It’s been a busy week in Guangzhou

Date: 2012.02.10 | Category: Chinese People, Guangzhou, Me | Response: 11

A year ago one Finnish girl come to Guangzhou for a student exchange. She was here only for few months, but she gained a lot from those months. After going back to Finland she set up her own company and started doing her own business. Now that friend of mine is in Guangzhou for two weeks and we have been shopping from morning til dawn.

During last year I’ve helped her to buy lot of different products from Guangzhou and sent them to Finland. Doing business, even small one, in Chinese isn’t always that easy. People might lie and do all kind of tricks to get you pay a higher price or to save their face when making a mistake. Best advice is to believe no-one and to check everything your self.

Of course there also are amazing shop owners that give you the best of service and help you to fix the broken goods even you forgot to bring the invoice. But China isn’t really famous from it’s customer service. In many cases the more you pay the better service you get and when you get no service at all, then you are treated like a local and you didn’t overpay.

Me and my friend will leave to Shenzhen today and be back on Monday. Is there something interesting to see or experience in Shenzhen? I’ve heard that it’s like small Guangzhou, but some people seem to prefer Shenzhen over Guangzhou.

Sara’s Mandarin Monday: 跟中国人交朋友

Date: 2012.01.30 | Category: Chinese People, Life Abroad, Mandarin Monday (中文博文), Me | Response: 20

Note: Incorrect in red, corrected in green.

上个星期我的第一篇中文博文出版了：为什么我的汉语口语还这么差？。 这个星期，我想说一下跟中国人交朋友时可能会有怎么样的困难。你们都知道我的男朋友（在广州我们也可以叫他我的老公）是中国人，但是我发现了交朋友不是那么容易。

我是外国人，很多中国人也说我是个白人。来中国之后我发现了中国人对外国人很有好奇心，每个人都问我是哪里人，觉得中国怎么样，喜不喜欢中国菜等等。有人说，跟中国人交朋友是很容易的事情，但我不同意。在我看来，很多中国人想跟外国人交朋友，随便·是谁，都可以。他们没有对我感兴趣，他们是对所有的外国人感兴趣。我不要是个外国人，我要是亚雪芳，我想交知心朋友。

还有些人想练习他们的英语，没问题，我也想练习我的普通话。但是我不是免费的英语老师。交好朋友后我可以帮助朋友学习英语，但是我不愿意对陌生人教英语 (但是我不愿意教陌生人英语)。如果中国人的目的是练习英语，那不行，如果他的目的是交朋友，那很好。我也想交中国朋友。

上个星期我写了我的性格比较内向，所以需要长时间交流才能交好朋友。我没(不)习惯第一次跟陌生人见面，就叫他朋友，我也没(不)习惯随便给我的电话号码，QQ号码。我宁可有几个很好(的)朋友，不可有很多熟人(也不愿有很多熟人)。

我想跟中国人交朋友的原因是我想多了解中国和中国人。外国朋友常常很快回国，但是中国朋友一般会留在这里。我已经跟很多朋友告别了，所以想跟留在广州的人交朋友。希望可以找到个知心朋友。

如果你是个老外，你有没有跟中国人交朋友？如果你是个中国人，你有没有跟外国人交朋友？

If you’re a foreigner have you made friends with Chinese people?

Living in China, but am I truly immersed?

Date: 2012.01.20 | Category: Chinese Culture, Chinese Language, Chinese People, Expats, Life Abroad, Me | Response: 10

Tom wrote a great blog post last summer about how immersed you truly are when living in China. I left a comment on his blog about my own experience at the time, but I think it’s time to re-evaluate my immersion rate.

Chinese language

My classes are completely in Chinese and I speak Chinese with my classmates. Only on few occasions I speak English with my American classmate, but she also prefers to speak Chinese (She’s actually native Cantonese speaker). Outside classes I hang out with my classmates or with my boyfriend (whit who I speak Chinese all the time). I meet English of Finnish speaking friends once in a while and sometimes speak to my cat in Finnish.

Most of what I write is in English or Finnish, that’s an area I should improve. Just wait for Monday and my first blog post in Chinese!

For spoken language my immersion rate could be somewhere between 80-90%.

Chinese food

Because it’s a holiday now I’ve eaten more Finnish food than usually. When the semester starts I will probably eat out more and that means more Chinese food. I’m also lucky to have such a great cook at home who can cook delicious Chinese food for me!

So perhaps about 50-60% what I eat is Chinese food.

People

All of my teachers are of course Chinese and two of my classmates are originally Chinese. Other classmates come from many different countries, but we almost always talk in Chinese with each other. At home I have one Chinese boyfriend and one Chinese cat, but I’m not sure if my cat Lucy meows in Finnish or Chinese.

I’m still trying to find good Chinese friends, that could almost be my most important goal for 2012. I don’t make friend easily or quickly, I need time to get to know someone and let someone to get to know me. I don’t expect my friends to teach me Chinese and I’m not teaching English, but I still hope to make non-English speaking Chinese friends. I think my Chinese is good enough to be a friend.

It’s really hard to rate this one. 11% of my classmates (and friends) are Chinese (even though they don’t speak Mandarin fluently), 100% of my teachers are Chinese, 95% of people I see outside are Chinese.

Pop culture

This is the section I hope to improve this year. If I listen to music I do listen to Chinese songs, but most of the TV shows I watch are American ones. It’s hard to find Chinese TV series that I enjoy because all of them seem to be too fake and too dramatic. I do like 裸婚时代, are there other series similar to this one? And where are Chinese versions of Desperate Housewives or Gossip Girl? Or where can I find them dubbed into Chinese?

All the magazines I read are basically in Finnish because my mother sends me new ones every month. I’ve tried buying Chinese magazines, but then in the end I didn’t really read them.

For pop culture my immersion rate is only about 20% at the moment and I have to get it up. I’m thinking of a goal for this section, but I’m not sure what if could be. How many episodes of 裸婚时代 I should watch per week? How much American TV am I allowed?

Thank you again Tom for your great original post!  Now I just want to know how immersed are you, my Chinese learning reader?

What do Chinese people think about cutting in line? – You asked for it!

Date: 2011.07.10 | Category: Chinese People, Right and Wrong in China, You asked for it! - Series | Response: 8

Queuing in line and Chinese people are an interesting combination. Interesting is also Google Analytics that tells me by using which keywords you arrived to my blog. Among those keywords and phrases there are also lots of questions. I decided to answer to some of them because you were clearly looking for an answer and might have been disappointed when you couldn’t find it from here.

Here comes the questions:

What do Chinese people think about cutting in line?

Someone might think that there are now lines in China because there’s more cutting in line than staying in the line. But I have experienced some very strict queuing here in Guangzhou so it can’t be totally true. If you wait for the bus B25 in Tianhe, near tiyu xilu (体育西路) metro station, there’s is a clear line waiting for the bus.

Now comes the confession! I tried to cut in that line once and failed miserably. Everyone is tired and  everyone wants to get a seat, but in this line everyone is also waiting for their turn.

You might think that the line is formed well because most of the people waiting are university students. Shouldn’t they be smarter because of their higher education? You will forget this very soon when you try to get into the B25 in the other end, at the University Island (大学城).

But if you decide to take a metro instead of bus, then you can use your elbows freely. There are arrows in the floor showing you where to get on (上车) and where to get off (下车) the metro. These arrows might have some meaning in the beginning of  the queuing, but as soon as the metro arrives to the station, the lines become a mess. There are staff working at the metro station and trying to shout to their microphones, but it has little to none effect.

Why Chinese people cut in line?

In my theory it’s all connected to this “if you’re family I do anything for you – if you’re a stranger you are nothing to me” mentality. It haven’t been too easy for Chinese people in the past and they learned to survive. And if you have to choose do you save your family member or some random guy on the street, it’s an easy decision to make. There are so many people in China (more than 1.3 billion and 14 million of them in Guangzhou) that it’s just too many to care about everyone.

P.s. I’m willing to change my theory if you can prove another one makes more sense!

He’s just not that into you – China Edition

Date: 2011.07.09 | Category: Chinese Culture, Chinese People, Finnish-Chinese Relationship | Response: 9

I just read he’s just not that into you last night and it’s a great book! I also recommend the movie for someone who is looking for the right one or is dating the wrong one or just for pure entertainment. I started thinking if there would be a China edition of this book, how would it look like? (If you know there is, please let me know!)

He’s just not that into you if he’s not asking your QQ number

QQ is The One instant messaging software in China and everyone is using it. As a foreign girl people will aks your QQ number on the street, so if the guy you are interested in isn’t asking, he surely is blind or  wouldn’t give a damn.

He’s jut not that into you if he’s not carrying your purse

China is the land of cute girls and gentlemen boyfriends who would do anything for their loved one. So pay notice to this sign, if your guy isn’t carrying your handbag he truly doesn’t care enough about you.

He’s just not that into you if he’s not telling his parents

Filial piety is doing well in China and most kids, even when they’re adults, choose to listen their parents. If your Chinese boyfriend don’t want to tell his parents about you, he is not taking your relationship seriously.

I know Chinese guy who dated a foreign girl over five years and always just forgot to mention to the parents they’re dating, they moved together and they got engaged. What happened? In the end he changed her for a Chinese girl!

He’s jut not that into you if he’s…

No it’s your turn to give relationship advice in the comments!