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Published: January 11th 2013
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Paradise.Well, I’ve never written anything like this before, documenting my feelings isn’t something I normally do, but for now I’ll make an exception, so here goes. As my profile description says, I am an au pair in Shijiazhuang in China’s Hebei province, or Shizzwang as my family has taken to calling it, chinese words confuse them.
Now my purpose for being in China is quite simple, I want to learn Chinese the quickest way possible, through immersion for an extended period of time. Sounds like a great plan, huh? This is the funny bit, because, pardon my French, Chinese is a bastard of a language to learn. I mean, for any of you who are complaining because you’re finding something like Spanish hard: grow up, it’s child’s play in comparison to the sheer amount of infuriation that can come with learning Chinese. Mispronounce your tones? You’ve probably just said, ‘F**k you’ to the little old lady from whom you just asked directions to the train station. Well okay, perhaps that’s a vast overstatement, but in all seriousness, it is very easy to go askew on your pronunciation and not be understood, so when you’re murdering the language with all the
I don't agree with animal cloning.efficiency of John Wayne Gacy, it can get a little disheartening at times.
Now I’ve been here for just a little over a week, and I can’t say that I’ve had the best of times so far. Sure the host family is nice enough, and so is the house, in fact I’d be as bold to say that the house I’m staying in is better than my own back home (sorry mum), even if I am up to my knicky knacky noos in Mickey Mouse toys when I go into my room. But it can get boring very easily. If it weren’t for my two saving graces, internet access and my music, I would surely be the next patient for the men in white coats to pick up. Due to my au pair responsibilities I’m not always able to get up and go sight-seeing willy nilly.
Not only this, my health has also suffered as a result of this voyage, as I am writing this now I am sniffling and spluttering like nobody’s business, with what everyone around me keeps calling ‘ganmao’, the Chinese word for cold, which hasn’t put me in the best of moods. The food,
My first meal in China of Baozi and a soup whose name escapes mealthough tasty, took me three days to get used to, before I stopped having stomach ache every time I ate. Even getting off the plane in the airport in Beijing, taking his first steps on Chinese soil, muggins here was greeted by an unwelcome nosebleed (and no, I wasn’t picking my nose), which I unfortunately discovered after I noticed everyone was giving me funny looks in the queue to border control. Great start. What’s worse is that it has cropped up sporadically ever since that little incident, so the slightest knock and it’s all systems go at the sluice gate. I just hope no one discovers the bloody tissues in the bin, my host family might think I’m self-harming. Hah.
If there’s one thing that has made me laugh in China is the quality of the English translations on their products. Here’s a sample of an English translation I saw on the back of a shampoo bottle when I was in Beijing, ‘Nourishment Smooth go to the layer fiber inside the show hair, complement the humidity that hair lose and The
nourishment composition’. Word for word. Perhaps the translator was feeling lazy that day and just decided to pop
Perhaps China shouldn't expand its market to the Ghetto.the Chinese text into Bing translate. There’s definitely a market for proof readers here. Where can I apply?
You may be wondering now, surely it hasn’t all been bad? And you’d be right, it hasn’t. Shijiazhuang’s people, whether they be wealthy or poor, have all thus far been very friendly and willing not only to help me in my seemingly futile quest to gain some proficiency in the Chinese language, but also to learn from me about English culture and language, something of a rare quality back home. The hospitality of the people here in Shijiazhuang makes this city, far from my native England, feel more like home. But I do get stared at a lot here, which isn’t always a bad thing I suppose, probably because there are just no waiguoren (foreigners) in Shijiazhuang at all except for me. Or maybe I’m just so ridiculously good looking they can’t help but stare in envy. I’m thinking the latter.
One thing I’ve really noticed though is the sheer difference in wealth here. You only have to go about 3 or 4 miles from where I currently am, a house which, to be honest, is nicer than my own home back in England, and there are peasant shacks, and people living in the small alleyways where they sell their produce in a kind of mini market. And
everything is dirt cheap in these little markets, a bag full of peas in a pod will set you back about 60 Chinese cents, which is worth maybe about 6p in UK money. But at no point did I ever feel threatened, unlike if I were to wanderthrough a ‘poverty stricken’ district in inner city London, where I would probablyshanked innit blad. Brap brap. I have nothing but respect for these people living in such hard conditions, and believe you me, it is cold here right now, so I cannot imagine how they manage to cope living where they do. If I have learned anything, it is to appreciate what I have and how lucky I have been, for one only has to think of the hardships of these poor people. I would have taken pictures of it, but I feel for someone like me to photograph these people it would be as patronising as that guy from the Gap Yah video, so you’ll just have to imagine the scene for yourself. Taking pictures of people just because they’re poor is wrong.
Now getting to the family I am staying with (this is turning into a saga, I will have to cut down in the future) : There is the mum who usually just works at home, with whom I often communicate in a mixture of English and broken Chinese, and her vice versa. Then there is the driver, who is not actually per se a family member, but fills an important role in the interaction with the child, and has a very strong bond with the family, I see him every day, he’s a really nice guy, although it’s hard to make conversation due to the language barrier, but I think I’m learning Chinese most quickly through him. And finally there is the boy, whom I am having a hard time trying to work out. At first I could attribute his lack of interaction to shyness, and maybe it still is, but even as I get closer to him, he is still very distant. He doesn’t really respond when you say his name, and usually he is found playing on some kind of electronic device, usually an iPad, which I plan to cut down on. That, and his lack of manners, since his favourite phrase is currently ‘gei wo!’ which translates as ‘gimme!’,I’ve already got him to say please when requesting something, so I am making progress I think.
The months are stretching ahead of me, and if I’m honest, becoming an au pair is starting to feel like a
mistake. But I shall persevere, and have faith that it is all going to turn out okay in the end. After all, what’s the worst that could happen? Actually, let’s not think about that right now…
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June Quinlan
non-member comment
Shizzwang Visit
Very interesting account of Ieuan's experiences in China---waiting to read more !!!!