There’s a saying about learning something from every experience isn’t there? Today I came face to face with the greasy, buck-passing, noncommittal face of English bureaucracy; but then I remembered that I’m going to China and just went and (reasonably calmly) made a cup of tea instead of spitting expletives. Thank goodness China has a lot of tea.
The upshot of all this is that, as I apparently need a higher level of security clearance to carry files than to redact them, from tomorrow I’m (temporarily) jobless again.
Bah.
This means I’ve got lots of time to chow down on Easter eggs, catch up on all the Glee I’ve missed recently and crack on with TEFL. Mmmmmm, priorities... But there is more to our China experience than TEFL alone, so I’m going to take the opportunity of unexpected free time to do some wider cultural preparation – once I’ve had a good lie-in, obviously! So my three main plans of attack are:
1. chopstick training
2. learning some Mandarin (i.e. more than nihao and the four ways of saying ‘ma’!),
3. doing some drinking ... **
Basically the point of this post is to throw down the gauntlet to everyone! I know a few people are getting similarly prepared, so if anyone fancies making a bit of a competition out of any of these, I’m up for it. Or you can set me a challenge if you like – I just need some specific motivation or I’ll be in danger of drifting for the next 144 days. It’ll be a bit like Challenge Anneka without the jumpsuit, hedgehogs or altruism! (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EpR1lf10JcU&feature=related)
(I’ll also be plotting ways of making enough money to go to Oxegen festival in July and, sod it, I’ll even try running 10k in one outing. I’m not issuing challenges on these plans tho!)
**I promise not to upload videos just of me eating, attempting to speak or being drunk, but some or all might feature a little bit in future posts, IF I get my act together and the results are funny J
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Haha OMG I absolutely LOVED challenge Anneka (in the geeky sense) the video made my sides hurt :/ Oh the memory to the good old days of being heavily fascinated to watch Anneka running, skipping and flying (helicopter) in triumphs racing for the finish line! What a buzz. Maybe because I have the same momentum for life as such! :D ....Well, for me, life is pretty monotonous/boring without an extra kick up the butt now and then, but it’s usually I’m the one doing the kicking. As one of my fond favourites quoted "Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about the things that matter - Martin L, King.
For your first point of cultural training, I have great talents in chopsticks handling. Many years/moons ago my dad would creatively play a game and say "now kids who ever can eat the quickest with their chopsticks is crowned the winner! In return he or she will be given extra pocket money!". Hmmmph it worked.
I think you should definitely get to grips with Mandarin, commonly used phrases I know doubt will sure to come of good use. I have bought the book 'Easy Peasy Chinese' skimming through it looks 'user friendly'. I intended to follow a swift program, firstly learning numbers 1-10, then followed by setting myself to learn three new sentences a day or five new words. I may even push the boat out and try to use them during day-to-day conversation (no matter how bad the types of looks I get back) well nothing ventured, nothing gained....
Mandarin: Everything I know, Dui bu qi: sorry (du-a-bu-chi) Wo yiao zhu rou chaofan: I would like pork fried rice (woah yeow jew row chow fan) xie-xie (my fav) thank you lao shi: teacher and the newest edition: Ni zhidou?, do you know the way?
with the universal language of pointing and saying zhege\neige (this and that) thats enough to keep anyone alive for the long hall. Am getting really sick of pork fried rice though.
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