Exciting or boring? Ordinary life of a full-time student in China

Date: 2012.05.08 | Category: Expats, Life Abroad, Me, My Blog | Response: 12

Life in a foreign country and in a place like China might sound really exciting and exotic. When I go back to Finland I hear lots of wow’s after telling people where I live at the moment. Sometimes talking about my recent life happening sound like bragging because every sentence starts like “But in China they…” or “In Guangzhou I…”

But when chatting with people in Finland, it’s usually necessary to make clear which place I’m talking about. I’ve been living in China for more than two years now so I can’t really talk about much if I would ban the word China altogether. I’m not sure if other people think like this, but my friend who lives in Malta has similar thoughts too.

I recently got an email which said: “I guess I’m just hoping that since you seem to love the place, you’ll have some cool ideas for stuff to do/ places to visit.”

Unfortunately I have to break the news and tell you, my life is actually quite boring! Go to class, do homework, eat, sleep and watch Chinese TV dramas! I spend most of my free time at home, not exploring Guangzhou or bar hopping. I’m sure many expats have a far more interesting life in here than I do.

I really do like my own boring life here, but it might not be that interesting to hear about it. Or is it?

And finally I would like to introduce my new side project: How Can I Learn Chinese -blog! This new blog is about short introductions and reviews about Chinese learning resources, links, tips and apps. I hope you will find it helpful! I’ve already scheduled post per day for the following week.

Poor China Expat

Date: 2012.03.31 | Category: Expats, Life Abroad, Me | Response: 13

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 is: Do I want to live a comfortable life in a nice apartment near the university or do I want to go home once a year?

I’m lucky to be a Finn and my government have supported my studies and life (in Finland and in China) for the last four years. The final year is beginning and after that, well, I have no idea. I’m trying to get a scholarship in order to finish my studies (Jan 2014), I’m trying to work part-time in order to make a living. Both of them not so easy to do.

Don’t get me wrong, I am living my dream. But living a dream doesn’t always mean it’s a rich dream.

Guangzhou feels like home

Date: 2012.03.20 | Category: Guangzhou, Life Abroad, Me | Response: 12

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 Guangzhou from Hong Kong for example. Even though this city is huge and there are numerous districts I haven’t visited, but I still feel like I know this place. This is my place, my Guangzhou.

Besides Mandarin I’m also studying Cantonese. Even though my progress is painstakingly low, but I hope that in the future I would be able to have at least simple conversations with the locals in their own language. That would get my roots deeper into the soil of this city. But by settling down in Guangzhou I make it harder for my self to leave. What is I have to move to Beijing or Shanghai to work when I graduate? What if I have to go back to Finland?

Living in China might sound exotic, but it’s full of ordinary daily tasks like washing the dishes and doing homework. Only once in a while I wake up and remember that I’m actually living in China, I actually did accomplish my dream. That dream have just changed into daily life with it’s own annoyances.

Right now when thinking about all of this, going over the last two years, it feels weird to say out loud that my life is in Guangzhou now. It’s so normal and extraordinary at the same time. There are lot of things I don’t get in China and it can be frustrating at times, but when I look at my boyfriend and my cat Lucy, I know, that there’s no place I would rather be.

Have you found your new home abroad? How does it feel like?

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: 22

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: 12

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?