6 lessons from 3 months in China
Recently my friend Vat and I finished a three-month stay in China. The plan was to come with minimal preparation in China and so little English as possible, to learn to speak Chinese
We were shooting a mini-documentary about the experience here .:
trip my perception of China transformed, from the unfair image sometimes has in the west. I have learned about China, life and travel from this experience In this article I want to share the most important lessons.
Once you are interested in the local culture, people open more
Original Vat and I had not planned to China, ever go on. We were warned that China might not be the best place to meet friends, because Westerners were rude. Instead we were told to go to Taiwan.
Some visa complications made it impossible the full three months stay in Taiwan, so we switched to a three-month stay in China in the last minute.
From the first day I arrived in Kunming, I had my perceptions flipped. Far away from the island and to be hostile to foreigners, the people came to me for the first time to speak, I went down the street. It all happened to be in Chinese, so I do not understand much, but it took me cause my assumptions reconsider.
When my Chinese improved this throughout my stay away from my landlord my people Introduction who could help us to learn Chinese, to get to know the couple, who near a noodle restaurant ran.
If you are interested in other people, their culture and their language, they will be you friendly. China is no exception.
not judge a country by its media coverage
Hating China you is a favorite pastime of the Western media. Some of the allegations are at least partially true: parts of China are quite dirty, political freedom is not the same as in the West, the Internet is protected, a firewall, and some parts of China are pretty bad
I. saw a very different kind of China. Kunming, where I lived for most of my stay, was not contaminated. I have open discussions with Chinese about communism, Tibet and democracy. Some websites are blocked, but China has its own versions of YouTube, Netflix, eBay and Google.
China is still in development, but economic growth means that most people have seen their living standards quickly in the last improvement 20 years. The people I spoke with were generally optimistic about the future.
All food
here 
The relationship with the food in China is fascinating, and I was in the variety of ingredients and flavors surprised.
Western countries tend Chinese food down to chow mein, fried rice and General Tso Chicken simplify. This is a bit like saying Western cuisine is just burgers and sandwiches.
Chinese food in China, on the other hand, is part of various foods on the planet. can mean not only regional diversity completely from province to province change, but almost every conceivable ingredient finds its way into a kind of Chinese dish. Chicken, pork, beef, and vegetarian options are all those options of course, but where else can you eat fried insects, try steamed live turtles for sale frog or a shop at a Walmart?
The food is also a way for connection. In the West, every individual has his own record, separated from others. In China, each person has a bowl of rice and eating directly from the shared disks in the middle. While this kind of food in some restaurants it's hard to eat makes individually, it creates a common feeling, the food, the more than just nutrition.
Chinese both incredibly interesting and extremely difficult
I will not lie to you, to learn Mandarin Chinese, a fight was. Thousands of characters, with many almost exactly the same. For example, try to recognize the difference between these two characters:
Chinese is a tonal language, meaning that only the intonation emphasis does not change, but also what words mean. My friend went to a restaurant and tried to order shu "? Ji? O" (boiled dumplings), but ordered (go to sleep) "shui jiào".
Finally survive from their original completely sound different, often borrowed scot few English words in the language. McDonald's, which is across China takes possession "láo May Dang." The Chinese name
While the Chinese language, as China itself, may seem daunting, it is hidden one of the most interesting linguistic systems on the planet. Chinese words have a tendency to be built up from simpler pieces, such as the construction of a set of Lego: (xióngm o)
- Panda = "bear cat"
- Chameleon = "color change dragon "(biànsèlóng)
- pumpkin =" south melon "(Nangu?)
- potato =" bottom bean "(t? Dou)
- University =" great learning "( Daxue)
- movie = "electric shadows" (Diany? ng)
with great difficulty also come great rewards. Learn Chinese sometimes have been tricky, but it would also be allowed Vat and can me with completely different people in China to interact as an English-only perspective.
At the end of our stay, I chatted over tea with a tattooed Buddhist. Together we talked about Tibet, religious and cultural differences. The conversation would never have happened had I refused to learn any, Chinese.
extend the linguistic differences to 10 count with one hand
, even on simple gestures. The Chinese, for example, have a system of gestures for counting all the way with only one hand on 10.
If you have only five to count with one hand, you have been missing. The Chinese have a system for counting of 6, 7, 8, 9 and 10, all with just one hand. to leave months after China, I found myself with this method, counting things, while I kept a book with the other hand
One to five are what you would expect, but this video for six to ten see .:
for the first time, when I saw that, I was in a shop and the shopkeeper told me the price was 10 yuan, suggesting it indicates with the index and middle fingers crossed. I saw this several times before I realized that they told me the price and not only hope endures that I would come to buy more back.
China has the best places you've never heard of
Ask the people, the places they know of in China and most people her hand for Shanghai and Beijing to increase. The more could get geographically inclined Sichuan, Guangdong, or Xi'an. But what is the tropical island of Hainan? The impressive winter festivities in Harbin? The bamboo forests in Chengdu?
It is doubtful that China has the same linguistic and cultural diversity as the whole of Europe, except far less tourists. While - up in recent decades -. China closed borders travel in the country made a tremendous experience, China is full of great places you've probably never thought to explore
I had never heard of Kunming, a "small" city of seven million before exploring places to live in the southwestern province of Yunnan. It ended up being one of my favorite places to which I have ever lived, with the weather an eternal spring, mountain temple, and lunch for under a dollar
My advice :. Rules not only to Beijing or Shanghai as places to visit. Online can do a little research dozens of places emerge that provide the Chinese experience for less money and fewer tourists.
Everything you say is right and wrong at once
I imagine that my American friends from Washington State would probably scoff at the generalization that they the same as everyone in Texas (and vice versa). Seattle is not the same as Houston. There are huge differences in culture, food and even the language in the United States.
Now that imagine instead a story of a few hundred years to have as a nation, you have a few thousand. Instead, one or two mutually unintelligible languages, had dozens, maybe hundreds. Now quadruple the population, and you have the modern China.
to learn the greatest lesson about China, only is, how big it is. China is hard to describe because few generalizations are very accurate. Depending on where you go, China will be depleted or opulent, dirty or unspoiled, densely packed or nearly isolated. As such, everything I experienced and have more than true for some people to write that and go wrong to visit other China.
China began as a backup country, as visa came complications. It ended up being a place I can not wait to go back.
I can not sell to be China as a perfect experience, free from worries. English is sparse. You need to pay attention in the larger cities for pickpockets and scams. Pollution can be bad. The Internet can be frustrating. But if you an adventure and a chance to change your mind about the world's biggest, oldest and perhaps soon-to-be of the most powerful nation on earth, I recommend going self.
Scott Young writes about learning, travel and productivity in his blog, ScottHYoung.com. He tried to take complex things and form make habits and learning easy and simple. Click here to register a free copy of his e-book to get strategies in detail to learn faster.
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