Good-bye China

I’m finally getting around to doing the last blog post for Amy’s China Adventure. I’ve been home now for more than a week. It took about a week to get over the jetlag and reverse culture shock.

My final trip in China – to Huangshan (Yellow Mountain) in Anhui province – didn’t disappoint. Daisy and I took the cable car to the top of the mountain, stayed overnight and walked down the mountain the next day. Luckily, we managed to catch Huangshan’s famed sunrise, although we were told there was only a 40% chance we’d see it due to the weather. From start to finish, Huangshan was one big money grab, but the sunrise, the haunting mists and the spectacular views were worth it. And I can say that I got out into nature at least once in China! Actually I’m very proud of myself for undertaking the 2.5-hour trek down the mountain. I’ve never been an “outdoors girl”, but maybe that’s changing, if only a little. As I approach my 30s, I’m trying to incorporate more physical activity into my life. I enjoyed the hike down the mountain, though it killed my knees for the next few days.

At about 5 am, the sun emerges from Huangshan's famous mists

Beginning the hike down Huangshan

After Huangshan, the whirlwind of activity happened as predicted – along with sad good-byes – and within days of my final trip, I was home. Already, there are aspects of China I miss. Obviously, I don’t miss everything! I’ll use this final blog entry to reflect on the best and worst of my China Adventure.

First, the top 5 things I will not miss about China, many of which I’ve dealt with in past blog entries:

1. The staring: I forgot how nice it is to be able to walk around in public without becoming the main attraction. I am a laowai no more!

2. Lack of cleanliness: After five months, I can part ways with the omnipresent hand sanitizer. On the upside, after fighting off untold numbers of germs in China, my immune system has probably never been better!

3. Pollution: I have a renewed appreciation for Newfoundland’s unspoiled environment. The province may be known for RDF (rain, drizzle and fog), but at least when you see mist in the air, you know it’s… well, mist. Not something more toxic. I will lump the ever-present cigarette smoke into this category too.

4. The driving: It is really good to be back in a place where drivers stop at a crosswalk… or for that matter, a red light.

5. Line jumping: I don’t think any length of time in China could dull my annoyance at people who cut you off in line.

Too serious to put in a top-5 list is the lack of freedom. You can never really forget in China that the message is always tightly controlled by the Communist Party. There is no free press. You cannot access certain web sites (the number of which grew during my time there as the 20th anniversary of Tiananmen Square approached). I am happy to be back in the True North Strong and Free, where I can buy a copy of Prisoner of the State off the shelves (and I have). I am happy to soon be moving to the Land of the Free. No more anonymous proxy servers for skirting the Great Fire Wall. China is a land of contrasts and perhaps the biggest contrast of them all is the lack of political freedom coupled with a raging free enterprise economy. It is possible to see echoes of late-80s China in the situation that is unfolding in Iran – and I hope they are not on course for a Tiananmen Square type crackdown.

The frustrations of life in China comprised maybe 10% of my time there. It is hard to encapsulate the remaining 90% into five neat bullets – so I won’t. I have absolutely no regrets about walking away from an excellent job to make a life – albeit a temporary one – on the other side of the world. Life as an ESL teacher was more rewarding than I possibly could have imagined sitting in Newfoundland. I believe when I look back at my time in China years from now, certain memories and images will remain crystal clear. I’ll see the smiles of my Tuesday night Oral English students when I told them how proud I was of their progress. One of my favourite classes, I had no problem reminding them that during our first class together, I was constantly telling them to stop speaking Chinese! But by the end of the term, here they were... performing skits, speed dating and debating - all in English.

I’ll remember Andrea in that same Oral English class. Despite language and cultural differences, something about her reminded me of myself. One of the quieter ones, she blew me away with a poignant speech about how when she was a little girl, she’d only talk to her mother. And I remembered my mom telling me that when she took me to kids’ birthday parties, I wouldn’t leave her side. Andrea went on to describe the efforts she’s made to come out of her shell and get more confident. She said she never dreamed she’d be speaking to a class in English… kind of like how a little girl who couldn’t be left overnight at Brownie Camp never thought she’d be teaching English in China!

I’ll miss English Corner, both at the University and Web International English, my second job. I’ve talked about English Corner in several other blog posts.

I’ll also miss my Chinese lessons with Steve and Connie, though I’m continuing my Chinese study at home – and will make every effort to continue it in DC, though no doubt the demands of an MBA program will make that difficult. I have to keep my eye on the big picture. I’m about to do an MBA with a specialization in international business. China is the market to watch. Those who speak Chinese will have a huge advantage in international business. ChinesePod has been a phenomenal resource, though obviously it can’t beat the face-to-face interaction I had with my tutors. My Chinese language progress in China was far from linear. The first 3 months or so, my learning was very incremental, much to my frustration. But it’s like when May hit, things starting clicking into place. My conversational ability suddenly improved. On my last night in Changzhou, I had dinner with Steve and his family. His wife, Spring, only speaks Chinese. Previously, I hadn’t been able to understand anything Spring said – and I wasn’t able to say much to her. But things were different my last night. I definitely still needed Steve there as a translator, but I was able to understand more of what she said and, just as importantly, could make some comments back to her. Imagine if I was staying longer!

I’ll remember the little things too, like the walks back to my apartment after my evening classes. As a laowai, I found walking at night more enjoyable, as the darkness afforded some protection from the stares. Walking back to my apartment around 9 pm, I’d go past Market Street, where all the restaurants were still open. Couples would be sitting or strolling around, holding hands. People would fly past on bikes, sometimes with a friend perched precariously on the back, side saddle style. In good weather, guys would still be on the basketball courts. Turning the corner from Market Street, the hotel's giant, illuminated pen would come into view.

My home in China - at night the pen is brightly illuminated

My time in China confirmed what I started to suspect during my two terms in Europe during University: I love the international life! I love the lack of predictability. I love the challenge of adapting to a new way of doing things. I love getting on a train or a plane on the weekend and seeing another new place.

This is a complete about-face from the way I used to be. As a child, I hated change. I didn’t want our family to get a new car or move into a new house. I hated to be away from my parents. I was scared of everything from the dark to dogs, to speaking in class to the Thriller video (I have to pay homage somewhere in this post to my first favourite singer). Over the past 10 years or so, I’ve made a point to push myself outside my comfort zone - to live my "what ifs" - and China was the biggest stretch yet. It's scary to pack your bags and immerse yourself in a completely different culture, but for me the rewards far outweighed any initial culture shock.

China is not the end of my adventures. In less than a month, the next phase of my life begins as I move to Washington, DC to do my MBA at George Washington University. I hope you’ll follow me over to my new blog: amy-warren.blogspot.com.

See you in the District.

Student Appreciation

"I want to express my thanks to you for bringing me so much happiness and knowledge."

So texted one of my students a few days ago, adding that she wanted to meet me to give me a gift. I expected to go home with a half-empty suitcase, having used up the tons of toiletries I brought with me. But that won't happen - I've lost track of the number of gifts I've received from students! I've been given jewellery, Chinese combs and traditional decorations. One student sang me a song and others gave me personal notes of thanks. I'll keep all of it forever.

One of my gifts bringing some colour to my apartment.

Exams are finished. Grading is finished. In marking, I ran into the foreign teacher dilemma. Apparently foreign teachers here are known for always giving high marks. Not me. In the end, I feel the students who deserved an "A", got an "A"; those who deserved a "C" got a "C". And a couple who truly didn't care and didn't do anything in the course got less than that.

On Friday, I met my friend Eva for the last time. I've mentioned Eva before. I first met her when she was in one of my classes at Web English. Eva is a Marketing Specialist and we hit it off immediately. She introduced me to some of her friends, who are also young professionals. The students at the University are great, but I'm happy to have met people in my own "life stage". I went clubbing with them last month and on Friday we played badminton in the new (and first-rate) sports facility in the northern part of Changzhou. After badminton, we had tea....with so many people, the conversation often slipped into Chinese, but that was ok. It helps me improve mine. Now the challenge is continuing to practice when I leave!

With Eva (to my left) and friends

In 24 hours I depart for my last trip in China. Along with a student, I'm going to Huangshan (Yellow Mountain) in Anhui province. It is said to be the most beautiful mountain in all of China, with breathtaking views. I'm sure there will be a flurry of activity when I return from Huangshan as I try to squeeze in last-minute visits with friends before heading to the airport on Monday. I may not have time for another post on this side of the world. If not, there will be a wrap-up post from home....

Zai jian.

University Life

One of the questions I asked my Oral English students in their one-on-one interviews this week was "How is university different from high school?" Every student said that they have more freedom now than they did in high school.

Everything is relative. To an outsider like me, their university lives appear tightly controlled. University students here are very different from home. For one thing, despite being 18 to 22 years old, they are still treated like children by their parents and other authority figures. The maturity level is a good 3 to 4 years younger than it is as home - sometimes I feel like I'm teaching at the grade 9 or 10 level, rather than university. Say anything at all about dating or getting married and invariably they erupt into giggles. I had a good discussion going in one class about when someone was considered an adult in China. I had only a couple of students say 18. Most said that you're an adult when you graduate college, and a few went even farther, saying you're not an adult until you get married! (Which really should happen by your late 20s at the latest - I'm definitely approaching "old maid" territory.)

While college life in the west is often marked by parties and drinking, you can forget that here. The school gate closes at 10 pm and it's lights out by 11 pm. Try to go back to your dorm after 11 pm and you'll find the doors locked. Yes, they lock the students in. This disturbs me more than any other aspect of college life here. There are no fire escapes. The doors are locked. Apparently the threat posed by some student sneaking out to meet a boyfriend or girlfriend outweighs the risk of students dying in a fire. Students aren't allowed to have any appliances in their dorms, but still.... you can't control for everything.

Walking around campus on Friday and Saturday nights, you can look in classroom windows and see many heads bent over books. It doesn't seem like a lot of fun, but then again - it's not like I can't relate. In many ways, I feel like I inhabit some middle ground between the students and the foreign teachers here. In me, my students have probably met one of the few foreigners who rivalled their ratio of studying to socializing! Or at least until I got to business school, when the value of practice (over theory) and relationship building went up dramatically.

The students here don't appear to have much freedom, but as I said - everything is relative. University is a bastion of freedom compared to their grade school lives. They can go home on weekends. They can leave the school on weekdays as long as they're back by 10 pm. One senior student describes how her grade school life was basically lived in the classroom. Every minute was strictly controlled. She was either studying, eating, exercising (mandatory) or sleeping. After lights out, the teachers would listen at the dorms to make sure no one was talking. She was only allowed to go home to see her parents for what amounted to a few hours every month. This sounds a lot like prison to me.

A recent commentary in The Economist bemoans the "underworked" American child. Here is an excerpt:

"American parents have led grass-root protests against attempts to extend the school year into August or July, or to increase the amount of homework their little darlings have to do. They still find it hard to believe that all those Chinese students, beavering away at their books, will steal their children’s jobs."

Yes, there is room for reform. The amount of time American kids (i.e., North American kids) spend in school should be increased - to an extent. But not for one second would I trade our system for the one here. For one thing, "beavering away at their books" is not equal to engaging in discussion or creative thought. The school I teach at isn't considered great by Chinese standards, so perhaps my experience isn't reflective of China as a whole. I can just speak to what I see. The studying at this school appears to be mostly memorization. I've been told that even at the thesis level, most papers are copied from the Internet. For the most part, students have the same opinion on social issues and trot out the same lines (e.g., "Every coin has two sides"). I'm in the process of correcting culture exams and it is amazing how many answers (to opinion questions!) sound eerily the same. There may be a model system somewhere, but the Chinese educational system certainly isn't it.

River Town

I finally started reading River Town a few weeks ago. I'd never heard of it before coming to China, but apparently it's quite famous amongst ESL teachers in this country. It was written by Peter Hessler, a man who spent two years in the mid-90s teaching English in Sichuan province in central China. He and his colleague were the first foreigners in Fuling (the "village" of 200,000 or so where they taught) for 50 years. He says that they'd draw a crowd of about 30 whenever they went somewhere to eat. That makes my occasional annoying "hello" seem trivial.

I wish I'd started the book earlier. I'm finding it quite inspiring - particularly his commitment to learning Chinese. I admit to being jealous of any foreigner who can speak Chinese with reasonable fluency. As Ken noted in a post some time ago, Chinese is considered the fourth hardest language for an English speaker to learn. Yet it sounds like Hessler was able to converse with the locals within a few months. I am nowhere near that and that has been a barrier between me and Chinese society. I'm limited to speaking with those who can speak English. I can have simple (and I mean really simple - and slow) conversations with my tutors, but I get very shy about trying my Chinese in the general public. Actually, I haven't found the Chinese public particularly helpful in my Chinese learning. The blank stares, dialects and rapid-fire speech aren't exactly what a "newbie" needs. When I arrived, I understood 0% of what was said around me. Today, I'm probably still at a miserable 2 to 3%. It feels like an almost impenetrable language, which can be frustrating. Thankfully, there is Chinesepod... but that is a post for another day.

Maybe Peter Hessler is a genius or some sort of amazing polyglot. After all, the man did go to Oxford on a Rhodes Scholarship. He even adopted a Chinese alter ego - Ho Wei - whom he kept separate from his western identity. Maybe if I'd been 爱米 (ài mǐ) more often, my Chinese ability would have taken off. Maybe! There are certainly days I feel "more Chinese" - perhaps I'm experiencing the beginnings of an alter ego. 爱米 puts her hair up (to better hide the laowai hair), carries an umbrella in the hot sun, can push her way onto a bus, steps out into the middle of traffic without a second thought, and walks slower, taking daintier steps. It helps that 爱米 happens to have a figure more like a Chinese woman! Amy, by contrast, is much more aloof from Chinese society. She wears her hair in full laowai curls, has the walk of a western businesswoman (i.e., a strut), has the iPod on at full blast to drown out any "hellos" or "laowai" remarks, and gets annoyed at the Chinese tendency to push (as pedestrians) and almost run people over (as drivers). Maybe it's my imagination, but I feel I'm stared at less when I'm 爱米.

I'm into my last few weeks here. I'm happy to be going home, but something tells me that if I was staying longer - a year or more - 爱米 might have started to prevail over Amy.

The 49th Parallel

As a work term student in Germany, I remember feeling indignant when a German colleague dared to suggest that Canada and the United States are very similar. No! We have a Prime Minister, not a President! We have universal healthcare! Like many Canadians, one of my biggest travel pet peeves was being mistaken for an American.

Now as an expat in China, I don’t just think the US and Canada are very similar; I think we’re exactly the same. We are just like the Americans and very similar to the Germans. It takes coming to a culture that is truly different to realize just how fundamentally the same we are on the “big picture” things that make a society and a culture – beliefs, values, customs. I no longer blink when a student asks me a question that starts with, “In America….?” And I can answer the question, even though I’m not American, because we’re practically the same. Of course we’re indistinguishable to the Chinese. We don’t even have the accent difference like the British or the Australians.

Almost all my fellow expats – those I’ve gotten to know the last few months – are American. I was the only Canadian in our orientation group in Shanghai. I’ve travelled with Americans. My fellow English teachers at Jiangsu Teachers’ University are all American. I’ve met precisely three Canadians in the last five months – one guy at a bar in Shanghai and two other teachers here in Changzhou. That’s it. When this country seems truly perplexing, when the laowai annoyances pile up, it’s the Americans I commiserate with. One of our countries may be a little more leftist than the other (a difference shrinking under the Obama administration), but we are basically the same.

After China, the next chapter of my life begins in the United States. I’m home for only about 5 weeks, and then I’m moving to DC to do my MBA. I got an email today about “International Orientation”, which starts on August 7, a full week before American students have their orientation. The email also noted that “international students provide rich diversity to our programs”. Now – I’ve had a good chuckle about my “international” status with a few Americans here. I can appreciate that I’m not American, and thus fall into the “international” category. But I ain’t bringing much diversity with me to DC. And I really hope this International Orientation doesn’t include mandatory seminars with titles like “Adapting to Life in America” or “How to Cope When English is Your Second Language.” On August 8 and 9, we have an organized trip to pick up household items, get a cell phone and other such things. Fantastic…. Having set up house in China, I’m not sure I can handle all the English-language signs.

Not only am I not expecting culture shock from DC, I already have a social network started there, thanks to two previous trips. Both times I’ve been in DC, I’ve left with a heavy heart, feeling more at home there than in NL.

Life below the 49th parallel begins in less than two months...

My Least Favourite Word

I’ve decided my absolute least favourite word in Chinese is laowai, followed closely by the only slightly better waiguoren, which literally means “out-of-country person”. Both are Chinese for “foreigners” (See the Wikipedia entry on laowai here.)

Obviously at home we have the concept of "foreigner”. But in no way do we throw the term around like they do here. An example: I ordered lunch today at a campus restaurant, and when my food was ready, the waitress literally sang out “laowai!” – “foreigner!” Even in homogenous NL, can you imagine someone of a different race sitting in a restaurant and being called a “foreigner”? In NL, with its 98% white population (or more), who would dare make the presumption that, say, a black person or Asian person hadn’t actually been born in the province? There are many things I’ll miss about China, but being called a laowai isn’t one of them. To me, it’s the ultimate example of China’s lingering xenophobia – it draws a line in the sand. There is “us” and there is “them” and never the two shall mix.

For someone like me who loves diversity – who has travelled to 14 countries and met people from around the world – this alone is a deterrent to staying long term in China. I’ll take Washington, DC, thank you very much, home to many “foreigners”, not to mention a myriad of embassies and international organizations. Beijing and Shanghai are improving, but a third-tier city like Changzhou is not somewhere I could live for long. For everything I’ll miss about Changzhou, I’m ready to leave the stares, the laowai shouts and the annoying “hellos” behind in three weeks….

That’s another thing about being an expat in China. Hardly a day goes by when I don’t have someone saying “hello” to me. That might sound pretty harmless, but much depends on tone. I have no problem with a little kid or teenager seeing me, smiling and saying “hello”. I don’t like the half-taunting “hellos” I get from some people, usually young guys with their buddies. It’s like they’re trying to impress their friends by mocking the laowai. You might be German, French or another nationality…. it doesn’t matter. If you’re white, you get the annoying “hello”. In a bad mood, it leaves me fantasizing darkly about going up to random Asian people in North America and saying “ni hao”…. who cares if they’re Japanese? They look Asian, so they must speak Chinese. I’m also tempted to let loose some rapid-fire English that leaves them in shock. “Hello” is probably the only English word these people know, as I suspect the better educated don’t do it.

I try to understand all this and not let it bother me. If I was part of a race that had continuously inhabited an area for 5,000 years – with almost zero immigration and political leaders with a taste for xenophobia – then I might stare and call people laowai too. You can’t even begin to compare NL, although our overwhelmingly white population mirrors China’s Han Chinese population (and to be fair, we have our own version of laowai in the term “Come From Away”, though we hardly bandy it about as they do here). I think in NL, we’re still very much aware that we all come from immigrants. Just a few hundred years ago, most of our families were still in Ireland, England or Scotland. The oldest settlement in North America, and our 500 years are a mere blip next to China.

As China opens up, I wonder how it will look in the future. Surely, there will be more and more children born to expats in the bigger cities. They won’t be "out-of-country people", but will they still be called waiguoren? In 20, 30, 40 years, will laowai be a thing of the past? I hope so.

Please See Me

My culture students have no doubt come to hate those three little words.

Written across the top of their homework, “please see me” means that I’ve caught them copying – copying from the textbook, the Internet or another student. It doesn’t matter.

Copying is not such a straight-forward issue as it is as home. To be caught plagiarizing at home is the height of academic dishonesty. But in China? This is the land of knock-off everything. There isn’t an idea or product immune to being copied. Long before I came to China, I sat in business classes where the trade-off between China’s huge market and the risk of intellectual property infringement was discussed.

As a teacher, I made it clear at the beginning of the term that in my classes, you don’t copy. If I catch you copying, you either re-write it or don’t get credit for the assignment. Perhaps this is a quirky foreign teacher thing that they don’t have to contend with in any other classes. Frankly, I don’t care. I’ve told them I’d rather see a lot of mistakes than perfect essays that I know they didn’t write themselves. You can learn from mistakes. I try to establish proof of copying before accusing them of it, as I feel that’s a pretty serious accusation to make (or at least it would be at home). This usually isn’t difficult as they make almost no effort to cover their tracks. Sentences are copied word-for-word from the book. They apparently think I’ll believe they know a word like “superfluity”; I’ll get essays that some native speakers couldn’t write. Often, I can take sentences directly from their essays, type them into Google and voila – a Chinese website that supplies English essays!

I did this just last week and attached the print-out of the webpage to the student’s homework when I handed it back to stress how blatant the copying was. She came up to me at the break and started to cry, saying she’d been preparing for a big exam and had run out of time to write it herself. I’m fair – I don’t get mad at copiers, especially given the broad acceptance of it here. I always give them a second chance and say that I’m much more interested in their own ideas than in what a book or website says.

As the semester has worn on, I've made in-roads in the battle against copying. I’ll usually still catch 3 to 5 students (out of 40), but that is down from the 10 to 15 I had at the beginning of the term. An even bigger achievement? – the noticeable difference in both the quality and creativity of their essays, especially in the last round I corrected. I make an effort to assign essay questions that require original thought – questions to which there is no right or wrong answer. This differs completely from the rote memorization they’re used to. For instance, we’ve been studying Australia the last few weeks, and my latest homework assignment (and the last for the term) asked them to imagine that it’s the early 1800s and they are prisoners in the Australian penal colony. They were simply told to write a letter to their family at home, describing life in their new home. I haven’t corrected the papers yet, but I’m anticipating some interesting responses. Based on what I've seen in skits and presentations, I suspect some of these kids are very creative - they've just had it squashed out of them by a system that only cares about memorization and test-taking ability. And that saddens me.

Moonlighting in the Middle Kingdom

For the first time, I'll admit on my blog that I have a second job in Changzhou. I was reluctant to write about this, given that I'm technically not supposed to have another job according to my contract with the University. But the longer I'm here, the more I'm realizing it's not a big deal. For one thing, Teddy now knows about it and is cool with it. For another, most of the foreign English teachers have second jobs. The University only gave us 12 teaching hours a week. Even with lesson planning that barely adds up to one part-time job.

Since early March I've been teaching at Web International English, an English-language training centre. From what I gather, Web is a franchise operation. They are independently-run businesses throughout China - or at least throughout Jiangsu Province. There are two Webs in Changzhou. I teach at the one in Nan Da Jie in the city centre. There's another in the northern part of the city.

Reception Desk at Web International English

I found out about Web from another foreign teacher who had worked there. He introduced me to the manager and I had an interview on the spot (when does that ever happen at home for a professional position??). I told them at the outset that I wasn't in China only to work - I'm here to see the country and experience the culture too. I told them I could work weekends and Monday nights when I wasn't travelling.

So that's been my routine. When I'm in Changzhou, I typically work at Web on Sunday afternoons from 1 to 5 pm and Monday nights from 6 to 9 pm. That might not sound like a lot, but it's intensive, especially the four back-to-back Sunday classes. Teaching English here, in general, is exhausting work. You always have to be "on". You can't get lazy with your language and start resorting to idiomatic expressions. The longer I'm here, the easier it gets, but it can still be draining.

Teaching at Web is different from teaching at the University, though I enjoy both. Web has exposed me to a wider range of English learners. At the University about 95% of my students are female, while at Web the numbers are much more balanced. Also, most Web students are working professionals, though there are some school-age students. With an average tuition of 10,000 RMB per year, you have to be making a good salary to study at Web.... or have well-to-do parents and/or parents who are very committed to their kids learning English. In general, I find Web's students to be much more motivated. If I was paying that much for Chinese lessons, I'd be motivated too! Class sizes are kept small: Private classes will have 1 to 4 students, while salon classes have no more than 10. Compared to my culture classes of 40 at the University, this obviously helps with learning. Incidentally, the pay is better at Web too - though I'm hardly in China for the money! I would have stayed home if I was just interested in saving as much as possible before my MBA.

On Monday nights, I usually do English Corner at Web. Web's English Corner is quite different from the one at the University. The University's is very informal - we show up and talk to the students in English. For my first English Corner at Web, I did what you should never do in China and that's make an assumption. I assumed it would work like the University's English Corner. I showed up just expecting to have an informal chat with a few students.

Not so! There was certainly a "deer caught in headlights" moment when I walked in the room and saw about 50 people sitting there, all looking at me expectantly. I say "expectantly" because it turns out that the English teacher is expected to deliver a presentation at English Corner! If it's a PowerPoint presentation, then all the better. Well - thank God for Facebook (and thank God for Toastmasters, which has improved my ability to think quickly on my feet in a public speaking situation). I'd prepared nothing, but managed to navigate my way around Facebook in Chinese to find my photos. It was my first English Corner with them, so it was the ideal time to introduce myself, talk about my background and show them photos of family and friends. They loved it.

Since that first English Corner, Monday nights have truly become a highlight in my week. I love the crowd at Web English Corner. Some of them crack me up, they're such characters. They ask great questions. They are infinitely curious. A few speak fantastic English and continually amaze me with their knowledge of western cultures. I've talked to them about Newfoundland and Labrador, Canadian food, networking strategies and left-handedness (since they're always commenting on the fact I use my left hand). At the next English Corner I'll show them some photo highlights from my time in China. They love to see foreigners in the context of their own country.

My last English Corner is on June 15. I'll be sad to leave Web and based on what I hear, I think the feeling will be mutual. But my "Web memories" will last a lifetime.

The English Corner crowd at Web English

Gender Relations

One of the many paradoxes about China is that it is very conservative in its approach to homosexuality (i.e., it is neither acknowledged nor accepted), yet both men and women can be openly demonstrative (read: touchy-feely) with members of their own sex - and that is viewed as perfectly acceptable. It is common to see women walking together linked arm in arm, or even holding hands. Men will walk with their arms slung around each other. At English Corner, I often see female students practically hanging off each other.

Those who know me know that I'm very socially liberal. I'm proud to be from one of the few countries in the world that allows gay marriage. Yet even in "gay-friendly" countries like Canada, would we not make certain assumptions about two adult women holding hands? Those assumptions just aren't present in China. What a topsy-turvy world. I suspect a certain percentage of the Chinese population is gay - like the rest of the world - but that most Chinese gays are still in the closet. Like left-handedness, being gay marks you as different and this is a country where conformity rules.

An example of this homosexual non-acceptance/same-sex touchy-feely behaviour happened just tonight. Another teacher gave me the idea of holding a pretend speed-dating event in my Oral English class. Great idea! It certainly gives everyone a chance to speak - A LOT. No matter that there are only four guys in my class. I just had many of the women pretend to be men. I knew that would fly here in China.... there's an innocence here that allows women to pretend to be men wooing women with absolutely zero homosexual overtones. Some of the women were really hamming it up too, grabbing each other's hands and saying "I love you". Behaviour was more constrained in opposite-sex conversations. I accurately predicted that most of the "matches" would be same sex. Sure enough, at the end of the night, the women rushed to their desired partners - all of them other women. The four guys were left standing alone.

There's something rather Shakespearean about all this. In Shakespeare's time, homosexuality was tantamount to sodomy, yet men played female roles on the stage. It was acceptable within a given context, but once it went beyond those bounds, it was no longer ok. In China, you can be quite affectionate with those of the same sex - but that affection has to stop outside the bounds of a romantic relationship.

Vancouver Meets New York City

I haven't been great about blogging about my travels. Since arriving in China, I've been to Shanghai, Nanjing, Suzhou, Beijing and most recently, Hong Kong. For whatever reason, I think writing about me being a typical tourist is not as interesting as my everyday life as an English teacher in Changzhou.

However, I'll make an exception for Hong Kong. Two weeks ago I spent the weekend there with my usual travel buddies, Peter and Adrienne. I knew HK would be different from the mainland, but I wasn't prepared for how different. It was China, but without the 3 "S" vices: smoking, spitting and staring. While HK hasn't gone so far as to make bars smoke-free, you saw a lot more no-smoking signs in general. And fewer people seemed to smoke anyway, so even bars and clubs weren't too bad.

I didn't see one person spit the entire weekend - or for that matter, do anything rude in public. And if anyone wanted to stare at "waiguoren" (foreigners) in Hong Kong, they'd be doing A LOT of staring. Unlike the rest of China, where Han Chinese make up about 95% of the population (and more like 98% in Jiangsu province), Hong Kong was very diverse and cosmopolitan. In Beijing I saw a lot of foreigners, but they always looked like tourists. Even there, I couldn't escape the occasional stare or request for a photo - Beijingers may be used to foreigners, but the city gets a lot of tourists from other parts of China. Not so in Hong Kong. It is actually easier for a foreigner to travel to HK than a Chinese person. To prevent an influx of people across its borders, HK requires mainland citizens to get a visa. We only needed our passports.

Compared to Beijing or Shanghai - the mainland's most "diverse" cities (relatively speaking) - HK had a lot more foreigners, many of whom looked like they worked there. We came across this expat scene in the famous Lan Kwai Fong bar district...

Although HK has been reunited with China now for almost 12 years, it still has its own currency and government. People drive on the left, just like in Britain. Its subway system, the MTR, is one of the cleanest and most efficient I've experienced. And Hong Kongers are taller than people on the mainland.... I resumed my natural role of bringing down the average height in a room. To me, HK felt like a combination of New York City (skyscrapers, famous skyline) and Vancouver (coastal, yet mountainous). It even had a beach area that reminded me of the south of France.

Hong Kong's famous skyline

At the top of Victoria Peak, with a view of Hong Kong's city centre

Hong Kong was expensive. It was hot. And I loved every minute of it :-) It is the kind of city that I can see myself living in long term. I've loved my time in Changzhou, but I don't think this could be anything but short term for me. I miss aspects of western life. The inability to blend in gets to me. You could live in HK, but still have a piece of home. And a piece of other people's homes too. In the two days we were there, we had Cantonese, Indian, Vietnamese and Western food. On the Western front, I finally got to indulge in the steak I've been craving for some time. And paired with a good red wine at that! We were delighted to see an Outback Steakhouse across the street from our hostel.

Tasting steak for the first time in 3 1/2 months - yum!

Hanging with Zhong Guo Ren (Chinese People)

I've decided to return home a little earlier than planned. When I booked my flight, I didn't know when the term would end, so I chose July 9. It turns out all of my classes will be finished by mid-June, so I've changed my departure to June 22 - and thankfully it cost nothing more than the change fee.

My earlier departure has nothing to do with the experience I'm having here and everything to do with wanting more time with family and friends before moving to DC the first week of August.

I've made some great friends who I will be sad to leave next month. I'm posting some pictures of some recent excursions.

With Connie, one of my Chinese tutors, in Hongmei Park

Playing Monopoly with Steve, another tutor, and his son. Steve often invites foreign teachers to his home.

At Las Vegas, a local club

May Day Fireworks

At home, we sometimes joke about fireworks on New Year's Eve barely lasting until 12:05 am. No such worries in China. I'm now used to fireworks going off at the oddest times - like 10 am on a Sunday or 5 am on a Thursday. I don't see the point of setting off fireworks in the daytime, but apparently some people do.

Sometimes people set off "homemade" fireworks outside the hotel where I live. This makes me a little nervous; the CCTV fire in Beijing during Spring Festival is never far from my mind at these times. Yes, people at home may set off fireworks in their backyard for NYE or Canada Day, but I think they generally avoid setting them off in busy areas where there are cars and pedestrians. Again, not so here. Check out this video which I shot from my apartment on Friday, the big May 1st holiday. (I didn't think I had much of a Newfoundland accent - especially over here - but apparently I developed one for this video).

This Week's Miscellany

Here is some commentary on things that have either happened to me this week or have been rolling around in my head....

Challenging Gender Roles

There are some topics I won't go near with my students - but gender roles is not one of them. While China is not as traditional as Japan when it comes to gender roles, it's also not as progressive as North America. Some of my fellow teachers have commented on how female students will say they're not as smart as their male classmates.

So you can imagine that I - with the business background and aiming for the top of the corporate ladder - get great joy out of presenting students with a different perspective on male/female roles. At English Corner I was asked whether I want to get married and have children. I think I mildly shocked some of them (especially the guys) when I said that though I'd like to meet someone to share my life with, I don't want children. I've just never been the maternal type. Even "marriage" doesn't have to be a traditional marriage - I could do common law. It's almost unheard of here for men and women to live together before getting married. I was a little surprised to see a few of the girls around me nodding and agreeing when I explained my views. Things are changing here, especially for the younger generation.

I think it's no secret that although I'm quite career focused, I'm also very conscientious about the way I look - my vanity doesn't allow me to step outside my apartment without make-up! I make an effort to be the "whole package" - and I do this for me. I feel better when I look better. So in that respect, I hope I'm presenting my female students with a different view of femininity. You can take pride in your appearance and still be smart and successful.


Things I Miss

I'm starting to really miss some things that you can't get over here - or at least aren't as easy to get. I did a presentation on Canadian food and drink for some older students at another school. (Yes, I did talk about NL food, though I don't like much of it myself - e.g., fish and chips). Of course I had to mention Tim Horton's! When I arrive in the airport in Toronto, you can be sure my first stop will be Tim Horton's. There are days when I really crave a Tim's sandwich or chili - and of course, their coffee. The Chinese don't really do coffee. I have to make do with a cup of instant stuff in the mornings. McDonald's has "real" coffee, so sometimes I'll stop in for one when I'm in the Nan Da Jie area. Ironically, my consumption of tea has dropped here. I can't seem to get into the loose tea leaves. You can buy tea bags, but I don't bother with it. I drank a lot more green tea at home. The most tea I've had over here was the week mom and I were in Beijing.

Also on the topic of food, I miss steak! I'm really looking forward to a nice, juicy, BBQ steak when I get home. I miss happy hours with the girls at The Keg and Keg-size glasses of Pinot Grigio. Wine isn't very popular here and it's hard to find good wine, unless you want to pay a bundle for it.

I miss big, North American-style breakfasts - hash browns, sausages, toast.... yum! I'm getting hungry just thinking about it. Here, what people eat for breakfast doesn't differ much from lunch. As I mentioned in a previous post, the Chinese don't eat bread like we do. Once again, in Beijing it's much easier to live like a westerner. So I reveled in toast a few mornings there.

I also miss orderly lines....


Bu Hao Yi Si

I was having none of it this morning. After my early morning class, I stopped to get something to eat at one of the small snack places on campus. There were maybe four people in front of me. They were orderly. And just as I get to the front of the line, I see her coming.... I knew exactly what would happen next. She immediately skipped the line and started to push her money at the server. I don't think so girlie - not today. I was too tired and too hungry. I go right up beside her and say in a very annoyed voice "bu hao yi si" and hand over my money first. One of my tutors told me this means "excuse me". Now, I don't know if the annoyed-sounding "excuse me" translates well culturally in China - maybe there is a stronger phrase - but she knew what I meant. She was quite taken aback. Her friend started to laugh and I got a comment, but I only caught "English". Maybe she was saying "damn English speaker". I don't care. Damn line jumper!

In all fairness, I experienced some unexpected politeness this week too. A man (besides Teddy or Steve) actually held the door open for me and a male student let me go ahead of him in line in a convenience store. There's hope yet for chivalry in China!


Expectations Management

Thinking back to December and January, when I was preparing to come over here... it's like I can't even remember what my expectations were. I've learned so much and seen so much since arriving that it has completely obliterated any hazy images I had in my mind about China and its people. I think I was mentally prepared for more culture shock, which was good. I expected to find more differences. I didn't know what to expect from Changzhou. Not knowing what I'd find in stores here, I lugged over tons of toiletries (making my bag too heavy at the airport) - all things you can buy here, like contact solution and soap.

Having lived here now three months, I feel that the similarities are greater than the differences. I strongly believe that regardless of language or culture, people are essentially the same. Everyone wants to be listened to; everyone wants to be understood. My students laugh and smile. In fact, one of the things I'll miss most when I leave is all the smiling in my classes. I smile a lot, so maybe that's why I get a lot of smiles back. The smile is pretty much universal. Like young people at home, my students love to eat, sleep and hang out with their friends. People love a long weekend. Everyone is gearing up now for the Lao Dong Jie (May 1) holiday. I'm not travelling anywhere (technically, every weekend is a long weekend for me), but a friend is coming to visit and next weekend I'm going to Hong Kong.

And so concludes this week's miscellany :-)

Happy English

Back on campus, I'm reminded of why I made the right decision in coming over here. I love my classes, especially my smaller Oral English classes on Tuesday and Wednesday evenings. Here's a photo we took the other night (I just wish you could see the three girls behind me).

Also this week, my culture classes did their country presentations. Their group project for the term was to develop a tourism ad for a major English-speaking country (yes, you can see the influence of my business background in my teaching ;0). There were two components to the project: The ad itself (though most students did a PowerPoint) and an in-class presentation at a "Travel Expo", aimed at convincing their classmates to visit their assigned country. The presentations ran the gamut, and some were truly standouts. Some groups made a poster to complement their presentation; others adopted a TV show format where they interviewed people who'd already visited the country. Others had good taglines like "Canada - waiting for you" and "Take a journey, find your true self".

Selling America

Performing a skit about a Chinese student new to the UK

Coming from my Wednesday afternoon culture class, I came across a banner for the University's English Festival, which kicked off this week. When I saw it, I actually stopped, laughed out loud and took a photo.

Oh the irony: Celebrating English with some questionable English

"Happy English, I'm lovin' it!" Poor English plus a direct rip-off of McDonald's tagline, right down to the dropped "g" in "lovin'". I guess this is the slogan for this year's English Festival. Wow. Amusing, yet sad at the same time. They've gone to great effort and expense to bring five so-called "foreign experts" here to teach English, and it never occurred to anyone to ask one of us whether their "slogan" made sense? Is this the English they're holding up for students to model? I see this and I'm reminded of why students persist in saying things like, "I wish you happy every day."

Another funny thing about the McDonald's rip-off is that many students are under the impression that all "Americans" (i.e., I'm included) live to eat hamburgers. Perhaps this is an unconscious - or conscious - equation of English with the land of hamburger eating? Though I'm not sure that anyone thought about it that deeply before having the banner made....

A few other things about English Festival have left me scratching my head. After seeing the banner, I noticed a large crowd gathered outside the library. As it turns out, it was the opening ceremony for English Festival. I managed to catch the end, but wondered why the native English speakers hadn't even been invited to the opening ceremony. If I hadn't stumbled across it, I wouldn't have known it was happening. There were a number of University dignitaries there, and apparently there had been a student talent portion. It would've been nice to have been invited to a celebration of English, given what we're here to do.

At least the school involved us in their English Festival lecture series - though not without a hitch. The five of us each delivered a lecture on a subject of our choice. Sticking to what I know, last night I presented "Success in the West: Tips for Doing Business with Western Business People". But if it hadn't been for students at English Corner on Thursday night, I might not have made it to my own lecture! Again, unbelievable.... the school told us weeks ago the location of the English Festival lectures. I mentioned to some students at English Corner that I'd be speaking in the library lecture hall on Friday at 6:30 pm (yes, I know, a crappy time for a lecture - many students are gone home for the weekend by then.... I'm amazed that 30 to 40 people attended. At home, I'd be speaking to an empty room). They quickly informed me that the location of the lectures had been changed. Apparently the students had been made aware of the change, but not the guest speakers! I heard Dan didn't find out until he showed up at the library and nobody was there. Another frustrating head-scratcher. I asked one of the University administrators why I hadn't been informed about the change - no answer on that one.

I should add that none of this lies in Teddy's domain. Those of you reading my blog know that Teddy has been nothing less than fantastic.

Anyway, the students brighten my day, even if other aspects of the school don't. Forget us - the University could have gotten a better slogan by talking to some of my culture students.

The Sandal Question

I'm back from Beijing. A post on my trip to Beijing will follow shortly!

This will be a fairly short post. I don't know.... maybe China is getting a little to me at the 3-month mark. Maybe it was seeing my mom for a week that is making me miss Canada a little. Oh, to be in a country where people don't stare at you like you're a zoo animal and will actually form a line. And Canada would surely be close to the top of the list for polite countries. I find myself doing things here that I'd never do at home.... today, pissed at people getting onto an elevator before I had a chance to get off (as always), I practically rammed a young woman with my laptop case. Like many expats, I'm starting to wonder if China is turning me into a jerk - or at least a public jerk.

Anyone following my blog surely realizes that I'm loving it in China. Once you get to know them, the people are some of the warmest you'll ever meet. But there are just some things that I'm sure would remain appalling no matter how long I stayed here - namely every manner of disgusting public behaviour. I had high hopes for Beijing in terms of public behaviour, having heard about the pre-Olympics campaign to make people more polite/hygienic in public. But that wasn't the case at all. I was met with as much public spitting and line jumping as in the south.

The weather is quite warm now in Changzhou - about the same as a nice summer day at home. My mom brought sandals over to me, but I'm debating whether I should wear them at all given questionable hygiene standards. The campus is probably okay as (thankfully) rude behaviours seem to be much less common among students. Perhaps there is a correlation between youth and/or better education and more polite public behaviour. But I think I'll don shoes again for anywhere off campus. In addition to the spitting, we have children "watering" the flowers and sidewalks thanks to split pants. I seriously wonder if any of them end up with infections. Watching the little one sitting with split pants in the Muslim Noodle Shop, I think of the germs that must be all over that place.

Anyway - this a less than complimentary post about my time here. I realize that it wasn't all that long ago that most Chinese were poor - and many still are. Genteel behaviour is a luxury of the rich. Perhaps over time public behaviour will catch up with economic development. It also has much to do with being just one out of more than a billion. In our largely uninhabited land, can any Canadian ever truly comprehend that staggering figure?

I hope my readers forgive the temporary lapse in positivity. If nothing else, my ability to cope with life in China - me the part-germaphobe - shows that it is possible to adapt to anything. You don't have to like it, but you adapt.

Doing the Cha-Cha in China

This will be my last post until I return from Beijing on April 20. My February trip was very short, so I'm glad I'll have a week to discover the Chinese capital. I almost can't believe I'm meeting my mom in Beijing tomorrow - yeah! Mother/daughter travels continue, this time in the most exotic locale yet. We've been to England, Scotland, France, Belgium and Germany together. We were in New York last year. Mom is also coming with me to DC in August to help me settle into my new digs there. Clearly, Mom and I are good travel companions.

Besides Beijing, I've been to Nanjing and Suzhou - though I haven't recounted those excursions on my blog. I'm going to be totally lazy now and direct my readers to Peter Youngblood's blog: http://pwyoungblood.blogspot.com/ Peter has an excellent and funny recap of last week's Suzhou journey. My camera battery died as soon as I got to Suzhou, but thankfully Peter and Adrienne (our other travel buddy) took tons of photos.

Returning to the topic of my last post - learning another language - after I posted it, I had a recollection of me and my brother sitting at the dining room table, singing the Mr. Christie tagline in both English and French: Mr. Christie you make good cookies! / M. Christie vous faites de bons biscuits! Ahhh..... to be learning a language where the main concern is whether something is masculine or feminine. Those were the days.

The topic of my last blog came from a frustrating day with Zhong wen... Chinese. Today was much better. I met my new friend "Eva" at Nan da jie and went with her to a Latin dance class. She invited me a few days ago.... how could I pass up the chance to do the cha-cha in China? I took a few lessons in Latin jazz dance a few years ago. Well - I discovered that it becomes much more difficult when you can't understand what the instructor is saying. It was a challenge, but lots of fun. I should have taken a photo.... I may have another chance as Eva has invited me to attend regularly. Almost all the other participants are her colleagues. This was the first class. They have to decide on a regular day and time. If I can manage it with my teaching schedule, I think I'll sign up.

After dance class, we decided to walk around a nearby park. One of Eva's colleagues, "Vivie", joined us. We spent a very pleasant day together and I had two friendly and patient native Chinese speakers to practice with. I feel like I made real progress today.

In the park

Vivie and Eva in the park - and some amused onlookers

A good day for flying a kite

They taught me Chinese and I introduced them to that most sacred of expat hangouts - the coffee house

Prior to the dance class, Eva and I had lunch and she showed me how to write my Chinese name in characters. Yes, I now have a Chinese name! I asked students at English Corner last week to give me a Chinese name. I think it's cool they get to pick English names..... so naturally I want a Chinese name. They gave me one that sounds something like my real name - "ài mǐ " (爱米). It's pronounced roughly as "Eye-Me". Translated it means "loves rice", though Eva assures me it is a lovely name. Their names carry more meaning than ours, though I believe my parents picked "Amy" because it means "love". So I have a very fitting Chinese name for a few reasons.... but I'm not so sure about loving rice. I eat it here at least once, something twice, a day. Something tells me that when I go home, rice isn't the first thing I'll want to eat. That honour goes to a nice, big, juicy BBQ steak! (Hint, hint Dad)

And finally - Happy Easter to everyone back home!

Discovering Dashan

Since coming to China, I've discovered the most famous Canadian on the face of the earth. It's not Jim Carrey, Mike Myers or Shania Twain. In fact, he's barely known in Canada. But based on the sheer number of people who know his name in China, I'd say Dashan (a.k.a. Mark Rowswell) easily takes the title. I had no idea who Dashan - which means "big mountain" - was until I got here. He came to Beijing as a University student more than 20 years ago to study Chinese, and ended up mastering xiangsheng, a Chinese comedic art based on witty dialogue. He's a hugely popular actor, performer and host on Chinese TV and is said to be known by more than one billion Chinese. Dashan even has his own website: http://www.dashan.com/ Ironically, his website notes that you can watch his videos on YouTube.... sorry Dashan, but YouTube is now blocked in China!

Looking at his site, I realized Dashan is gradually becoming better known in the west. He was chosen to be the attache for the Canadian Olympic Team during last year's Beijing Olympics. He's been awarded the Order of Canada and Ford Canada uses his image in TV and print ads aimed at Chinese-Canadians.

Dashan in a Ford ad.

What I find most fascinating about Dashan is his purported ability to speak better Chinese than most Chinese people. Since embarking on my own attempt to learn Chinese ("attempt" being the operative word there!), I am in complete awe of such a feat. With few similarities to English, Chinese is an extraordinarily difficult language for a native English speaker to master.

It's one thing to learn French or Spanish or even German, which have many cognates (e.g., langue - French / language - English) and similiar sentence structures. Putonghua is something else altogether, requiring a speaker to not only know the right word, but to also know the right tone for that word. Depending on tone, ma can mean either mother, numb, horse or to scold. And as I've told Steve, one of my tutors, when translated directly into English, Chinese can sound an awful lot like Yoda - "Me very happy with you talk". This is certainly giving me an appreciation for what my students must go through in learning English.

Today was a particularly frustrating day, as I had a few instances of trying to speak Chinese, only to be met with blank stares. I had to resort to showing the characters friends have given me. At times it's tempting to say "why bother?" It's easy enough to get around here knowing only English. But I hate feeling like a baby having to point at things or having to rely on friends to translate. That doesn't exactly instill a sense of independence. In fact, my commitment to learning Chinese seems to have doubled since last weekend when I went to Suzhou with some teacher friends. They took some Chinese classes in the States before coming here and it shows. I felt like a bit of an idiot not knowing some very basic words.

I've never been a great language learner, which I mentioned in my last blog. I tend to dabble in languages based on my current interest. I do a work term in Germany and suddenly I want to learn German. My interest in French revives after a semester in France. I can't quite remember why I decided to take Spanish in University.... I sometimes forget that I got half-way to a minor in Spanish. If I'd just stuck with that instead of switching to German, I'd probably have the minor. So, I studied three languages before even coming here, and can't claim fluency in any of them.

Beyond the language ADD, my biggest problem is being afraid to just speak it. In some ways, I'm very much like my students. I hate making mistakes. I hate losing face. I focus too much on knowing how to write a language, rather than how to speak it. I've always been fascinated by the written word, which perhaps explains the English degree. But knowing how to write a language is not nearly so useful as knowing how to use it in conversation. I'm now making more of an effort to use whole sentences - however short - in stores and restaurants on campus and I'm insisting my tutors ask me questions in Chinese.

I am committed to becoming fluent in a second language by the time I finish my MBA. After all, I'm doing international business! And depending on what school I choose, a second language may be a requirement. The question is whether I'll continue Mandarin studies or go back to French. I have no doubt that French would be the easiest to re-learn.... got to love having gone to school in Canada! Language acquisition capability is largely gone by the time you're an adult, so maybe that explains why I've retained some French years after elementary school. I feel any Canadian under 35 owes a huge debt to Trudeau.... thanks Pierre for all those bilingual cereal boxes! It's amazing how much vocabulary you can pick up from constant exposure to French labelling.

That said, I highly doubt that French will be the second-most important language in the world 10 or 20 years from now. That language is being spoken around me every day. Dashan was ahead of his time.

Sprechen Sie Deutsch?

I can't believe that it's already April. My time here is flying - and I think that says something about how I'm finding China. Summer will come too soon. I absolutely can understand how China wraps itself around the hearts of many foreigners.

I'm off to Suzhou this weekend. It is a holiday weekend here (Tomb Sweeping Day), so many people will be travelling. I'm again meeting up with Peter and Adrienne, also from CIEE. We travelled together to Nanjing last month, though I haven't gotten around to posting photos from that trip yet. Suzhou isn't far. It's still in Jiangsu province.

Before I go, I thought I'd present a round-up of several recent funny events/observations that show why life here is so unpredictable!

Sprechen Sie Deutsch?

I studied German for some time in school and through private lessons, but sadly - and much like French and Spanish - I've long forgotten most of it. (I'm a terrible language learner... but more on that another time.) That's too bad because I actually could have used it here.... yes, here in China. I've had several students attempt to speak to me in German. See, there are actually more German teachers here than English teachers. The university has a partnership with a school in Germany. So for a whole segment of the student population, being foreign is associated with speaking German, not English. I find it very cool - and indicative of our globalized world - that a Chinese student would turn to me in an elevator and ask me something in German.


Speaking of Elevators....

I met two Africans in the elevator in the hotel today. Foreigners are a rare sight here, so they were probably just as surprised to see me when the doors opened as I was to see them. They immediately said 'hello' and asked if I spoke English. They were walking in the same direction as me on campus and we had a good chat.... but did we ever get some stares! To see a white person here is one thing - but to see a white person walking with two black people is something else altogether. One man was from Zimbabwe and the other was from Cameroon. It turns out they're here for two weeks for a seminar. They told me I would like Africa. I don't know.... Africa has never been very high on my list of places to see, but coming here has whetted my appetite for more exotic travel. Maybe Russia and India first. Then we'll see about Africa.


Drama Club

Much is said about Chinese students' unwillingness to speak up in class for fear of making mistakes. It's important in China to not stand out in any way - good or bad. It's important to save face in front of classmates. Although many of my students are quite shy, I'm realizing that I do have a few characters in my classes. For instance, the other night in Oral English we were practicing telephone English. I took them through the standard business telephone/message role plays, but then I told them to mix it up. Get a little crazy! Leave a bizarre message! After they practiced for 10 minutes or so, I asked for volunteers to demonstrate. I was completely floored when two guys stood up (they were working in pairs) and proceeded to treat the class to a mini-drama. One of them set the stage: A man has been hit by a bus and is now dying. He calls his girlfriend to say good-bye. He only gets her answering machine. The other student then stood up.... I thought I was going to bust a gut laughing when his phone message included lines like "hello girl", "I'm going to Heaven now" and "I'm calling to tell you 3 words.... I love you". It sounded like dialogue right out of a cheesy boy band video! The rest of the class was cracking up too. He was so earnest in his acting that is was hard to keep a straight face. It was just awesome to watch. Fantastic! They got a big round of applause.


Honesty is the Best Policy

One of the most striking things about people here is how honest they are. I've been in numerous situations when it would have been easy to rip me off - the foreigner who can't speak Chinese. In a restaurant I accidentally dropped a 1 yuan coin into a menu. The waitress actually came back to my table with the coin. Where else would anyone do that? It's not much, but in a country where they don't even accept tips, it's something extra. I left it on the table when I was finished, but then scooted away quickly - just in case she came running after me with it.

Another example.... I often eat at a restaurant that we like to call the "Muslim Noodle Shop". Last week I tried a new dish and didn't know the price. Now - I at least know my numbers in Chinese, along with a few basic words and sentences. But the problem is that they have to be spoken to me in perfect putonghua (standard Mandarin) in order for me to understand. Many people in China speak two languages: Putonghua and the local dialect. I suspect that many of the people working in restaurants, shops, etc. here in Changzhou are speaking the Changzhou dialect. I asked whether the dish was qi (7) yuan - and he responded with something that made no sense to me. So I just guessed and gave him 9 RMB. As I obviously didn't understand, he could have just taken it. But he gave me back 1 RMB..... very honest.


********

I'll finish this post with a comment about how bizarre I find the contrast between what I'm experiencing here and the way China is frequently portrayed in the media back home. It seems that in the lead-up to the G20 Summit, western media have been particularly obsessed with China's growing assertiveness. On the Economist website, 3 of the top 5 stories have to do with China: "Rejoice, Damn You" (about Tibet), "China Takes Centre Stage", and "How China Sees the World". You read these articles and it's hard not to feel like China is on its way to being the west's biggest nemesis, much as the Soviet Union was in the Cold War.

I find it hard to reconcile that portrait of China with the image of three girls hovering outside my class 5 minutes before the bell rings, asking permission to enter because they're "late". I guess this points to why it is so important to distinguish between policy and people. Yes, there is much to criticize here. I'm a huge fan of democracy, so I feel no particular kinship with the Chinese government. But the people are a different story altogether. I already know that I'll be very sad to leave here in July.

This is a land of contrasts indeed.

You Know You're Adapting to China When...

To mark my two-month anniversary in this country, I present my top 5 signs you know you're adapting to life in China:

1. You can push and shove with the best of 'em

When I first got here, I was a little overwhelmed at the huge numbers of people that are often jam-packed onto city buses. It's still not my favourite thing in the world to try to make my way onto a crowded bus - but I do it. Before I'd hang back and wait for the next bus, in the vain hope that somehow it would be less crowded. Wrong! Prepare to sharpen your elbows if you come to China. (Lest my mother - who is soon to visit me in Beijing - worry about this, I should add that apparently people are more polite in Beijing, having been trained in advance of the Olympics.)

It helps that my small size doesn't put me at a disadvantage. I'm closer to the average here than I am at home. I can't imagine what would happen in New York City if 6-foot, 250-pound men decided to push and shove their way onto the bus or subway. Chaos all around!


2. You can cross the street without looking completely petrified

For the benefit of readers back home, one day I have to stand by the road, take a video of the absolutely insane driving and then upload it to my blog. I've been in multiple cabs that get impatient with the driver in front of them and decide to drive on the other side of the road. Traffic lights are more of a suggestion. If you're going to live here, you have to quickly get used to the fact that pedestrians have no right of way - you have to make your way as best you can amongst the cars, bikes and motorcycles. I'm really not sure why they even bother to paint crosswalks on the roads. I've had close calls with two motorcycles, though neither driver looked remotely phased that they almost ran into me. My worst scare came when a car stopped only about 1/2 a foot away from me. I had the walk sign, but like I said... lights are more of a suggestion. Again, I've adapted to this, but that's not to say I love crossing streets here, especially busy intersections. Not only will drivers not stop for you - they will honk at you for being in the way!

3. You're guilty of TWW (texting while walking)

Guilty ;-) Students appear to be surgically attached to their mobile phones. While not as bad as them, I certainly use mine much more than I did at home. My fingers are slowly getting out of BlackBerry mode and re-adapting to the usual mobile phone keypad.

However, I still won't attempt TWW while crossing the street. (See #2.)


4. You're don't run screaming from a restaurant when you hear the cook coughing over your food in the kitchen

Gross, I know, but hygiene standards are not what they are at home. At home, I could be a bit of a germaphobe. Forget not eating food that touched the floor. I wouldn’t eat it if it fell on the table. I knew before coming here that the standards are different. I’ve learned to accept that if I’m going to eat here, I will probably end up eating something made by someone who hasn’t washed their hands in a very long time. I carry hand sanitizer with me everywhere – at least my own hands can be clean – but I accept that the conditions around me aren’t going to be what you’d find in Canada.

I know one thing: Taking Dukoral before coming here was a smart move. Will I make it to June without a case of food poisoning? Knock on wood...


5. Lunch time = Nap time

Many students eat their lunch in a hurry at noon so that they can get back to their dorms in time for a nap before classes resume at 2 pm. I was never one for napping - plus a 9 to 5 work schedule does tend to get in the way - but I'm finding myself adopting the lunch time nap routine, at least on days when I'm teaching. I teach 7 to 9 pm both Tuesday and Wednesday nights and have English Corner on Thursday nights, so a midday nap is a good way to stay energized into the evening.

But something tells me not to get too used to daytime naps.... I doubt they'll figure much in my soon-to-be life as an MBA student!

A Little Ironic

In an effort to help my culture students better understand Canadian culture, I was trying to download something last night from YouTube. I've accessed YouTube many times here, but apparently the Chinese government has just decided to block it. So, sorry students - although I'm here to help you better understand English-speaking cultures and am here at the invitation of the Chinese government, I've just lost what can be a valuable teaching tool (if used appropriately and in moderation). Kind of ironic....

Also ironic: I'm finally allowed to access the CNN Wire and what's the first story I'm able to read? "YouTube Blocked in China"! Here's the link: http://cnnwire.blogs.cnn.com/2009/03/25/youtube-blocked-in-china/

Oh, you need some irony to spice things up....

More Observations....

Any fears I had of being bored here are long gone. I don't stop! Maybe I'm just incapable of doing nothing. Between teaching, lesson planning, learning Chinese and travelling, I'd say I'm about as busy as I am at home. This weekend two teacher friends are visiting. I met Liz and Steve during CIEE's orientation in Shanghai.

So, because I've had no time to develop a proper blog post (though I get many ideas while walking to class!), I offer more random observations on life in China.

1. Say Good-bye to Anonymity

Being an ESL teacher here is perhaps the next best thing to actually being a Hollywood celebrity. There's an interesting divide between the campus and the general public. In public I get stared at A LOT. On campus, students may look at me, but I wouldn't call it a stare. They're much more used to seeing foreign teachers. In fact, if anything, I get complete adulation on campus. Students ask to have their picture taken with me. I get people talking to me as though I'm a celebrity..... "Oh, I saw you yesterday in the mess hall.... you were eating with the other foreign teachers!" I walked into one of my culture classes on my first day of teaching, and some of the girls started to sigh and giggle. I was tempted to turn around to see if Hugh Jackman had followed me in. And my students aren't exactly subtle. I've had both male and female students come up to me and tell me I'm beautiful - and that's the first thing out of their mouths. That's the introduction! Ken, one of the American teachers, has a hilarious story about one of his students being convinced he was David Beckham.

Nowhere does the celebrity status come out more than at English Corner on Thursday evenings. I've mentioned English Corner before. Basically, students gather around and listen/talk to the foreign English teachers. It's a good way for them to practice talking with native speakers. The only thing is that I've found that a few students tend to dominate the conversation, while everyone else just listens. I try to involve more students by asking the shy ones what they think about a particular topic. Some only listen because their English isn't great, but I think others are just shy and will hang back and let a few people control the discussion. I tend to get a lot of the same questions.... "What do you think of China?" "Do you like Chinese food?" "What is the weather like in Canada?" One of the funny things about English Corner is that they try to get as close to you as they can, which means that the circle of people closes in around you until you're forced to back up.... kind of like when you're trying to get away from a close talker. Last night I realized I ended the night 6 or 8 feet away from where I started.

Some students at English Corner

2. Basketball is incredibly popular....

..... and they certainly know/care more about the NBA than I do. I keep meaning to ask Teddy or Steve if that's a fairly recent thing - i.e., since Yao Ming. I see the guys shooting hoops on the campus basketball courts and wonder if they dream of being the next Yao Ming, like Canadian kids want to be the next Wayne Gretzky. Though they're 18 or 19, so perhaps a bit too late for that.

3. Back to the 1980s....

I'm old enough to remember the second half of the 1980s and I distinctly remember people wearing clothes that look a lot like what you see in Changzhou. The style here is very 1980s - now I don't feel so bad about taking older clothes (having heard that China is hard on clothes - very true, by the way). At least they're not that old. You see girls wearing leggings paired with bright/mismatched colours. I saw a female student yesterday wearing stirrup pants.... I remember loving my stirrup pants as a little girl! Looking at the guys I'm often reminded of an 80s music video or Theo from the Cosby Show. It's very common to see them with blazers on with the sleeves rolled up, a la every male pop artist from the 1980s.

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Given the tragedy that has happened at home, I'd like to end this blog entry with a comment about how happy I am to be here, living my "what ifs". The Cougar helicopter crash is a reminder of how fleeting life can be. I can't say I ever pictured myself lecturing in a Chinese classroom, yet here I am.... and I'm soaking in every moment of it, even the frustrating ones. It's all an adventure that will shape who I am. As I say in my blog intro, life is too short not to live the "What Ifs".

May the families and friends of those killed last week find comfort and peace in their loved ones' memories. I send my thoughts and my prayers home at this tragic, tragic time.

China's Harmonious Society

In moving to China, I left a country that not only allows a separatist party to sit in Parliament - it lets it form "Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition".

Obviously, things are different here in China.

For the benefit of readers back home, I'll share some observations on life in China's "Harmonious Society" with its "Socialism with Chinese Characteristics" (two phrases you hear repeatedly). I stress observations - not judgements. While I'm a guest in China, I wouldn't feel right making public value judgements. Besides, I don't want to end up with my blog on the other side of the Great Fire Wall of China!

Let's start with the Internet. When I go online, I have to provide a user name and password. Both were given to me when I arrived - I can't change them. First sign that Big Brother is watching. Some sites are blocked all the time, others are blocked some of the time. Wikipedia works sometimes - more often than not lately. I haven't been able to access CNN's political ticker since I got here. If you type certain phrases into Google, you'll get a very quick "This Page Cannot Be Displayed". China is notorious for the number of people it employs to censor Internet content, but some things still get through, perhaps because they assume most Chinese people can't read them. For instance, I love The Economist and was surprised to find I was able to read a damning article about Tibet on its website.

Speaking of Tibet, this from an editorial in China Daily, the country's English-language newspaper: "Thus, he [the Dalai Lama] is completely incapable, morally or physically, to confront with the irreversible current of the national unity. Being such a busy person flying around the world, the Dalai Lama should have contributed to disseminating the essence of Buddhism." The words might be English, but you'd never mistake this for an editorial from a western newspaper.

When I signed my contract with the University, one of the clauses stated that I would not interfere in China's internal affairs. I can't imagine someone coming to Canada and being asked not to meddle in Canada's internal affairs. (Well, maybe in the Kingdom of Danny - just kidding DW supporters!)

Last night I finished reading Barack Obama's The Audacity of Hope. There were a few mentions of China - generally not positive. I wonder whether you can even buy the book here. Probably not. I wasn't here for Obama's Inauguration, but the American teachers tell me that parts of his speech were omitted in the Chinese translation - like when he talked about some countries being on the wrong side of history. Tomorrow in my culture class, I'll lecture on America's political and economic system. "Socialism with Chinese Characteristics" it isn't, but thankfully I'm allowed to lecture freely on others countries' political and economic systems. I guess it's a little hard to hide the fact that in other countries, people vote.

Some people have told me it's easier to find English books that are critical of the Communist regime than it is to find Chinese books. In a Shanghai bookstore, I was very surprised to find a book that tells the story of a woman repressed by the Communist party. As more people here learn English, will those books gradually diminish?

And so concludes my observations.