and I teach English. It’s hard to really learn a language (quickly) without immersing yourself. As much as I wish I could have learned by osmosis, it just wasn’t possible for me since I was also surrounding myself with so much English. I think that’s why immersion programs like the Middlebury program are so good. That said…

7. Learn the tones first! One thing that has helped me being in China is being surrounded by the sound of the language all the time–even if I’m not conscious of it. I’ve learned how to imitate the sound of Chinese by listening to it everyday. I had lessons twice a week for one hour each for several months, and my teacher drilled the tones into my head. It was boring, but if you want to be understood, you really need to practice your tones with a native speaker who can correct you.

One thing that I find funny about learning Chinese is when I can’t think of the right word to use in Chinese, it often pops into my head in Spanish. Language learning is wild. We’ll see how long I keep up the Chinese study.

 

Reunion in Beijing

It has been almost a year since I’ve seen my mama and sister! Here we are at the Jinshanling section of the Great Wall of China on a typical smoggy day. I’m so happy!

Better than Potato Chips

Oh friends. I have discovered a strangely addictive snack. I passed by these bags of salty gems countless times in the grocery, but I never purchased them because I thought they looked like they could be insects. My friend finally made me eat one the other day, promising me that there was nothing remotely insect-y about this food item.

Fried broad beans. They are crunchy and salty and starchy like potato chips, but I trick myself into thinking they are sort of healthy because of the protein and fiber. They remind me a little of roasted chick peas, and apparently they are popular in the Middle East and Peru as well.

Tyler, new job for you. Go to Uwajimaya and find me some Chinese style fried broad beans, yes?

Using Hands to Count in China

In preparation for my mom and sister’s visit to China, I’ve been thinking about the things that don’t strike me as different anymore that might make my family scratch their heads. One thing that I take for granted now is the way that Chinese people count to 10 on their fingers. There is nothing different about the way that they count from 1-5, but once they get to 6, things change. I’m bringing this back to the US. Counting on one hand is so convenient!

6

六 liù (six) looks like you’re in California, about the go surfing. I sort of want to shout “Gnarly, dude!” whenever I shopkeeper flashes a “six” at me.

7

七 qī (seven) I told one of my classes that whenever I use the sign for 7, I think about meatballs. As in, “that’s a spicy meatball!” (said in an Italian accent while moving the “7” sign for emphasis).

8

八 bā (eight) This one is easy to remember. It looks like a gun. I thought I was going crazy when I saw people doing this at first.

9

九 jiǔ (nine) I think about Tony/Danny in the Shining…redrum, redrum, redum…

10

十 shí (ten) Well 10 is easy, you just make a fist OR use both hands to make a cross that looks like a 10 in Chinese. At first, I just remembered that it looked like a roman numeral 10 because people are usually lazy and their “t” looks more like an “x.”

I am so excited to see my mama and Katherine! They’ll be sure to point out all of the different things in China that I think are “normal” now.

Visiting Luoyang and the Longmen Grottoes

The first three photos and the last photo were taken by my friend, Tom. The Longmen Grottoes were…unreal. Photos and words don’t do justice.

Sunbrellas Out in Full Force

Families On Bikes

Preemptive Nostalgia

I’ve spent days thinking about this blog post, and now I’ve spent an hour writing it.

And it didn’t autosave.

Oh the horrors of losing your essay right before you turned it in. The references and the sentences. How can I recreate it?

Well, shoot. I can’t. So here’s what I was trying to say in a nutshell.

I think many failed travel blogs peter out toward the end of the experience because things start to get familiar, routine. Why blog about something that doesn’t seem out of the ordinary? Eating rice with chopsticks, chatting with Brits or Kiwis, talking in Chinese.They all seem ‘normal.’

I remember one of my very first days here, when I was in Wuxi, I was walking around the river with one an older man who taught English or Math or History, and I took out my bright pink camera and took photos ofeverything.The women on bikes, the mountains, the barges filled to capacity:

He told me: “Oh, I remember when I still was taking photos in China. One day you will stop because everything will feel ‘normal.'”

I didn’t believe him.

My good friend, Rebecca, a fellow expat who lived in Seoul, Korea for a year, told me something like, “One day, this place will feel like your home, and the people you are with will be your good friends.”

I didn’t believe her either.

I didn’t understand when the Jacksons told me life would be full of ups and downs, when Professor F and L gave me A Bend in the Yellow River that my life would have similarities, or when my professor, Margo, warned me about the time parents bribed her to give their children A’s in Peru…How could my life in China be like the lives of other expats? But the cliche is true. Living in a foreign country changes you, and I can’t help but wonder what my life would be like if I stayed in Xi’an for another year.

I don’t want to be nostalgic before I even leave, but today I realized something that I have thought while walking along the corner in Charlottesville or the U-district in Seattle or my own neighborhood in Atlanta: I’m going to miss this place.

The Queen’s English: Top 12

I think I’m learning more English than my students… Here are some phrases I might bring back with me to the states:

1. I’m knackered. = I’m exhausted.
2. That’s pants! = That’s rubbish!
3. That’s rubbish! = That’s trash!
4. Marking = Grading
5. You alright? = Are you okay?
6. Bullocks (This is apparently a vulgar word…I, however, did not learn this until I started saying it all the time.  Only then did my British colleagues tell me I was cursing.) = google it…
7. Pips = Seeds (like in a lemon or orange)
8. Grill = Broil
9. Kit = Sports Gear
10. Could do = Might/Probably
11. Speciality = Specialty
12. Kip = Nap

And above all, don’t pronounce all “t’s” as “d’s  like us “lazy Americans.” (Just think,..how do you say the word, “British?” With a “d” or a “t” sound?)