Shiny Happy People
I think that i've written before that everything that i
researched has turned out to be wrong.
Information that comes out of this
country is all suspect. You don't know where it comes from even if it
appears to be from verifiable sources. You simply don’t know where the
information is from, what the age of it is, and whether or not it’s at all
accurate. I have mentioned that many
things turned out to be different, but I thought that at least some of what I had
researched would come out to have been good, that’s turning out to not be the
case, more and more.
I’ve been quite frustrated with my school. I’m not getting anywhere. I’ve hit a block, and I can’t get past it,
and I don’t know what the problem is. I went
into my course on Thursday or Friday, can’t remember which day, and I got an
earful from my professor. Apparently, I am
an awful student, I’m making the same mistakes over and over again, even though
she doesn’t tell me when I’m making the mistakes, and I came within inches of
throwing it all back in her face. Instead,
I cancelled my classes, and went for a walk.
While I was walking around Futian CBD (central business
district) I was approached by a random guy selling mandarin lessons. He asked me if I wanted a free lesson, I said
sure, and went up to their school. In my
20 minute free mandarin lesson, I learned more than I have in the past week at
my school. I asked questions, and was
fairly convinced that my teacher was completely unqualified. The teachers at Jiahua are all actual
teachers. They know what they’re
doing. Unfortunately, I knew that I had
time left on my account, and I didn’t want to commit to anything. I decided on Saturday to go to Nanshan and
check out the school there. That school
was even more impressive. Jaihua was
started by a Canadian guy who loves china and never wants to leave. He saw what they were doing in mandarin
schools, how they teach westerners like Chinese are taught, and the truth is,
that we do not think or learn things the same way that Chinese people do. We can’t.
There are enough differences here that that shouldn’t be a surprise, but
it’s just one more thing that seems hard to believe. I talked to my sales manager and booked an
appointment.
So, Friday, I learned how much more of my research wasn’t
any good. It turns out that the school
that I picked, with all of the great reviews, and all that good stuff, actually
has a brilliant marketing department. Their
marketing manager is beyond lazy, he’s actually in sales, but can’t be bothered
to do that part of his job, so, he just lies about his stats and does other
things to bring in more money and customers.
For example, this school is supposed to have cultural events every
month. They haven’t had one since I started,
and they’ve had exactly one since my friend started. The corporate office provides a fund for
cultural activities, he writes the reports, and keeps the money. Also, apparently, the marketing manager has a
VPN that allows him to log in from different IP addresses and countries, and
thus allows him to write multiple reviews on multiple sites.
When I was researching, and getting information from and
about the school, I was informed that they have cultural events, they teach
culture, their teachers are all qualified, they have experience teaching English
speaking students Mandarin. This is not
the case at this school. Actually, I think
they have 1 qualified teacher, and everything else you have to figure out on
your own…good luck!
At jiahua, every Monday and Wednesday they have cultural
corner where (for free I might add) you can go and learn culture from a teacher
who loves his/her culture so much she/he wants to share it. They offer free tutoring during this time,
and you get to meet other students and network.
They have bbq’s at the school, where you get to meet other students,
network, and set up study sessions if you’re so inclined. There’s an area to kick back, relax, and meet
other students. They are signed up with
an international organization for networking that you can join after you learn
mandarin for a while.
So, I was sold. I decided
to start looking at apartments.
Thomas was with me, so I had a built in translator….of
sorts. He’s been here for 4 months,
lives in a pure Chinese neighborhood, and is quite good at the language,
although he still has a ways to go. But,
he still does very well. We walked around
Nanshan for a while looking at apartments and we noticed something else about the
area that was more than a little strange.
People would smile at you. There were
no dirty looks. By way of example, in
Futian on my way to my bank (a 15-20 minute walk based on how motivated you are
that day), I started paying attention to my surroundings. By the time I hit my bank, I had encountered
something around 15 dirty looks. I usually
ignore it. In Nanshan though, we didn’t
receive one. People smiled at us. People were happy when we attempted to speak
Mandarin. I got corrected a couple of
times in a nice way, they helped Thomas out to an amazing degree and did not
make fun of him at all for anything he said, they just suggested other ways to get
his point across. People are happy in
Nanshan. The expats in Nanshan are
happy. I talked to expats and they said
hi, some even had conversations with me.
Weird….it creeped both Thomas and I out.
Nanshan is how I expected China to
be.
We looked at apartments.
The prices were unbelievably reasonable in comparison with Luohu and
Futian, actually, the word ‘cheap’ comes to mind. I found an apartment in Nanshan that is 140
sq m for the same price that I’m paying for 76 sq m in Futian. The furniture is all modern. It has hardwood floors that are sealed,
showers that work, beds that are made of brick and don’t give in the least,
beautiful furnishings, a jade statue of a dragon boat, I’m in love. It’s actually a nicer apartment than any I have
ever seen in the usa or Canada, let alone china. I’ve never seen anything like it, and neither
has Thomas, who has far more experience than I do. So, after a full day of looking, haggling,
and playing, I now have an apartment in Nanshan.
So, you might ask yourself, at this stage, what is he going
to do with the place in Futian? Well,
there’s a clause on every contract that states that if you don’t pay your rent
within 10 days, they kick you out. What you
don’t realize is that this doesn’t affect you in any way. You can’t build credit in china. You’re not going to be asking your landlord
for a reference, they probably won’t give you one even if they do like
you. What Chinese people usually do, is
clear out of their apartment, move into the next place, make sure that
everything is out, then go to the landlord, drop off the key, say that you have a new job somewhere else, and
leave. They can’t stop you, and, because
I will be doing this with google translate at my side (i.e. I’m going to the
hyatt to print out a page saying what I want it to say, then I’m going to
leave), and they don’t know how to get ahold of me.
In addition to being a nice neighborhood with people who are
happy to help you to learn Chinese, it is also the last place in the world that
Mei would think to find me, so, that’s good for me too. I have a translator who has agreed to help me
get all of my utilizes, (internet, tv, etc) switched to the new place on Friday,
so, I may be without internet for a couple of days, but I’m okay with that
too. Just sucks that I have to pack
things up, the nice thing is that I have no desire go anywhere else, this should
be it for me, it has everything that I want, is a 10 minute walk from my school
and a major mall and the largest book store I have seen in my entire life….probably
five to eight times the size of the ones in the usa, can’t remember what they’re
called, barnes and noble or something.
I spent some time with my friend Zane today. He is Canadian, from the eastern side, and
makes me laugh, he’s got that mix of Seinfeld sense of humour combined with
Monty Python. He asked me today if I was
a spy. He says that every time he sees
me I’m living somewhere else. I think I need
to stop, fortunately, this apartment is a good one to stop with. I just have to find a place that sells
mattresses. I don’t understand the
thought behind manufacturing a bed that’s actually harder than your floor.
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