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?

Christmas away from family

Date: 2011.12.25 | Category: Life Abroad, Me | Response: 5

I had a great time at our pre-Christmas party on Friday with my classmates (photo above), I ate delicious Korean food yesterday at my Finnish friend’s place and spoke to my family members through skype. I have my Christmas Tree and chocolate. But it’s not the Christmas I want.

Christmas used to be magical time when I was a kid. Lots of excitement and traditions. I was able to hold onto it as long as I spent the holidays with my family, but then I moved to China. It’s just not real Christmas for me if it’s not spent with my family.

Last Christmas I  spent it with my boyfriend, but this year he unfortunately had work at his hometown. I have my cat beside me (even right at this moment), but even though she loved the pork I gave here, she doesn’t care what day it is.

In Finland the Christmas Eve is the most important day and now it feels like  that the Christmas is over already. It’s not a holiday here in China and I can’t forget that I have lots of schoolwork next week, including Cantonese spoken exam tomorrow.

This may all sound way too sad, and it is, but it’s the price I’m still willing to pay in order to spend the rest of the year happy here in Guangzhou. And with a thought that maybe after I graduate I have the chance to spend my Christmases again in Finland.

Anyone else living far away from family and missing the childhood Christmas?

Finland’s Independence Day Reception in Guangzhou

Date: 2011.12.08 | Category: Life Abroad, Me | Response: 42

Yesterday I asked at my Facebook Page if there’s interest to saw some photos from the Finland’s Independence Day Reception held by the Consul General of Finland in Guangzhou. Thank you my readers Barbarka, Alex, Twang and Marcus, here are some photos for you!

Me and my handsome boyfriend

Reception was held at the Shangri-La Hotel

I think I have never seen my boyfriend as handsome as Tuesday night

Unfortunately the Consulate in Guangzhou will close it’s doors next year and this seems to be the last time we have the chance to celebrate our country’s independence this luxuriously.

My everyday life in Guangzhou

Date: 2011.10.19 | Category: Life Abroad, Me | Response: 15

Usually I update about my daily life to my Finnish blog so my family and friends could read what is going on in my life. But yesterday Alexandra and Kelly asked me on Twitter how I have been doing these days. I decided to open a window to my boring life for all of you international readers and see if you fall asleep or want to hear more!

My life revolves around my studies at the moment. Like most of you know I’m doing my undergraduate degree at Sun Yat-Sen University in Chinese language. I’ll be deciding my major soon as I found out that I will be starting my third year next Spring, not next Autumn as I thought earlier. Teaching Chinese (汉语教育) or Business Chinese (商务汉语)? That’s the question.

I spend 16 and a half hours at the university each week at classes. Besides that I do my home work and study some extra at home. If I’m not studying I am usually surfing around the Internet reading your amazing blogs! Or watching Desperate Housewives or Gossip Girl or The Lying Game or Pan Am or… I know! I should watch Chinese TV and practice my listening skills.

Usually I spend my Friday nights and Saturdays at home doing nothing useful. Then on Sunday I start studying, finish my home work for the next week and prepare for classes. This seems to be a good routine for me as I also need some time away from all the studying. Still I can’t get away from Chinese, if you remember that I live with my Chinese boyfriend and I’m surrounded by Chinese people in this city that don’t speak English. (Well, both of these are a good thing!)

And then sometimes when I’m not studying, not watching American television drama and not doing nothing, I might be helping a friend to buy goods from here and send them to Finland. She was brave enough to open her own business after seeing the prices here at Guangzhou. Just remember that I am in China with a student visa and can’t work officially. So lets just say that I am helping a friend. (But if you want to hire me and pay me a lot of money, email me!)

Besides all of this I’m thinking about my future. What could my next big dream be? Which major could offer me enjoyable study time and later on an interesting job? Until now I have followed my dreams and interests and I don’t want to give up going that road. I want to show that you can have a comfortable life (meaning earning enough money) doing a job you really like. But there’s a problem! I don’t know what I want to be when I grow up! Any ideas?

Last, but not least, my life goes around my dear boyfriend who cooks pork cutlets for me when I’m tired of eating Chinese food. And then there’s my dear lovely cute Lucy (in the photo above) who must be the best cat in the whole world!

This is my daily life like here in Guangzhou. No fireworks, nothing fancy, just normal life that could happen anywhere in the world. A student’s life where I have to consider if I really want to pay 200RMB to eat meat, to meet fellow northern Europeans and to network.