My Mandarin teacher is fantastic, I'm more than a little
bit impressed with her. She has many years of teaching experience, loves
to do so, and yet still possesses that Chinese sadism that we all enjoy so
much. I have been in classes for 8 days now, and I was trying to
understand the difference between "ma" and "la" which both
mean "hot" as in hot and spicy food. She tried to explain and i
thought i had a handle on it. The next day, she was happily waiting in
class for me. She said that she'd like to introduce me to some specialty
from her hometown. She pulled out these tiny little seeds, and said,
"try one". I bit into it, and it was like something suddenly
was eating me from the inside out. The burning was absolutely
intense. Water made it worse, green tea made it worse, everything i tried
made it worse, my eyes watered, my nasal passages cleared, it was crazy.
She said, "Okay, Blair, that's ma! Now it's time for
la!" she pulled out a dried chilli pepper of some sort, but i
refused, letting her know that i know what a pepper tastes like, especially
since i had accidentally bit into exactly the same one the weekend before at
Hot Pot with some friends. If anyone else would like to know the
difference, i'm happy to give you the same experience. La is a gut
wrenching horrible feeling that makes you sweat, and makes you feel like you're
going to die. Ma is a serious burning in every single tastebud and
sensory receptor in your mouth, it doesn't make it to your throat, i think you
can actually breath fire, i was afraid to burn the school to the ground though,
so i opted not to find out. Sichuan food is known for being very, very
ma, and Hunan for being very, very la. I will take la over ma every
single time!
The editors of our book were either morons or had a sense of humour, it could be either or both, i suspect both. Many of the words have the meaning that they want them to, but they're out of date. For example, the word for lady "Yuan" has the same pronunciation as money, but a different chinese character. That's the phrase that the book uses to indicate respect for the lady. In south china, that name is synonymous with prostitute, which probably has something to do with being the same word for money. If you were using the books version of being polite, you're bound to get slapped at the very least. The nice way to say it, that is accepted in all of china is Nu shi. The numbers that they give you for examples of counting are equally misleading, oddly enough. They give an example of 250, and ask you to say it. What they don't tell you, is that 250 is actually slang for stupid in both Mandarin and Cantonese. Nothing in china costs 250 RMB. Nobody says that number unless they're insulting someone. There's a myriad of examples like this all through the book. My teacher thinks that the book writers and editors are naive, i think they have a sense of humour and enjoy playing tricks on foreigners, i know i certainly enjoyed those games when i was teaching english, and i'm positive that there are many koreans out there cursing my name....which continually makes me smile.
I've mentioned Mei a few times in the past, and have been asked for updates. She went home after chinese new year, and i haven't seen her since. We emailed and texted a few times, but that was it. She told me at one point that she didn't go home that she was with friends, and another time, she told me that her father was dying, that her mother had disappeared, and that she quit her job, and is taking care of her father. I dont' know what to believe, but, i think that there is a kernal of truth to both. It's also entirely possible that she was visiting shenzhen, did not have an apartment here, and has disappeared back to her hometown. Because i have had a few reservations and misunderstandings in the past, i've decided to just leave things as they are, and wash my hands of the whole deal.
In china, it's impossible to meet good women, kind of. A good girl does not go to bars or pubs. A good girl does not talk to men she doesn't know. A good girl keeps her focus on the ground, or whatever she's doing (most likely something to do with her cell phone), avoids all eye contact and goes about her business. A good girl never drinks. Those who are not good girls in china, deserve everything bad that ever happens to them. This is accepted, and this is what they are taught from birth, among other things that are not entirely helpful. (you're useless being one of them.) So, that means that you have to approach the whole thing sideways.
I mentioned before that the women outnumber the men 7 to 1 in shenzhen. Shenzhen has the most educated, and an amazing amount of absolutely beautiful women from all over china. Having been told their entire life that they are useless, they come to Shenzhen to become successful and thus prove their parents wrong, which is unfortunately something that will never work. It's sad, but there you go. About half of them are university educated and in very good positions at work. Every woman who is university educated comes from a wealthy family. Only wealthy families can afford to send anyone to school, let alone a girl.
So, if you want to meet the quality women in china, you have a choice. Either you can make friends with a chinese woman, or you can use the internet. The first option is very good. Every chinese woman in Shenzhen has a minimum of 4 friends who are looking for a boyfriend, although it's more likely they're looking for a husband. Most women that i know have a list of 7 friends who are looking. If you go this route, you'll go to dinner or something chaperoned by her friend, and just talk, get to know her, and then you can get a phone number and call her. I've found that this, at least in my limited experience, is somewhat frustrating. For whatever reason, the women that i've met this way all want to be chased. I've always been of the opinion that if you get turned down for a date 3 times, it's time to quit asking. This is apparently the wrong way of thinking, they want to be romanced, (or something), and apparently chasing down a date is part of this process. I find it tiring and frustrating.
Internet dating is good because they are able to get to know you via email. They can ask absolutely any questions that they want to (internet allows that), they see your pictures, and it's not as much of a blind leap of faith, theoretically. Now that she's gotten to know you, she's able to meet with you, without gaining a "bad girl" status.
I met a woman yesterday through the internet who holds a bachelor degree, a master's degree, and an
Associate degree
. BA from Peking University - the best and most
prestigious university in China, and the Master's from Shenzhen University, one
of the top 5 universities in China. I don't remember where her associates
degree is from, somewhere in Beijing, and it is in Mandarin, she's licensed by
the government to teach Mandarin in China, and the rest of the world. It
is not an easy qualification to get as you must learn the history of all of the
characters, the origin of words, be familiar with every area and major city in
China, and a myriad of other things. She's the HR manager of a firm here
in Shenzhen, and comes from a well known family in Beijing, her father was very
high in the government. I was telling my friend, Thomas, about our date,
and I actually managed to get things right, accidentally.
Chinese women are obsessed with being thin and tall. If you tell a girl she is thin, she will be happy. If you tell her she is as thin as if she were dead, she will be ecstatic. I told the girl last night that i couldn't believe how thin she was, and she melted. Actually, it turned out that we had a ton of chemistry, her english is very good (every woman who has a university degree can speak english), and she was an interesting and entertaining date. I think she's actually a great deal smarter than i am and probably makes a ton more money than i do, which isn't a bad thing, but it is a bit different in China. She has a 12 year old son whom she is extremely proud of (i like that), and she loves to travel (near unheard of in China - nobody wants to travel here, that's why there's so many travel deals to encourage people to travel - i can book through a chinese agency for Dubai for $1,000 USD and it includes a 5 star hotel and the flight to and from...i guarantee that the hotel costs more than the package). We are going out again on Friday, and going to tour another art town, as she enjoys that as much as I do. (chinese art is different and i very much enjoy seeing the writing style - which i'm currently learning to do - as well as the cultural paintings of cherry blossoms, bamboo, etc. It fascinates me). We went for hot pot yesterday, and i asked for the bill, she checked it (it's in Chinese) and i paid. After dinner, she told me that she was going to have to treat me next time. I told her no. She said that she would love to take me out for lunch, i said that that was fine, but she wasn't going to be paying, she thought for a moment and said, "Fine, i'm going to cook for you!", to which i cleverly replied, "Took you long enough to get there!!!!" She has a very good sense of humour, by which i mean that she understands mine.
I think my brain is full. I got to the 3rd hour of my class today (out of 5 hours), and i told her that my brain was full, and that i was unable to learn anymore. My teacher looked at me funny, it took 15 minutes for me to explain that i wasn't able to learn anything more this week. I think tomorrow, we're just going to review for 3 hours, then call it a day. Hopefully some of this will sink in this weekend. If not, i think we're going to start over from the beginning of the book again, review, work on pronunciation, etc. It's a little frustrating, i think i'm getting somewhere, then it stops, and it's time to start over again. I wonder if this is what those who "hit the wall" mean. I think there's something to that. The language is so foreign in comparison with english, that you get to a point that things just stop making any degree of sense. I'm halfway through the book right now, theoretically i can get through it in one month, but i wouldn't be comfortable with that. I'm going to be taking my time. I do wonder if i'm going to find fluency within 2 years, or whether it's going to be more...i suspect more, as those who i know who are doing well, take breaks to let it sink in every couple of months. It's very easy to get frustrated, which is why they all have hobbies, things they are working on to keep them distracted, as well as to keep them earning enough to pay for lessons and to live here.
I always heard how cheap it is to live in china. The truth is, you can live on $2k CDN/month. However, you will be living with probably 2 or 3 roommates, and it's not easy. Those who want to live like americans here are paying for the experience. I would guess and say that it's around $10k/month. They have american style apartments, american style furniture, appliances, etc. I'm somewhere on the low end, it's doable, but there are things that still frustrate me.
I mentioned before the problem with my shower, it's either scalding hot, or glacier cold. I've learned that there is a sweet spot that lasts for about 30 seconds, sometimes up to a minute and a half. My cousin suggested that the cold pipes were calcinated over. Turns out that he's right. It also turns out that the pipes are completely inside of the walls, and the only way to take care of the problem is to rip the walls out. I will learn to shower within my limitations.
Everyone still talks about my rat problem, and how they're amused by it. I'm still not at all amused. Because nobody can find it, they don't believe that it exists. They believe that the rat crap is old, and that it escaped, i know better. Somehow i will prove it. Everyone is joking about it, and i still don't have a sense of humour. Perhaps i'll do it up ecuador style when i catch it, and send it to those who insist on telling me jokes. They can deal with cooked, month-dead rat in their mailbox. So far, i think my father is first on the list.
My teacher has a very good friend who cleans at hotels for a living. I mentioned to my teacher that i was looking for an Ayi, a maid, for 2 or 3 visits per week. Today was her first visit. I'm amazed at what she accomplished in 2 hours, it's staggering. My place looks a thousand times better. She tried to catch my rat for me, she told me that it's gone. When she first got here today, i tried to explain that i was going to dinner and would be back in a couple hours. I used google translate to get my point across. She said something to me, i said, i didn't know what she was saying, so, she said it louder, and louder, and LOUDER. Apparently, the same person who taught my father his language skills is also teaching my housekeeper.
A friend sent me an article on the "Ghost Cities of China". Apparently it's been in the news a lot lately. The article said that nobody was getting paid, and that there is a whole city with no people in it. There are a number of things that i don't believe about this article, and i think that more than likely, the"ceo" of the real estate company who was interviewed was a moron who is now fired, and probably facing criminal charges....more than likely, his company is government owned, and it sounds a lot like he is maligning the government, which is not a very wise move in china. I think also that it was told by an american point of view, and you can't think that way here. Chinese think differently than we do. Those of us here who are attempting to learn the language fluently are also trying to get into the chinese way of thinking, with mixed results, we'll get there though. What it comes down to though, is that i think that the liberal media of the usa is incapable of seeing things from another point of view, and like to report "shocking" things, but not necessarily true things. I read the article a number of days ago, and i'm going to break down the main points .... At least the main points that i get from this:
http://business.financialpost.com/2013/03/05/its-like-walking-into-a-forest-of-skyscrapers-but-theyre-all-empty-see-for-yourself-chinas-ghost-cities/
1. Developers are deep in debt: That's not how things operate in China. The government finances a lot of these projects. I mentioned in a previous post that everyone in China has a job. This is true. There is no way that developers are not getting paid for their work, and there's no way that "projects are being abandoned", that's pure stupidity. You would not believe the money in china, it's mind-boggling. China owns a good portion of US debt, and somehow the US is still paying their bills. Why would anyone think that China cannot pay their bills. Also, there was an article in the wall street journal in november or january of last year that mentioned that China had just approved $850 Billion USD for infrastructure spending. What do you think that is? That's what this is. That money is used to pay developers, employees, land costs, streets, housing, etc. Additionally, the Chinese think in Long term, NOT short term. They would not start the project if there were going to be issues with it in the future. There are 5,000 years of history in China, this is engrained in their thought. They are extremely logical in their thinking, and if they say that they will do something, they will, period.
2. "It’s like walking into a forest of skyscrapers, but they’re all empty". This is true. They are planning for the future. There are empty skyscrapers in Shenzhen, and in every city in China. When the Chinese build a building, they do not develop the individual floors until the unit is purchased. This allows the purchaser to have their own designs, if they desire, and it also cuts down on building costs. There are 3 year old buildings here with completely empty floors, but those same floors are being sold as people move here for work, and eventually the building will be completely finished, then it's time to fill up the next one. People are continually moving out of the farming communities and smaller cities into the larger cities in search of jobs, lifestyle, and a variety of things. These "empty" skyscrapers have taken that into account, and are awaiting people to move in. Again, this is long term thinking.
3. "See any people?" There's an image of an empty city. That city is most likely a smaller part of a bigger city. This could be one of two things. It could have been taken during Chinese New Year in Shenzhen, or another newly developed city. Close to 60% of the population of Shenzhen either left town for New year, or went into their parents neighborhood and stayed there doing family things. Shenzhen was deserted for a week. 70% of the businesses were shut down, it was a ghost town. Now? Let's go for a train ride at rush hour, and you show me that there are no people, as we're crammed into a metro car. The second thing that this could be is China planning their next mega-city. Shenzhen was a collection of fishing villages 30 years ago. Now it is a thriving metropolis of 17 million (reported) people, although i think that there is upwards of 20 here, others guess higher and lower, but that's the average guess.
4. "with as many as 64 billion empty apartments in china, this could be just the tip of the iceberg". I don't think that they take into account that the population of china is reported at 1.3 or 1.4 billion, which most believe to be a false number. Most that i talk to think that it's closer to 2 billion actual, 1.3 on census (taxpayers or whatever). So, 64 million would be 3% of 2 billion people. If you take into account children moving out of their homes and into their own apartments as they go into cities in search of work, instead of working the family farm or whatever, you see that there's a reason that there is a building boom in China right now. There is clearly not enough to contain those who are beginning their foray into city life. The government statistics right now estimate that 30 billion chinese males will be moving to large cities from the countryside within the next 5 years. That's a government statistic, so you can bet that it is very low.
That's it for me tonight, time to study! Now that i have a real internet connection i will be posting pictures soon, i think that it may be easier to just find a website that everyone can access and post them there, any thoughts on this? As i mentioned before, my brain has ceased all function, and i'm unable to come up with actual ideas at this point.
Chinese women are obsessed with being thin and tall. If you tell a girl she is thin, she will be happy. If you tell her she is as thin as if she were dead, she will be ecstatic. I told the girl last night that i couldn't believe how thin she was, and she melted. Actually, it turned out that we had a ton of chemistry, her english is very good (every woman who has a university degree can speak english), and she was an interesting and entertaining date. I think she's actually a great deal smarter than i am and probably makes a ton more money than i do, which isn't a bad thing, but it is a bit different in China. She has a 12 year old son whom she is extremely proud of (i like that), and she loves to travel (near unheard of in China - nobody wants to travel here, that's why there's so many travel deals to encourage people to travel - i can book through a chinese agency for Dubai for $1,000 USD and it includes a 5 star hotel and the flight to and from...i guarantee that the hotel costs more than the package). We are going out again on Friday, and going to tour another art town, as she enjoys that as much as I do. (chinese art is different and i very much enjoy seeing the writing style - which i'm currently learning to do - as well as the cultural paintings of cherry blossoms, bamboo, etc. It fascinates me). We went for hot pot yesterday, and i asked for the bill, she checked it (it's in Chinese) and i paid. After dinner, she told me that she was going to have to treat me next time. I told her no. She said that she would love to take me out for lunch, i said that that was fine, but she wasn't going to be paying, she thought for a moment and said, "Fine, i'm going to cook for you!", to which i cleverly replied, "Took you long enough to get there!!!!" She has a very good sense of humour, by which i mean that she understands mine.
I think my brain is full. I got to the 3rd hour of my class today (out of 5 hours), and i told her that my brain was full, and that i was unable to learn anymore. My teacher looked at me funny, it took 15 minutes for me to explain that i wasn't able to learn anything more this week. I think tomorrow, we're just going to review for 3 hours, then call it a day. Hopefully some of this will sink in this weekend. If not, i think we're going to start over from the beginning of the book again, review, work on pronunciation, etc. It's a little frustrating, i think i'm getting somewhere, then it stops, and it's time to start over again. I wonder if this is what those who "hit the wall" mean. I think there's something to that. The language is so foreign in comparison with english, that you get to a point that things just stop making any degree of sense. I'm halfway through the book right now, theoretically i can get through it in one month, but i wouldn't be comfortable with that. I'm going to be taking my time. I do wonder if i'm going to find fluency within 2 years, or whether it's going to be more...i suspect more, as those who i know who are doing well, take breaks to let it sink in every couple of months. It's very easy to get frustrated, which is why they all have hobbies, things they are working on to keep them distracted, as well as to keep them earning enough to pay for lessons and to live here.
I always heard how cheap it is to live in china. The truth is, you can live on $2k CDN/month. However, you will be living with probably 2 or 3 roommates, and it's not easy. Those who want to live like americans here are paying for the experience. I would guess and say that it's around $10k/month. They have american style apartments, american style furniture, appliances, etc. I'm somewhere on the low end, it's doable, but there are things that still frustrate me.
I mentioned before the problem with my shower, it's either scalding hot, or glacier cold. I've learned that there is a sweet spot that lasts for about 30 seconds, sometimes up to a minute and a half. My cousin suggested that the cold pipes were calcinated over. Turns out that he's right. It also turns out that the pipes are completely inside of the walls, and the only way to take care of the problem is to rip the walls out. I will learn to shower within my limitations.
Everyone still talks about my rat problem, and how they're amused by it. I'm still not at all amused. Because nobody can find it, they don't believe that it exists. They believe that the rat crap is old, and that it escaped, i know better. Somehow i will prove it. Everyone is joking about it, and i still don't have a sense of humour. Perhaps i'll do it up ecuador style when i catch it, and send it to those who insist on telling me jokes. They can deal with cooked, month-dead rat in their mailbox. So far, i think my father is first on the list.
My teacher has a very good friend who cleans at hotels for a living. I mentioned to my teacher that i was looking for an Ayi, a maid, for 2 or 3 visits per week. Today was her first visit. I'm amazed at what she accomplished in 2 hours, it's staggering. My place looks a thousand times better. She tried to catch my rat for me, she told me that it's gone. When she first got here today, i tried to explain that i was going to dinner and would be back in a couple hours. I used google translate to get my point across. She said something to me, i said, i didn't know what she was saying, so, she said it louder, and louder, and LOUDER. Apparently, the same person who taught my father his language skills is also teaching my housekeeper.
A friend sent me an article on the "Ghost Cities of China". Apparently it's been in the news a lot lately. The article said that nobody was getting paid, and that there is a whole city with no people in it. There are a number of things that i don't believe about this article, and i think that more than likely, the"ceo" of the real estate company who was interviewed was a moron who is now fired, and probably facing criminal charges....more than likely, his company is government owned, and it sounds a lot like he is maligning the government, which is not a very wise move in china. I think also that it was told by an american point of view, and you can't think that way here. Chinese think differently than we do. Those of us here who are attempting to learn the language fluently are also trying to get into the chinese way of thinking, with mixed results, we'll get there though. What it comes down to though, is that i think that the liberal media of the usa is incapable of seeing things from another point of view, and like to report "shocking" things, but not necessarily true things. I read the article a number of days ago, and i'm going to break down the main points .... At least the main points that i get from this:
http://business.financialpost.com/2013/03/05/its-like-walking-into-a-forest-of-skyscrapers-but-theyre-all-empty-see-for-yourself-chinas-ghost-cities/
1. Developers are deep in debt: That's not how things operate in China. The government finances a lot of these projects. I mentioned in a previous post that everyone in China has a job. This is true. There is no way that developers are not getting paid for their work, and there's no way that "projects are being abandoned", that's pure stupidity. You would not believe the money in china, it's mind-boggling. China owns a good portion of US debt, and somehow the US is still paying their bills. Why would anyone think that China cannot pay their bills. Also, there was an article in the wall street journal in november or january of last year that mentioned that China had just approved $850 Billion USD for infrastructure spending. What do you think that is? That's what this is. That money is used to pay developers, employees, land costs, streets, housing, etc. Additionally, the Chinese think in Long term, NOT short term. They would not start the project if there were going to be issues with it in the future. There are 5,000 years of history in China, this is engrained in their thought. They are extremely logical in their thinking, and if they say that they will do something, they will, period.
2. "It’s like walking into a forest of skyscrapers, but they’re all empty". This is true. They are planning for the future. There are empty skyscrapers in Shenzhen, and in every city in China. When the Chinese build a building, they do not develop the individual floors until the unit is purchased. This allows the purchaser to have their own designs, if they desire, and it also cuts down on building costs. There are 3 year old buildings here with completely empty floors, but those same floors are being sold as people move here for work, and eventually the building will be completely finished, then it's time to fill up the next one. People are continually moving out of the farming communities and smaller cities into the larger cities in search of jobs, lifestyle, and a variety of things. These "empty" skyscrapers have taken that into account, and are awaiting people to move in. Again, this is long term thinking.
3. "See any people?" There's an image of an empty city. That city is most likely a smaller part of a bigger city. This could be one of two things. It could have been taken during Chinese New Year in Shenzhen, or another newly developed city. Close to 60% of the population of Shenzhen either left town for New year, or went into their parents neighborhood and stayed there doing family things. Shenzhen was deserted for a week. 70% of the businesses were shut down, it was a ghost town. Now? Let's go for a train ride at rush hour, and you show me that there are no people, as we're crammed into a metro car. The second thing that this could be is China planning their next mega-city. Shenzhen was a collection of fishing villages 30 years ago. Now it is a thriving metropolis of 17 million (reported) people, although i think that there is upwards of 20 here, others guess higher and lower, but that's the average guess.
4. "with as many as 64 billion empty apartments in china, this could be just the tip of the iceberg". I don't think that they take into account that the population of china is reported at 1.3 or 1.4 billion, which most believe to be a false number. Most that i talk to think that it's closer to 2 billion actual, 1.3 on census (taxpayers or whatever). So, 64 million would be 3% of 2 billion people. If you take into account children moving out of their homes and into their own apartments as they go into cities in search of work, instead of working the family farm or whatever, you see that there's a reason that there is a building boom in China right now. There is clearly not enough to contain those who are beginning their foray into city life. The government statistics right now estimate that 30 billion chinese males will be moving to large cities from the countryside within the next 5 years. That's a government statistic, so you can bet that it is very low.
That's it for me tonight, time to study! Now that i have a real internet connection i will be posting pictures soon, i think that it may be easier to just find a website that everyone can access and post them there, any thoughts on this? As i mentioned before, my brain has ceased all function, and i'm unable to come up with actual ideas at this point.
No comments:
Post a Comment