Skip to main content

Victoria

 My first Chinese 'friend' was called Victoria, a Chengdu girl who had recently moved back from teaching English in various countries in Asia. She seemed very laid back and relaxed, turning up to every meeting at least 30 minutes late, and getting lost most of the time too. My British colleague, Johnny, who was in China with his long-term Chinese girlfriend says 'she's from Chengdu so she's really laid back'. This was probably my first 'education' about the differing places in China. All I knew about Chengdu was that it was the home of some really cute pandas, nothing so much about the individual characteristics of its people. The differences between Chinese cities are not only geographical, but cultural and linguistic, with each having its own attributes, or rather 'personality traits' of its people. This small encounter made me realise that I knew nothing about China

She was a new 'local' teacher, basically meaning that she did the exact same job as a foreign English teacher, but better, because she could speak both English and Chinese, but for a considerably lower salary. 

I got into the lift on the way down in the final morning before I was about to depart for Hangzhou and she was asking for advice about whether a British guy liked her, as she wanted me to 'decode' what it meant when a Western guy invited her to his place to watch a movie. She told me she was at that 'special' age of 30, which meant that she was one of China's already 'leftover' women. Reaching that number appears to be a universal 'tattoo' understand as the age where people are expected to having everything 'figured out' including a career, house and partner. I really couldn't help Victoria because having only one boyfriend in the UK during my first degree, I had focused solely on my studies. She asked whether I would plan on staying in China long, and I just smiled and replied 'no....I don't', she turned to me and said something that I felt was a little profound 'the men will like you [I think she meant the male adult students I would be teaching]....you're strong Rebecca, I can feel it'. I just smiled politely....while thinking 'I really don't think that will happen'. 

Johnny's Chinese girlfriend helped me to order to train ticket to Hangzhou by asking her to write in Chinese on a notepad that I would like a ticket to from Shanghai Hongqiao to Hangzhou train station. It is important to note that this was one of my first encounters dealing with the 'language barrier'. 

Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Iris

Iris Iris will always be, my best 'Chinese friend', always. Her background, infectious, larger-than-life personality, with her maturity and wisdom made her 'someone special' to me, and a positive influence. We initially met 'in passing' at work in EF, because we were based at different centres, she was in Binjiang Centre, while I was in Yingtai, but she was someone who was talked about in the office always positively. Since Yingtai centre was closing down and I was being transferred to Binjiang centre, we were going to be getting to know each other better, and the colleague-dynamics at this centre would be different from my current one. At Yingtai centre, it was me and all male colleagues, with Dan, Vincent, Chris Yu and Andy, at Binjiang it would be me and all girls, or mostly girls. My future colleagues would be Chinese Janet, who studied in Ireland, Cheryl from Wuhan, Suki, who had studied in Australia, Kat from Manchester, and Lewis, from York, who had two k...
Post a Comment
Read more

A visit to the Chinese Embassy

In the interview I was asked where I would like to be based, and I had been looking up places and learning about Tier 1, 2, and 3 cities in China. While looking I saw Nanjing was a pretty vibrant place, filled with many expats, but wasn't really 'international' on the same level as 'Shanghai', with the prospect of having a more fully immersive experience in China of learning about the culture and the language. I was told that Nanjing was 'competitive' and was already full, and then the lady suggested Hangzhou because the Olympics in 2015 had meant that many expats had left due to the increase in security and police interference. I looked this up and did some research and saw that it had been nicknamed 'Heaven on Earth', with Westlake as the main attraction....on that I was pretty much sold.  The process had started, and I was getting my online free TEFL certificate as part of the visa requirement that I had to finish before flying to Shanghai. I don...
Post a Comment
Read more

West Lake at Night

 Walking along the lake at night became an integral part of my routine. The atmosphere was different to that during the day, which was usually busy. While at night time, usually after 9pm, it was quiet and peaceful, with the odd couple walking past enjoying the view of the lake with a backdrop of delicately lit mountains. Once a Chinese guy, around mid-20s, called David, once caught up and started talking in very good English, almost in a Native American accent.  He explained that he studied in Canada and lived there for many years and was simply 'travelling' around China as a hobby, but from the South originally, Guangzhou. He invited me to go for a late night snack, but given that it was 11pm, I was suspicious of his intentions, as I was still getting used to Chinese hospitality, that it was 'normal' to simply find a foreigner and go out for a meal with no ulterior motives, as China is generally, completely safe. We're not just intensely watched by police at every...
Post a Comment
Read more