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Thought I’d comprise a list of essentials that myself and others have found to be either of near vital importance in China, or in short supply!

1. Paracetemol. Cant. Find. It. Anywhere. Stock up before leaving the UK. Other useful medications are rehydration sachets, Lemsip/cold/flu medicine and diorreaha medication. Kaline and Morphine may also be useful.
2. Kindle/I-pad. I’m not trying to be a snob when I mention these items. I brought over a load of books with me, which added literally 7  kilo’s to my baggage. My girlfriend’s parents kindly brought a kindle over for me for Christmas, and I’ve been kicking myself for not buying it before I left. Amazon is freely accessible, as are downloads from Itunes, etc. A great way to save some weight on all important baggage.
3. Realia. If you’ve already done a TEFL or another teaching course, you’ll know that realia are personal items you can use in your classes. The Chinese kids LOVE realia. A friend of mine brought a Welsh flag with him, and the kids went wild for it. So flags, sportswear, family pictures, souvenirs from countries you’ve visited, all go down a bloody storm.
4. Portable hard drive. Common sense, really, to back all your lesson plans, English Corners, etc up. I’d recommend buying a brand new hard-drive before you leave, or one which runs off your pc’s battery. My power cable recently decided to stop working on mine, so I can’t access any information on it.
5. Warm clothes. I made the hugely stupid mistake of thinking Hunan Province (where I live and teach) would stay relatively mild throughout the winter months. Nope. Research the climate of your Province, but pack for travelling in Spring Festival. Bring a few fleeces, thick jumpers, socks and hats, because China can get COLD. But if you’re worried about your luggage allowance, remember you can buy clothes there.
6. Itunes. Michael Jacskon, Justin Bieber, Lady Gaga. The big hitters can keep a class entertained if a lesson goes slightly awry.
7. Chocolate and sweets. Some areas of China are much more westernised than others, so you may be no more than 30 minutes away from a ‘Starry-B’s’ or the golden arches of a McDonalds. Alternatively, you may be many hours from such luxuries (as I was!), so maybe bring a few favourites (Ours included Cadbury’s Caramels, Starbucks VIA sachets, Maltesers, Mars bars and Haribo!)
8. Chinese dictionary or phrasebook. You will most probably be given Chinese lesson’s by your host school, but having a dictionary handy with you in everyday situations can save you a great deal of time and mime; you can point and grunt at the appropriate character instead!
9. Photos of family and friends. Many of you will have down days occasssionally, in much the same way you would in the UK. So at these times, it can be good to have a day to remind yourself of why you are in China and to remember happy occasions. I have seen many other teachers in China employ this method of motivation.
10. A good mindset! Never forget that this is a huge commitment that you are undertaking, and this may be the only time in your life to get to do this; depressing, but possibly true. So enjoy it! Revel in the difference and occasional insanity of a different culture! And if you have a down day, remember it’s not forever, and the benefits you can get if you put your mid to it hugely outweigh the negatives!

8 months down, 3 to go. Hence the title of this post! So, in order to see how quickly we can make these weeks go by, my girlfriend and I are going to challenge ourselves to do something we havn’t done before, give us a goal to work toward!

Therefore, I have decided to begin training for the London 10K run, taking place on July 8^th. I havnt yet signed up, due to some ambiguity about possibly being abroad at that time, but in the eventuality I can’t make that run, I will do a half marathon later in the year. I’ll keep you guys updated about which it is!

Why a run? Basically because I have never worked on my cardio, or really done a lot of running (except toward a McDonalds in Changsha). Climbing a lot of stairs can be a challenge (there are lots in China!) so I’m going to jump in and sort it out! And like I did with my HSK, if I’m writing an online diary about my progress (or lack thereof!) then I’ll be more motivated to train and keep going!

I’m also going to try and do some good with this run, and donate some dosh to the Make a Wish foundation, lightening my downbeat outlook in a fun way, by having one day a week where I wear odd shoes. For every person who notices and brings it to my attention, I’ll collect a yuan to donate toward the foundation when I do either the 10K run or a half marathon. One yuan a person doesn’t sound a great deal, I know, but I figure any kind of donation is better than nothing!

Thursday will be my day this week to don the mismatching footwear, so I’ll keep you guys up to date on training and donation progress!

Culture is a difficult thing to define. For me, anyway. I’ve tried to cover it with my classes, and the best way I thought of describing a country’s culture would be the historical traditions, including things like festivals, dress, physical appearance, architecture, literature, music, etc. unique to that area of land.China has a different culture to India. France has a different culture to the USA. And China has a very different culture to the UK.

Now, this post concerns my musings over a comment made to myself and several friends from another expat in China, that we have failed to adapt to Chinese culture; indeed, that China has ‘defeated us’, to quote accurately. This expat confidently claimed that he has adapted to the culture of China, is much happier in himself for it. This is all well and good, and I’d like to examine what routes one could go down to adapt to a foreign culture, as I seem to have missed and/or avoided them all, beginning with this expats method of adaptation. In doing so, I hope to avoid getting into my pulpit and preaching one method of adaption and socialisation against another!

Alcohol is something that no culture seems to get by without, though the ways of consumption are different. The UK is facing a moral panic concerning a binge drinking culture (I myself aided in this panic, during my 3 years at uni!), but in China, alcohol is consumed for different reasons. I have found that it is very rare for the average Chinese person to go out to a pub and drink himself stupid. Why? Because going to a pub is not Chinese practice in my experience, and prices for beer can be very high, so you tend to find a very select group of Chinese society within them, e.g. the very affluent. The Chinese tend to drink baijou (an incredibly strong liquor) at meals, and toast each other to show admiration and respect. The culturally adept expat concerned goes out to pubs or bars twice a week, and drinks huge quantities of alcohol, usually bought for him by Chinese gents, after he has toasted them (I have seen this numerous times). I’m just not sure how much of Chinese culture can be soaked up by drinking a skin-full of alcohol, whilst having a restricted grasp of the language.

Leading neatly onto nattering. The Chinese language, as I have said time and again, is incredibly difficult, but in order to get by in China on a 10-month contract, you have to be willing to learn some and practice. I’ve tried this, and sat my HSK Level I 2 weeks ago. If I pass or fail doesn’t really matter, as I learnt a lot of new verbs and nouns from it, and I can see (or hear) that I can communicate a little better with people, particularly taxi-drivers, though I’m still struggling with ‘Long night?’ and ‘What time are you working until?’ (Peter Kay, anyone?! Taxi Driver Tourettes is a global phenomenon!). This expat has admitted being stumped by the language, and has stated that they are ‘giving up’ on learning any more.

Staying motivated to teach and learn also, in my view, helps you to adapt. If you’re on a psychological low, it takes a lot to pick you back up. But if you plaster a smile on your face, I’ve found that this helps things enormously. I am not saying to ignore your feelings and pretend everything’s grand if it isn’t, hell no. Address that! But most of the invitations I have had to go to dinner, or do something interesting like to a traditional tea ceremony (loved it) or to a calligraphy class (difficult, but beautiful) have come about when I have given things a second chance, and tried to be more positive.

I have been very frank in documenting my experiences of culture fatigue on this blog, with the intention of giving any readers a heads up on what they may experience, and how to combat it. Acknowledging that you are a bit fed up with certain aspects of a new culture seems to be completely natural to me, and a lot better than simply walking into a new culture and claiming it to be the be all and end all. Step back, analyse, think! Cultural fatigue is a phenomenon that will affect everyone at some time, to a varying degree, admittedly, and there are evenings where you just want to lie in bed with a cup of Tetley’s and watch some FRIENDS. Nothing wrong, or weak, in that. Just because you have made the decision to come to another country, and to a culture incredibly far removed from your own, doesn’t mean you suspend your rights to argue for and against.

I believe there is a certain apologetic character amongst some expats here. Not only do they view Eastern culture as infinitely superior to Western, but criticise and condemn the countries they were raised in as capitalist dungeons. Some people may have genuine and deeply personal reasons for holding these views and don’t get me wrong, there are loads of aspects of Chinese culture which trump the west, but I don’t think western countries or cultures are the demons their made out to be, and don’t hold with such fical attitudes. But that’s beside the point I want to make, which concerns the hypocrisy of the manner in which these seemingly astute and wise observations are made. Nearly every time I have heard this argument from an expat, it has been in a setting where we are surrounded by expats, in a western style venue. I have just mastered the temptation each time to ask the question that if your home culture is so wrong and flawed, and driven by consumerism, as you say, why are you in a venue which an average Chinese person (whose culture you are attempting to assimilate into) cant afford, and swigging from a beer brewed in the west, to where all the profits go, surrounded by expats?

Ok, I feel I’ve drifted off course a bit here, I kinda contradicted myself in the ‘arguing for and against’ argument in that last paragraph! My main reason for writing this is to say that there is no one certain right way to go about adapting to a new culture. You may go out drinking, you may try and meet friends in Starbucks, you may want to be by yourself to study the language until you feel confident enough to step out from the school environment and talk to someone, whatever you feel comfortable with. Someone telling you you’re doing it wrong? Everyone’s entitled to their own opinion, but not to crush those of others with the argument that ‘I’m right, you’re wrong’, especially on a topic as personal as adaptation. That’s infantile. Ignore them, and pity the superiority complex which leads them to foolish assertations.

My opinions on adaptation? Try and get some of the language under your belt, if you havn’t already; it helps enormously. Socialise, yes, but if you’re feeling down, take some time to talk to friends or family back home, or do something to pick yourself up. Try new things; you may end up liking them and if you don’t, at least you’ve tried. Do it the way you feel good with, not the way some arrogant arseholes will preach to you is correct (so essentially, disregard this entire article!).

Another interview this week, with British Chinese speaker Andy, who heads his own English schools, Andy’s English Language Centre, in the city of Huaihua and the village of Qian Cheng.

Andy, how long have you been in China?

4 years. The first year I was in Shanghai University of Sports, playing badminton, as the standard here is very good. I stayed for a year, then left before coming back to do another 5 months in the same place, then I went back to the UK to start my foundation course but failed that. So I thought ‘I want to go back to China’ and obviously I need money so I thought I’m going to have to teach, and this time I went to Guangzhou, stayed there for just over a year teaching English and playing badminton at night, and after that I moved to Hunan, spending a few months in the village of Qian Cheng, where we (my wife and I) opened up our first English teaching school. Then I came to Huaihua about 8 months ago, running this business, and this is our second semester.

Lots of people have contacted me asking for advice, and one frequently asked question is how do you cope missing family and important occasions?

I get asked the same. I do miss my parents sometimes, if I’m tired or ill. But I don’t really think too much of home, as I’m just too busy! But at important times like Christmas or birthdays we video talk on Yahoo messager for about 3 hours at a time!

So what advice would you give to any foreign teachers who are maybe going through cultural fatigue?

I would say (and I know this sounds very wishy-washy!) but take it as it comes, because you are nearly halfway across the world, so if you wanted to go home you’d probably have to wait a few days for a ticket, etc. Just try and bear it, because you may only do this once in your life. And just remember, what you can learn to bear, does make you stronger, and when you go home, you’ll find that things that scared you, don’t scare you anymore, everything is very easy. It’s not forever.

Which area of China, that you have lived or taught in, has been your favourite?

I think Guangzhou and Changsha.

You must have seen many foreign teachers come and go, in your time in China. What do you think prompts some people to stay, and some to leave?

All the people who stay longer have usually had a Chinese girlfriend! And also, it’s usually they have some problems at home, maybe they’ve lost a job or something, and want a break and to do something crazy. And a lot of people like China; I never find myself yawning, as there’s always something new.

What ages have you taught/are you teaching?

The whole range. In my last job, I taught from kindergarten to university, to one-on-one adults.

And is there a particular age range you prefer teaching?

I think I prefer teaching kindergarten children, four to six or seven because the way you teach is very open, you can play games or sit and read, whatever you want really.

In your opinion, what teaching method works best for foreign teachers? Chinese English teachers use very strict, repetition methods; do you think this is the best way for a foreign teacher to teach?

I don’t, no. I think for foreigners to teach English to Chinese people is actually very difficult; you can’t use Chinese to explain why this is or why that is. So for us, I think it’s very hard, and I think sometime that Chinese bosses don’t fully understand how hard it is. The best bit of advice I can give for anyone coming here to teach English is take props, like a book, a picture, or even a ball. Because we must remember that unlike the Chinese classes which are very strict, our English classes can be very open; ‘If you’ve got something to say, shout it out’. I like using a ball a lot with middle school students, especially in the first lesson, as there’s that ice you have to break. So what I do is I introduce myself first and then I throw the ball, and the unfortunate sod who catches it has to stand up and introduce themselves, then they throw it to a classmate, who has to do the same, and so on. And be patient with students.

You’re a Brit doing business in China. How difficult has that been?

To be fair, I’ve never done business in England. But I would say that business in China is very hard, basically because there are so many people, and to be fair to the Chinese, they do work very hard. Some bosses work seven days a week, because other bosses do the same, and if they get lazy, they fall behind. And if they can make money doing this, even if it’s only a little bit, they will go to extremes to do it. So I would say the competition in China is harder. I would say ruthless.

Do you think taking a year out in China and learning the language is useful for when you go back to the West?

In my personal (and limited) experience, Mandarin is, at the moment, not very helpful. If you wanted to do a job being maybe a Chinese translator then yes. But what we must remember is that there are a lot of Chinese in China that do speak English to a very high standard. I think in the future there is a market for it, but at the moment, not so much. But it can’t hurt!

What is your pet peeve about China?

There are 2 things that get on my nerves in China. One is the lack of manners, spitting, and such. And drivers don’t have a great deal of consideration for the guy on the street.

Do you think that this is symptomatic of the way that Chinese children are raised?

I think so, yes. I think this lack of manners comes from the high density population. There are so many people, you have to look after number one a little bit more than you would in the West.

What is your favourite thing about China?

I thinkChinais the most foreign-friendly country in the World. The worst thing the Chinese might do to you is say ‘wei guo ren’ or ‘lao wai’ or something. Even speaking just one sentence of Chinese pleases many endlessly! I’ve always felt very welcomed here. My wife’s family have welcomed me, and treat me very well.

Do you think there is a great deal of aggression toward foreigners in China? I know of, and have heard of instances of foreigners being attacked whilst here. Is this a case of just having bad eggs in every society?

I think it’s just having bad eggs in every culture. In my experience, the Chinese have two feelings in their heart when they see a foreigner; the first is ‘Foreigner! Wow! Let’s say hello!’ and the other is that they think we have a lot of money, as it was the British Empire that made China relatively poor during imperialist expansion. And this is taught in Chinese schools, and they can hold on to this.

My thanks to Andy for his thoughts in this article!

I’ve pulled my finger out for you guys this week, and managed to secure an interview with a senior Chinese-English teacher at my school, to give a more thorough overview for anyone wanting to come and teach in China. One perspectives good, Two’s better. Three-plus is just confusing.

So Alfred (his elected English name), how long have you been a teacher?

About 20 years.

And have you always taught in Number 3?

No, I have worked in several places.

Did you major in English in University?

Yes, I majored in English, at Central South China University.

Why did you decide to major in English?

It was quite unexpected, but first I wanted to major in Economics. After the examination my teacher asked me to major in English.

So you took your teacher’s advice?

Yes.

And do you have a favourite English author, or book?

Yeah. My favourite English book is Jane Eyre by Emily Bronte.

A very good book. A lot of foreign teachers who come to China find Chinese a very difficult language to master. But my students argue that English is the harder of the two to grasp. What points of the English language do you think confuse students the most?

The grammar. There are too many grammar rules to learn and remember, and to use in real situations. And there are a lot of exceptions!

Why did you decide to become a teacher?

There are several reasons. When I was a child I was born in the countryside and we are always thinking that the job of a teacher is very fantastic. And this made a deep impression on me. All the people in our town admire the teacher’s job. And the second is I love students. I am very happy to talk, and discuss problems with students. And thirdly, after students graduation, I have a sense of satisfaction. I like my job. The teacher’s job plays a very important role in our country.

Do you think that Chinese students are very hardworking?

Yes. But that is the spirit of the Chinese people, to get a brighter future.

And are parents very influential in the student’s studies?

In China, lots of parents want their child to have a brighter future. There is a Chinese idiom; ‘To hope our children become successful’. If the child is born a boy, they hope he will grow to be a dragon, and a girl, to grow to become a phoenix.

So that is why at Chinese weddings you will see dragons and phoenixs’?

Yes, it expresses good hope and luck.

How many hours does a Chinese English teacher such as yourself work?

Usually, we will have 10-12 classes a week, 2 hours a day. But we must be in our office for 8 hours a day, too.

You have visited Britain. Where did you go?

I went to many places. I went toLondon, to the London Eye, and Buckingham Palace, the Lake District and the Highlands.

What do you think of Britain?

In my opinion it is very good. The air is fresh and peaceful compared to China, because China has such a large population!

Hunan is famous for its spicy food. What do you think of British food?

To be honest, I am not quite accustomed to British food! It doesn’t quite fit my tastes!

And was Britain the same as you pictured it before going, or was it different?

Before I went, the most impressive picture is that London is a foggy city, and maybe I can get lost there! But when I get there, it is not much like the novel of Oliver Twist!

And finally, what do you think of the British people?

I think they are very friendly. Sometimes we saw some drunks in the street, but that was quite rare, I think. But on the whole, they are quite friendly and easy to get along with!

Upon advice from my girlfriend who is much better versed in Chinese than myself, I have changed tack slightly in my learning for the HSK this week, and am putting greater impetus on learning technical word groups, such as the nouns, verbs, etc. included in the list, rather than in alphabetical order, though I’m still setting aside time for alphabetical learning and recognition!

So, verbs. The first verb featured in the HSK Level 1 list is a4i (爱), which as I’ve covered it about 50 times in the last week, I should by now know! 爱is the verb for ‘love’.

The second verb is chi1 吃,to eat, and again, I’m ok with this I think, having covered it again and again. I also learned last week that the first small square symbol is associated with the mouth, and so is found in other words such as jia4o 叫(to call) and ti1ng 听 (to listen).

Du2 读 (to read), go1ngzuo4 工作(to work), he1 喝(to drink-see again the square symbol first?!) I’m also good with, but I encounter difficulty with the next two. Hui2 回 means to return, and the symbol I try to remember by imagining it to be a sort of electronic search square, like you’d see in something like the Bourne Identity. But the next word is spelt exactly the same way in pinyin, differing by tone and symbol…I’ve just got a mental block on it! Hui4 会means ‘to be able to’ or ‘can’. Maybe a phrase recognition, something along the lines of ‘Hui can’ (I can).

Jia4o 叫 you are already familiar with, so the next is ka1i 开, to open, as in a door, which in itself is useful as the symbol looks a bit like a door, with a lintel and everything. 开-door-open-to open (a door). Ka4n (to watch) follows. I will check with my Chinese tutor, but as I know the nouns for both tv (dianshi 电视) and movie (电影), I could just drill ‘wo kan dianshi’ (我看 电视), or ‘wo kan dianying’（我 看电影） for ‘I watch tv’, or ‘I watch a movie’.

Differing slightly is ka4njia4n 看见, which means to see. Kan, as you can see (haha! No pun intended!), is the same symbol and pinyin as to watch, but with the jian added at the end. I’ll get back to you on the difference between the two.

La2i 来 (to come) and ma3i 买(to buy) again I’m good with, even if I do occasionally mix up the symbol for buy 买with the symbol for read 读!

Ne2ng 能 (to be able to) is quite a unique symbol, and one which I can recognise, but I need a system for remembering that neng is ‘to be able to’. A wacky one I suppose would be making neng a person, and using the verbal phrase ‘neng is able to drive an Audi tt’ (Audi tt as the first character resembles an ‘A’ and there are 2 ‘t’ like characters following this). Neng is able to drive an Audi tt.

Qu4 去 (to go) and re 热 (to heat up) are quite easy one’s to recognise. 去 looks like it’s pointing you in the direction you need to go, whilst 热 has the four small strokes underneath the other characters which resemble flames, flames of course being used to heat something up.

Re4nshi 认识is also easy enough to piece together I think, as it contains the symbol for people or person 人, so you know the sound will be ‘ren’ but also the last symbol to me looks like a head on two stick legs, so ren and head-renshi认识 -knowledge-to know.

Sha4ng 上 (to go up or ascend)-maybe think of the symbol as a step on a staircase? You use the stairs in this case to go up, so shang-to ascend-上. Shi4 是(to be) is used a great deal in everyday discourse, for example when explaining to someone you are a teacher (我 是 老师- wo shi laoshi), so is quite an important character to remember.

Shui4jia4o 睡觉 is to sleep and this to has proved to be a bit of a swine for me to remember, although looking at it, I suppose you could say that the second symbol looks like a bed, in that you have the head and foot of the bed, with a square mattress inbetween. Then there is the problem of linking the characters to the pinyin and to the English. Shuijiao-sleep (both begin with an ‘s’?)-睡觉.

Following swiftly on the heels of ‘to sleep’ is ‘to speak’, or shou1hua4. To speak…shouhua…shout? Both speak and shouhua begin with an S?

Nearly there! The next verb required is ti1ng, 听 or listen. I’ve found the pinyin-English quite easy to remember for this, as ‘ting’ is a noise, which can link in with hearing. Ting-to hear or listen. And the symbol I think looks like an ear on the side for a face; the second symbol has the curve of a jaw, a horizontal line for an eye and a vertical line for a nose!

Xi3huan follows, which means to like ( 喜欢). I have been using the pinyin ‘xihuan’ for a long time now, usually saying ‘wo bu xihuan’ when offered cigarettes. So ‘xihuan’ and ‘to like’ is no problem, but the characters are!

An easy one is xia4yu3, which means to rain. And check out the characters! 下雨! It looks like the word its describing! Hallelujah! Xiayu-to rain-下雨.

Xia3ng 想 means ‘to think’, and is maybe easy enough to remember if you link the bottom symbols with looking like a hand rubbing a stubbly chin in a thoughtful way. 想-xia3ng-to think.

Only 6 more to go! Xie3 写 is to write or compose, and I suppose you could loom at it as consisting of horizontal lines, just as you would write on a page.

Xue2xi2 学习 is to study, or learn. I learnt the pinyin for this when I was attempting (disastrously!) to self-study last semester. The second character looks I suppose like a pen or pencil being held to a page, which is what you do when studying, write things over and over again (well, I do anyway!)

Yo3u 有is to have, and I suppose the verbal phrase ‘you have’ is easy enough to remember the pinyin, though the character reminds me a lot of the earlier verb for watch, 看. Za4i 在 (to be) is also another word used in everyday discourse, and a symbol I should have memorised a long time ago! Looking very similar to 在 is zhu4, 住 (to live). Again, maybe a verbal phrase can help me remember zhu is to live with ‘monkeys live in the zoo’, given the similar sounds of ‘zoo’ and ‘zhu’.

Penultimate character! Zuo4 坐 is to take, and I think, looking at it, the character looks like two people pulling in opposite directions at something. So maybe one is trying to take from the other. And finally, and confusingly, we have zuo4 again! Though this demonstrates how two words in Chinese can sound exactly the same, differing only in character. Zuo4 做 is ‘to make’.

Phew, take a breath! Hope this wasn’t too long and boring! 13 days until the HSK exam now, so time to get memorising!

As promised, my weekly round-up on Chinese language progression, or lack thereof. I have been torturing myself this past week or so with the notion that though I have been in China over six months, most of that has been ruled by extreme inertia on my part (though not when it comes to lessons, I’m going to state!). So here we go… I have decided to try for HSK Level 1 in March, on the 18th, to be exact. HSK level 1 demands that you can recognise 150 previously set Chinese characters, a list from which random characters will be heard on a recording; a kind of fill-in-the-blanks test. The pre-set list is available on the HSK website, and is very helpfully set out in alphabetical order. The downside to that is that I have become fairly adept at recognising the characters when they are in their alphabetical order, but much less so when they are random! Ah well, still got two weeks to wrap my head around them. At least it’s just recognition at this stage, you don’t have to be able to write the symbols for HSK 1. I must make a confession at this stage. I am sitting here with the list in front of me, attempting to memorise characters 61-69, the ‘m’s’ of the list, and if you are willing to read further, I will examine the characters, and my approach to memorising them.

So, no. 61 is ma(1)ma (妈妈) (the numbers next to the letters denote the tone that is applicable to the preceding letter; 1 for even, 2 for rising, 3 for the dipthong, and 4 for falling). This I think I’m ok with, as it was one of the first words I learnt in my formal school Chinese lessons. The first and third symbols relate to women and females, so that’s easy enough to associate with ‘mother’, although the second and fourth are ‘measure words’ although as a noun, the symbol can also mean horse! No. 62 is ma (no tone) 马, and as I mentioned above, in this context, and with the character for female, is a measure word, not the noun for horse! So ma 马, is a measure word. No. 63 is ma(3) 买, which means to buy, or purchase. The pinyin is easy enough; mai rhymes with buy; mai buy. But the character? I cant think of a currency symbol, such as a pound, dollar or anything to link it to. I suppose you could say it looks like an upside down ‘Y’; the currency of China is the Yuan, and you ‘buy’ (mai) with Yuan. So buy-ma(3)i-Y-买. No.64 is ma(1) 猫, or ‘cat’. The pinyin is easy enough to link in; mao looks and sounds like ‘meow’, the noise cats make. The symbol is a bit trickier; the first symbol relates to animals, and is also featured in No. 34 on the list, go(3)u 狗, which is Chinese for dog. So I’ve got to remember that the second symbol in cat looks a bit like a portcullis. 猫. No. 65 is me(2)i 没, which means to not have. Me(2)i I think I’m ok with, as the amount of times I’ve heard ‘meiyou’ (we don’t have any) when visiting a KFC here is ridiculous. The first part of the symbol occurs also in ha(4)nyu(3) (汉语) which is Chinese language, so maybe I could just link mei to being a part of Chinese language, and think that I don’t have enough knowledge of the language yet? No. 66 includes the symbol for me(2)i, which is handy to help memorise it, and is me(2)i gua(1)nxi 没关系 (typing this is helping me to recognise the characters, as I’m having to look through the lists to identify the correct ones!). Guanxi is a bit of a sod to memorise; maybe the last symbol looks like 2 stylised ‘z’s on top of each other, and ‘x’ is 2 places behind ‘z’ in the English alphabet. Guan sounds a bit like Yuan, and the second symbol again looks like an upside down ‘Y’, but does this bring confusion when trying to differentiate between 买 and 关? But similar looking symbols are just something I’ll have to get used to in Chinese character writing and recognition; the same symbol recurs with different sounds in 电视 (movie) and 看见 (see), and above, in 汉语 and 没. 67 is mi(3)fa(4)n 米饭 (cooked rice). Cant see a way of linking this with rice, unless I say the second character looks like an ‘i’ as in ‘rice’ and the lower part of the final character looks a bit like a ‘c’. So 米饭 is comprised of 3 characters, the second and third looking like the second and third letters of ‘rice’. 68 is mi(2)ngzi 名字, or name. And finally, No. 69 is mi(2)ngtia(1)n, 明天, or tomorrow Tia(1)n (天) has already come up in the HSK list, in the ‘J’s; ji(1)ntia(1) 今天 means today. Again, the confusion surrounding characters kicks in; tian looks very similar to the symbols for guan (关) and mai (买). Just got to look for the subtle differences I suppose!

Thought I’d share an average day walking to work (today). Well, wading at the moment, given that it’s raining more or less constantly, and the pavements in Huaihua have a tendency not to stay on terra firma. Still, my left leg soaked in muddy water, I chuckle to myself behind my mask (this is not metaphorical, I’ve actually invested in a mask to cover the lower half of my face, a la Bane after being informed that 500,000,000 people in China are suspected of having TB, and getting tired of phlegm particles flying around when someone coughs!), shrug it off, and soldier on to the primary school, where the children will be excited to see me back, no doubt, but really eager to get on with work too.

Sadly, no. I’m greeted as I climb the Himilayan-esqe stairs by mutters and giggles of wei guo ren from the students I don’t teach (maybe even some I do!) and the song-like calls of ‘Hello! Nice to meet you!’ which children will take every opportunity to practice. I don’t mind replying-their pronunciation is spot on, for the most part-but when there’s dozens of students around, and they hear the reply, the chain reaction kicks off, and I’m left calling ‘Nice to meet you to!’ to whoever wants to listen.

I take a few minutes in the staffroom to sit and compose myself. I’ve decided to take a HSK exam at the earliest opportunity, so I can use this time wisely and work. Or play Snake on the Nokia. It’s a coin-toss. Snake wins.

I walk into my class and am greeted enthusiastically, which is lovely to hear. The students crowd around me, inches faces from my laptop, staring at the picture of the Sydney Opera House which is my background. Please don’t push it off the desk, I pray. ‘Hello! nice to meet you!’ comes at me from somewhere.

The lesson goes excellently, and the pupils all look happy with the ground we’ve covered today. However, my spirit drops. This is the time of day I fear most for my safety. You see, when I’m in the Junior school, the classrooms are pretty central around the staff room, so it’s not far to walk to my classes. But after lessons, the students, wound after playing games or bored after maths, stream out, line the corridors and begin battle, throwing one another around, running, tripping each other, focussing on whatever poor soul who will be trying to get through, as kids will. And at this point in time, that is me.

They hold back a bit, obviously. Not only am I a teacher, but I’m also foreign. But I hear the thuds and giggles behind me as students try their best to throw their best mate in my general direction. Not far left. I hear a girl scream then laugh raucously from somewhere near my right ear. ‘Nice to meet you!’ rings out. I’m not overly tall, and 6 months in China and 2 attacks of food poisoning mean I’m not as heavy set as I once was. I have visions of when I was mobbed by these same kids at Christmas, when they believed I was Santa Claus. ‘Excuse me!’ I call above the chatter and yelling. I’m there. Safe.

Nope. The students pile into the staffroom after me anyway.

Long story short, after 3 hours, I made it out alive. And promptly step on a loose paving slab. Fair enough, I’m going to get a stir-fry.

So, our first substantive topic back, and what a topic it is! Ladies and Gentlemen, I present to you, in all its intricacy and wonder; Chinese language!!!

I’m not sure, Reader, how much, or how little you know of the Chinese language, written or spoken, so I’ll begin with the bare bones, and add the metaphorical flesh, sinews, arteries and veins as we progress (believe me, this will be as much of a learning curve for me as it is for you, as I’m hoping things will magically click when I’m trying to describe this!). Due to teaching commitments and other ventures I’ve involved myself in, my grasp of the Chinese language is not as advanced as it should be, so I’m still at the neanderthal ‘point and grunt’ stage., which is about as sophisticated as it sounds.

I’ll begin with the written. I’m sure everyone has seen Chinese characters at some point or another, in an airport, brochure, website, textbook, stylised on a t-shirt… Chinese characters are everywhere, and growing more and more prominent, given the greater impetus that China is gaining on the rest of the world. They are as beautiful as they are baffling (much like China as a country!) , an opinion compounded when I was recently given a gift of Chinese characters wonderfully and painstakingly painted perfectly onto rice paper.

My school in Huaihua gives me Chinese lesson’s every week, and one of the first questions I asked my teacher was ‘What’s your system for memorising the Characters?’, given that many have seemingly little or no relation to the word they represent (though some are also very easy!), and, being a graduate, hoping for an easy way out of doing any serious work. The answer I got filled me with dread regarding my prospects of learning Chinese; ‘Just memorising’.

M. (me) ‘What? But don’t you need to know around 5,000 words (so around 5,000 characters) to be considered fluent in Chinese?’

T. (teacher) ‘Yes. I have memorised them’.

Daunting. But manageable, I am assured, over time!

There are a certain set of rules to follow when writing Chinese characters. There are 8 basic strokes;

1)      the dian, or dot

2)      Heng, or a horizontal stoke from left to right

3)      Shu, vertical stroke from top to bottom

4)      Gou, hook added to the end of other strokes

5)      Ti, diagonal stroke, rising from left to right

6)      Pie, diagonal stroke, falling from right to left

7)      Duan Pie, short diagonal stroke, falling from right to left

8)      Na, horizontal stroke, falling from left to right

(even better, check out the website http://zhongwen.com/shufa/index.html which has diagrams, and explains this much better than me, and which also has a section on stroke order which is too long for me to recount here!)

All of which serves to scare the hell out of me, personally! It is a very difficult language to learn; much harder than the French I did in school at A levels (conjugations and all!). This seems to be the prevailing attitude amongst the foreign teachers I have talked to here, though it is also damn compelling in its complexity, in that it becomes a personal challenge to learn some, no matter if its just recognition of the number characters, or things like ‘I’ or ‘people’.

I’m motivating myself to work now by booking a HSK exam, thus forcing me to pass and get my money’s worth! To anyone else looking to learn some characters, I recommend the site http://www.nciku.com/, which is bloody marvellous.

Happy Year of the Dragon, people! The dragon is the symbol for luck and prosperity in China, so my best wishes for the coming year!

Ok, so to kick start us back off after Spring Festival holidays and celebrations, I’m going to discuss…Spring Festival! This is one of China’s most important celebrations, usually taking place between beginning/mid- January and beginning/mid February, and it is one myself and all the other foreign teachers in China have looked forward to immensely, as we got a good bit of time off and a chance to travel around China, though many also opted to go outside to Vietnam, Hong Kong, or as in the case of my girlfriend and I, Australia). Today is the 7^th, and last night marked the Lantern Festival, and as such the end of Spring Festival celebrations with a bang (quite literally and continuously!) In the spirit of Confucianism, during Spring Festival millions of Chinese travel across China to visit and stay with loved ones, which makes travelling anywhere by train, coach or plane an absolute nightmare (last week, a further 800 odd trains were put into service on China’s railways, adding to the nearly 700 there already. I described the size of the trains in China in my transport posts, so you can get a rough idea of how many people travelled by train the past few weeks!).

The intricacies and traditions of Chinese Spring Festival are far too many for me to describe in a blog post, but I include a link at the bottom of the page, for anyone interested in reading further. But I’ll include a quick crash course of noticeable things…

-Red. Ever the colour of prosperity in China, red banners and diamond shaped fu characters are renewed and displayed above and around entrances to Chinese homes to promote good luck and peace. Red envelopes, often containing money, are handed out to friends and family, and also hung off orange trees, and displayed in prominent places, such as at the entrance to shopping malls and the such, again to promote luck.

-Fireworks. As I’ve noted before, fireworks are a common feature of life in China, but they have been ever present during Spring Festival, as have sparklers and firecrackers (some of which my friends and I managed to get our hands on (though soberly!))

-Mythology. The Spring Festival celebrations focus around a mythical Chinese beast called Nian, who terrorised villages at this time of year, eating crops and people, until Nian was scared away by a child wearing red. At this point, people in China began to hang red banners around their doors so Nian couldn’t get in and set off firecrackers and fireworks to scare the beast away.

So brief and to the point! More posts coming up soon folks on such topics as Chinese language, the Chinese Zodiac, popular places for foreign teachers to visit in China, and many miscellaneous and random one’s in between! Also, check out the TEIC page on Facebook (link below).

新年快乐!

http://education2.uvic.ca/Faculty/mroth/438/china/chinese_new_year.html

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Teach-English-In-China/175320055898579