Poor China Expat
Living in China as a s Westerner broughts up things you never considered before. Chinese people think foreigners are rich. Foreigners think that all of us have a lot of money. Welcome to the reality check. Life is about making choices. Do I take a taxi once or ride the bus 10 time? Do I go to an international meeting and buy a 30RMB can of coke or drink 12 cans at home? Do I go to a Nordic BBQ event (next month) or eat lunch for 15 days? (Ticket to the event is 200RMB, one delicious lunch with potato, tofu and cabbage is 13RMB). The hardest question of all…
Mandarin Monday: Rate my Cantonese!
It’s still Monday in United States so here comes my Mandarin Monday, but this time with a little twist. Some readers have asked me to record my Cantonese and finally I managed to do so! My Cantonese is still very limited, I only know some phrases. Also my tones and pronunciation are quite terrible. But still here it goes, listen to this short clip of my Cantonese and let me know what you think. Listen to my Cantonese If the player above isn’t working, you can also get the mp3 here: Cantonese
Guangzhou feels like home
I’ve visited more than ten Chinese cities, but only lived in Guangzhou. It’s hard to compare different places when you haven’t lived in all of them, but I would still say that Guangzhou has a personality of its own. Compared to Beijing, where I stayed for two weeks two years ago, Guangzhou feels more laid-back, relaxed and unorganized. Guangzhou and Hong Kong share the Cantonese language, but besides that they are totally different worlds. Hong Kong is international city, but Guangzhou feels more local, more like home. During these two years in Guangzhou I’ve started to call Guangzhou home. It’s the feeling that I have when I get back to…
Sara’s Mandarin Monday: 最近怎么样？
大家好！上个星期我感冒了，所以没办法写博文，希望你们会理解。我也发现了这个学期比较忙，我有五门选修课（上个学期只有两门），还有很多作业。我真的觉得除了学习以外，我没有时间做别的事情。有时候觉得很累，但是同时觉得我的课很有意思。我学习古代汉字，对外汉语教学和现代汉语，我对都（这些）感兴趣。我觉得这个学期我会学到很多新的东西，也希望我的水平会提高。 最近我开始看一个新的电视剧，叫夫妻那些事。这个节目告诉我们一对丁克夫妻的故事，他们有怎么样的压力生孩子，照顾老人（他们在生养孩子，照顾老人上有些什么压力）。在中国如果你结婚了，你应该马上生孙子，让父母满意。如果你选择丁克（的）生活方式，中国父母一定不同意。如果你没有孩子的话，那你老了谁照顾你呢？ 在芬兰没有这么大的压力生孩子，但是我觉得我妈妈也会失望如果我决定不要孩子。 除了学中文和看电视以外，我还培养我的孩子，我的白色的，有毛的孩子，我的小猫。我的男朋友很嫉妒，是因为小猫最爱的是我，不是他。小猫，叫露西，每天都陪我，在我的旁边睡觉。她真的很可爱！对不对？