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    Gonna start a log to chart my progress in learning mandarin while abroad in china for the year, hopefully having somewhere where I'll be judged will act as motivation. Learning a language, progress is going to be a bit less tangible than fitness or poker so I'm hoping it doesn't turn into a useless mess and I can keep it interesting for everyone, if anyone wants to see/know more of anything in particular (Larry David misunderstandings, food, sights etc) let me know and I'll do my best!

    Came over last tuesday armed with nothing but 15kg worth of luggage and a badass chinese name (da re, translation - big hot). I have some basic mandarin due to studying it for two years in college but being out here is a totally different experience to the scripted and sanitized classrooms I'm used to. Haggling over a pair of football boots is a bit different than describing myself in feet, inches and hair colour I guess. Classes haven't started yet so I've just been mooching about pretty much.

    The first thing you notice when you land in Beijing is that you can't notice very much at all. The smog is really suffocating both in a visual and respiratory manner. First impressions were that beijing's a massive, unhygienic (not uncommon to see human shit on the footpath) and miserable city inhabited by tiny, unhygienic, miserable people.

    Excuse the racist and hyperbolic last paragraph but seriously; it's taking some getting used to. Everyone smokes, everyone spits and everyone stares. Things like the toilets (of the hole-in- the-ground variety for the most part) and people coughing into your face are a bit of a shock for a young lad with south Dublin sensibilities such as myself. Another thing I've noticed is that Chinese people laugh at you and and tell you straight up that your mandarin is shite if they're having trouble understanding you. Don't think they do it in a malicious manner but still, thick skin needed methinks.

    The Irish community here have been ridiculously welcoming thus far and both the embassy and enterprise ireland have been onto me and my classmates about meet ups etc. Have also joined the Gaa team so I'm wary of falling into a rut of pints and paddies but hopefully my efforts at meeting Chinese people will come good and I'll get to branch out a bit too.

    Anyway my thumbs are sore as I'm posting from a iPod so I'll leave it here. Will try keep it updated and interesting!

    #2
    GL with it - it will be a great adventure no matter what!

    I studied Mandarin for a year (evening classes in Trinity) in 2005/06 and thought I had enough to make myself understood when visiting there for 3 weeks the following year; nope, no-one could understand me when I tried anything more complex than Bu Yao or Wo Men Shi Ai Er Lan Ren! I think we struggle badly with the tones and immersive learning must be the way to go, so you'll probably be fairly fluent by the end of the year! How many hours a week are you spending in class? What else will you fill your time with; I'm assuming you aren't going to do what Chinese language students do here, get a job or two in your spare time?!


    Comment


      #3
      好运气

      Comment


        #4
        Definatly would like to read some more of ur expliots while you are there. Keep em coming. Love to hear stories from ppl on the ground. Best of luck to you too in whatever you endevour.
        http://www.sitnpoker.com/?amigosid=18

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          #5
          way ni how, way sh gamana?? <- obv not right speeling (lol) but that will get you started! Alot of this is the accent you use try to sound more chinese good luck will follow thread

          Comment


            #6
            Originally posted by daire View Post
            The first thing you notice when you land in Beijing is that you can't notice very much at all. The smog is really suffocating both in a visual and respiratory manner. First impressions were that beijing's a massive, unhygienic (not uncommon to see human shit on the footpath) and miserable city inhabited by tiny, unhygienic, miserable people.Excuse the racist and hyperbolic last paragraph but seriously; it's taking some getting used to. Everyone smokes, everyone spits and everyone stares. Things like the toilets (of the hole-in- the-ground variety for the most part) and people coughing into your face are a bit of a shock for a young lad with south Dublin sensibilities such as myself. Another thing I've noticed is that Chinese people laugh at you and and tell you straight up that your mandarin is shite if they're having trouble understanding you. Don't think they do it in a malicious manner but still, thick skin needed methinks.
            lol.. fuck me you in the getto son? Never say anything like that when i was there, it still should be farily hot out there anybody starred you out of it while rubbing there belly

            the chineese are brutal in when the speak about stuff they do not have tacted at all "you've got Fat" " your hair doesn't look nice" etc it's just the way they are

            Comment


              #7
              Originally posted by ionapaul View Post
              GL with it - it will be a great adventure no matter what!

              I studied Mandarin for a year (evening classes in Trinity) in 2005/06 and thought I had enough to make myself understood when visiting there for 3 weeks the following year; nope, no-one could understand me when I tried anything more complex than Bu Yao or Wo Men Shi Ai Er Lan Ren! I think we struggle badly with the tones and immersive learning must be the way to go, so you'll probably be fairly fluent by the end of the year! How many hours a week are you spending in class? What else will you fill your time with; I'm assuming you aren't going to do what Chinese language students do here, get a job or two in your spare time?!
              Yeah you really have to give it socks with the tones. Definitely feel more self-conscious speaking Mandarin than I have learning any other language!

              Have actually already had an interview for a job (described below) but I'm not actively looking. I got a scholarship and I'm also planning on sending back fake designer stuff/cigs and having friends at home sell them for me so shouldn't be too strapped for cash.

              Originally posted by pgodkin View Post
              lol.. fuck me you in the getto son? Never say anything like that when i was there, it still should be farily hot out there anybody starred you out of it while rubbing there belly

              the chineese are brutal in when the speak about stuff they do not have tacted at all "you've got Fat" " your hair doesn't look nice" etc it's just the way they are
              Wouldn't say I'm in the ghetto but definitely not in the nice and sanitised places Westerners usually go to in Beijing, there's a bunch of women that sit outside the university selling fake diplomas and student IDs that carry babies so they can hide the stuff in the shawls. They don't use nappies so when they baby needs to go the shit just goes in the grass beside them where it festers, not nice.



              Anyway so didn't mean to leave this so long but at least I have things to report!

              I was put into the upper intermediate class which is challenging to say the least. My classmates are mostly 6ft2+, blonde, Aryan Gods that are incredibly studious and way better than me at Chinese. The other day the teacher asked me how I got to China, I froze and could only respond with a singular, pathetic "plane". The teacher then asked the class to give a proper answer and after some sniggering they chanted a word-perfect answer in perfect unison. This was one of my several dunce moments so far, I've since decided I don't like my classmates. I think I'm in danger of failing and one of my lecturers (who I also had in UCD, coincidentally) also suggested to me that I move down class to the lower intermediate. I think I'm gonna stick it out as long as possible before moving down for the exam. My ear is already way better than it was and I figure my speaking is as much to do with nerves as it is with my stupidity.

              The job interview I mentioned earlier was pretty interesting so I'll give it a description:

              Got a text off a classmate asking me if I'd be interested in going to an interview for a English teaching position at 12:30. Given my lectures end at 11:30 and the place was ages away I'd have no time to prepare and I've never taught anything in my life I wasn't too hopeful but I said I'd give it a bash. Me and 3 others ended up heading out. We went to the end of a subway line which was kinda cool as it was the first time I'd been anywhere where Westerners aren't the norm. The novelty of being mobbed by Chinese women attempting to scam us wore off pretty quickly though. Our lift was also pretty cool; the driver had little regard for road safety, pedestrians or our comfort and the roads were totally empty. In a 40km journey we saw like 10 other cars max. It was really unsettling driver down these broad boulevards with their totally unnecessary traffic lights and stop signs. They were lined with totally empty apartments which made the whole experience even more eerie. Whole experience was really offputting.

              When we finally got there we were landed in front of 6 kids and basically told to get teaching. I panicked and decided to play hide 'n' seek with the kids after teaching them the names off a few classroom objects. They didn't take to the idea to say the least and it ended up being a farce with me leading confused children around the classroom; one trip to hide a kid followed by a return leg with another to "find" them. Looked up at one stage and saw one of the stern Chinese people monitoring me with their brow furrowed and blowing air out of her mouth so hard that her lips were smacking together. They then turned to their mate and shook their had with frustration, needless to say I didn't get the job.

              Have essentially been away 4 months at this stage as I was on a J1 all summer so I'm getting a little bit homesick. I miss my dog and being able to have a wank in my room rather than having to hide in the jacks like it's something to be ashamed of. Get a week off next week so I'm going to Guilin, pic below. 3 euro hostels, ridic views and clean air. Nice. Will report back in a bit!

              SPOILER

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                #8
                Nice report, but below doesn't add up.

                Originally posted by daire View Post
                .......Westerners aren't the norm .......mobbed by Chinese women ........have a wank in my room rather than having to hide in the jacks

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                  #9
                  Originally posted by Zosma View Post
                  Nice report, but below doesn't add up.
                  These particular women were more interested in my pockets than my penis unfortunately.

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                    #10
                    Originally posted by daire View Post
                    These particular women were more interested in my pockets than my penis unfortunately.
                    Mentioned it in a TR years ago but while in China I got the feeling many of the locals looked upon us as more 'walking ATM' than anything else - so many people saw the colour of our skin, figured we were loaded compared to them (fair enough) and then proceeded to hassle us unmercilessly to get some cash out of us! A real pain in the arse...


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                      #11
                      Originally posted by daire View Post
                      These particular women were more interested in my pockets than my penis unfortunately.
                      put a hole in your pocket and peep your willy through

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                        #12
                        Originally posted by ionapaul View Post
                        Mentioned it in a TR years ago but while in China I got the feeling many of the locals looked upon us as more 'walking ATM' than anything else - so many people saw the colour of our skin, figured we were loaded compared to them (fair enough) and then proceeded to hassle us unmercilessly to get some cash out of us! A real pain in the arse...
                        Yeah this is most definitely the case in a lot of places. In markets and touristy areas you'll be set upon mercilessly. Only thing you can do is firmly tell them to get lost which makes you feel like a bastard but it really is the only way to stop them chasing you up the road in a lot of cases.


                        Been a long time since I updated this but I was away for a week in a spot called Xingping - was very nice, picturesque and relaxing but the 30 hour train journey home cast somewhat of a downer cos I had food poisoning and ended up vomiting into a hole in the ground for a decent chunk of the duration - and didn't have any classes so didn't have much to report so I guess it would have been pointless to do so.

                        Class is going really well at the minute. When I say it's going really well what I mean is I'm making progress but by my class' standard I'm still by far the class dunce. The Aryan chuckles that punctuate all my answers in class are getting less frequent and I'm picking up way more of what the teachers are saying. Listening class is still a write-off but assuming I progress in that as I have been in my others I should be ok. Been hitting the books a good bit which is most definitely helping a load but it's a pain in the arse having to prepare for the next day's class, review that day's class and do some more standard studying on top just to keep up. Guess it'll be worth it when I'm beasting Chinese but that seems a long way away. I've had some tangible progress in terms of getting some basic natter going with the kindly old woman who runs the shop downstairs and actually understanding some of a conversation I overheard the other day so everything's looking rosier at the minute although I'm liable to change my opinion the next time a snooty Swede eyes me with disgust in class.

                        Because my class is relatively advanced there's very little focus on in-class conversation and building conversation skills which I badly need to do so I decided to get a language partner that would help me with my oral Chinese if I did the same with English. My efforts to find a partner went as follows:

                        There's an odd thing that happens in my university every Friday whereby hundreds of Chinese people congregate near the main entrance and talk in English. There's rarely if ever any native English speakers present and if there are they're seized upon and not let go until they've satisfied their bloodlust. I decided that this would be a good place to find my language partner. Me and two others went down as it was really getting into full swing and the crowd obediently parted for us as we entered the throng. It took them a while to realise that some laowai had entered but once they got over the initial shock they were all over us and the three of us each had an audience of about 10 or 12 who'd take turns asking questions. A typical conversation went something like this.

                        Me: Hi! How's it going?

                        Enthusiastic Chinese person: Hello, what is your opinion on atomic energy?

                        After which I pretend to know about whatever obscure topic they've decided they need vocab on.

                        There were some funny enough characters including one fella who just shouted names of Irish writers every now and then there were odd interruptions when he'd shout "Samroouh Beckett!" or "George Burrar-Slaw" after which I'd laugh, acknowledge his contribution and move on. I felt like a celeb. If I was more predatory it'd be a good place to pick up the Chinese motts too, I've never felt so goddamn handsome in my life. So that was a nice ego-boost after a week of getting psychologically beaten up by my bully classmates.

                        So as you can see I'm still not 100% used to China and a lot of everyday stuff is still very alien to me. Don't think I'll ever get used to it to be honest. I've had dozens of really weird experiences that will never, ever seem normal. For examples last night I got clattered over the head with a bottle and ended up at Tiananmen square at 7am to see the flag being raised at sunrise with a bunch of CCP diehards where I think I was less respectful than they'd have liked but Chinese manners (God bless them) prevented them from giving me a telling off, the whole country is bizzare. I guess being a country of only children who've in turn been raised by only children will do that.

                        Hopefully have more language-related stuff next time and will have made some progress!
                        Last edited by daire; 15-10-11, 14:19.

                        Comment


                          #13
                          So, nearly 2 months in at this stage and there are some good and bad points.

                          I came over with the intention of completely immersing myself and not speaking English but living with a roommate from home and being in class with a bunch of fluent English speakers it's just so easy not to go out and speak Chinese every day. I've decided that I'm gonna do a homestay in Shanghai next semester where I live with a Chinese family and teach their kid a bit of English in return for them putting me up. It could be torturous but I figure I'm not exactly having the time of my life as it is so I may aswell add another layer of misery on top in order to get some decent Mandarin out of it.

                          In the meantime; I've been working pretty hard and meeting up with my language partner regularly. The language partner is fantastic; she's a mid-twenties English teacher (with surprisingly little English) so she knows exactly how to correct me and explain my mistakes when we're talking. The snag is that, and their isn't any way to say this without sounding conceited but... I think she wants my babies. She's constantly asking me about girlfriends etc and it's getting very awkward. To be fair, I was warned about this by previous years (obv my rugged good looks put me at high-risk) who had problems with their female language partners. It's getting to the point where I think I need to ditch her before shit gets real but the fact that she's so shit hot at teaching me Chinese means that it pains me to do it.

                          Class has also been going pretty well. I've a lot more confidence when answering questions and managed to give an explanation of what gaelic football was the other day, which was nice. I did bottle a presentation I was meant to give to the class (in Mandarin obv) by not turning up. Shameful, admittedly, but given the knock my confidence would have taken after being cackled at by the shrews in my Chinese class means that it was the right play.

                          My progress is better than my UCD classmates (not to say that I'm better than them, just I've improved the most) in lower Chinese grades but I'm still not doing as well as I'd like due to laziness regarding study. I've started writing up these puke-enducingly twee "to-do" lists in a "Goals" notepad a classmate gave me. I feel like a whore but they do motivate me so I guess I'll keep it up.

                          tl;dr if you're going to try and learn Chinese live with a Chinese family and socialise exclusively with Chinese men.

                          Comment


                            #14
                            Only saw this now for first time. Quality read man, keep it up and good luck there!

                            Comment


                              #15
                              Originally posted by NuckChorris View Post
                              Only saw this now for first time. Quality read man, keep it up and good luck there!
                              +1

                              Comment


                                #16
                                Really enjoying this, keep the updates coming.
                                "Money won is twice as sweet as money earned"

                                Comment


                                  #17
                                  Thanks fellas!

                                  Comment


                                    #18
                                    Midterm exam results have been trickling in all week so I've finally got a quantifiable measure of progress. I passed 3/4 exams which I'm happy enough with, given the pass rate is 60%. I feel like I'm learning an awful lot of useful vocabulary and my speech is getting way better. Even managed to give a mini-speech on gender equality the other day which is almost speech-transcript-on-mammy's-fridge type territory for me.

                                    Not to get too smug - obviously failing an exam isn't fantastic but I've been justifying it to myself (maybe self-deceivingly so) with this reasoning: Chinese universities work a little bit differently to Western ones in that your relationship with your lecturer is very important. Being chummy with your lecturers means passing by default and being an insolent bollix will make your life very difficult. Needless to say I don't really get along with the lecturer that failed me.

                                    My classmates and I missed a couple of aforementioned lecturer's classes this week. After our second absence in-a-row he announced to the class that we'd all dropped to the lower class, despite us never having so much as hinted we were thinking about it. Given the rest of the class want us out I imagine this news was received with hat-throwing, carnival pandemonium. But I've dug in my heels and, even if I thought it'd be personally beneficial, I'm not gonna move down now out of spite.

                                    I also bought my first book in Chinese - a kids' book about the travels of Marco Polo. I'm ashamed to say it's tough going and I've had to look up a lot of the characters, especially during a particularly detailed description of his eyebrows that lasted for a full page. I'm trying to read 10 pages a day which is tough but I guess it's another line to add to my cloyingly twee "goals" notebook every morning!

                                    Given I'm off at 11:30 every day I've started looking for afternoon activities so that I don't go spare with boredom and get out of my room more often. I decided to volunteer helping out the homeless. Hopefully this will keep me occupied and help with the middle-class guilt.

                                    One of the really big culture shocks when I came was seeing the homeless in Beijing. Some of them are in a truly awful state - missing limbs, burned beyond recognition and other pretty terrible things. There's also a pimp type situation going on in a some cases (someone will help them get around in return for a cut of the proceeds but given these guys can't get around full-stop without someone else this cut is usually fairly extortionate) which is a bit disgusting. For a nominally Communist country they treat their down-and-out like shite.

                                    There's not an awful lot of charity from the population-at-large either. I've been told a lot of this stems from Confucian philosophy where there are only 5 relationships that matter (father-son, mother-daughter yada yada yada). Basically if someone isn't in your network you're not obliged to sympathise with or help them in any way shape or form so strangers (such as street beggars) get very little help - governmental or otherwise.

                                    So basically I think I've managed to turn a selfish want on my behalf (relieve my boredom and guilt) into a charitable thing. Which I think is nice if not exactly the purest example of selflessness in the world.

                                    Gonna try update this before the end of the month as I think it'll become more difficult to gauge my progress if I keep posting so infrequently so the posts may get more regular but, having said that, my goals notebook is littered with uncrossed tasks for the day so it may not come to fruition.

                                    Comment


                                      #19
                                      Excellent read, can't believe I missed it til now.

                                      Comment


                                        #20
                                        super read - you've put me off ever going to China but I like your vivid discriptions of everything

                                        Comment


                                          #21
                                          Originally posted by 5starpool View Post
                                          Excellent read, can't believe I missed it til now.
                                          +1 very interesting. Keep it up

                                          Comment


                                            #22
                                            +1 Awesome stuff
                                            People say I should be more humble I hope they understand, they don't listen when you mumble
                                            Get a shiny metal Revolut card! And a free tenner!
                                            https://revolut.com/referral/jamesb8!G10D21

                                            Comment


                                              #23
                                              This is great - I particularly like the guy shouting the Irish authors' names (try and work him in some more) and the varied adjectives used to describe the classmates

                                              Keep it up!

                                              Comment


                                                #24
                                                Yeah Daire, this is truly excellent stuff, I can't believe I've missed this until now, although it was nice to be able to read so much stuff without having to wait. Keep it up.

                                                I'm hugely impressed by your drive and ambition, you are obviously an incredibly bright guy, I'm insanely jealous.

                                                How does fluency in Mandarin fit in to your long term ambitions?

                                                Or, are you just taking it on merely for the personal challenge that it is?
                                                I hold silver in tit for tat, and I love you for that

                                                Comment


                                                  #25
                                                  Originally posted by Lazare View Post
                                                  Yeah Daire, this is truly excellent stuff, I can't believe I've missed this until now, although it was nice to be able to read so much stuff without having to wait. Keep it up.

                                                  I'm hugely impressed by your drive and ambition, you are obviously an incredibly bright guy, I'm insanely jealous.

                                                  How does fluency in Mandarin fit in to your long term ambitions?

                                                  Or, are you just taking it on merely for the personal challenge that it is?
                                                  I'd love to take the credit for being an ambitious, driven sicko but the truth is that this is a mandatory year that I have to do for my course so there was a limited amount of choice involved in me coming out here.

                                                  I've no set-in-stone long-term ambitions so can't say how learning mandarin helps me speifically with those. I chose to do Commerce with Chinese because I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life and figured that it'd keep my options as wide as possible coming out of college. I've always liked languages so learning mandarin is a means to an extremely vague end where I also happen to enjoy the process of the means!

                                                  Comment


                                                    #26
                                                    It's been a bad couple of weeks language-wise. My discipline is severely lacking and I've more often than not missed class which is very poor of me. My kids' book about Marco Polo is currently gathering dust under my bed. I also haven't met up with my language partner in weeks because she was getting increasingly weird so my oral Chinese hasn't been getting much love lately.

                                                    On the plus side I've got a patent pending for some work I did in my old job (brag) so I may be a patented inventor soon, which is kinda cool. I've also introduced my classmates to the pokeys so hopefully there'll be some ez money to be made there.

                                                    I'm getting worried about the amount of time I've been spending with my roommate, which is straight up unhealthy. We figured out that we spent roughly 60 of the last 72 hours within 10 feet of each other which is definitely not right for two 20 year olds supposed to be living it large in a major world city. It's getting to the point where our vocabularies are combining and we speak in exactly the same way. The multi-purpose "sick", which I've taken from him, is currently destroying my store of adjectives so the quality of my writing may deteriorate rapidly as I become unable to describe things as anything other than "sick" or, if something is extremely sick, "so so sick".

                                                    The lack of faith Chinese institutions have in people's intelligence is fairly shocking. I dunno if Chinese people as a race are genetically condition to lemming-like ineptitude but there are a lot of restrictions on stuff that I find a little bit insulting if I'm honest. For example on main roads there are 5ft tall barriers between the opposing lanes of traffic so that you physically cannot cross the road unless you walk 200m down the road to designated crossing areas which is frustrating. They've also drained all the water features on campus so that no one will walk on the ice (lately it's been getting to about -5C) and drown themselves when it cracks.

                                                    There's also the Great Firewall which is very annoying. Blogspot, facebook and youtube are all totally unavailable unless you have a proxy and google is very tempermental to the point where you have to use the Chinese version sometimes (baidu) which is total scutter when it comes to finding non-Chinese sites. The tiny restrictions on everyday things aren't that big a deal but the build-up is a bit insulting and irritating. Chinese news is awful. It's censored so that I hear nothing about negative Chinese goings-on unless it's from someone at home, which is ridiculous. For example I heard about the Bayi-Georgetown basketball brawl and the recent self-immolation in Tiananmen during Skype conversations with people at home.

                                                    To get back to the positives; I think I'm reaching a critical mass in terms of my Chinese. It's getting way easier to memorise characters as, in Chinese, a lot of terms are just mashed-together combos of unrelated characters. For example the verb "to worry" (担心)is just "to carry" (担) and "heart" (心) stuck together to create a new meaning. Once you hit about 2,000 characters it becomes a lot easier to learn the new vocab and you can also work out meanings a lot of the time from the characters involved. "To carry heart" makes sense as worrying if seen in the right context I guess.

                                                    Given I should be capable of self-learning by next semester it's making me a lot more optimistic that I'll be able to improve my Chinese a lot next semester (I won't have Chinese classes, only business) so hopefully I'll have a good standard come next June and won't have to resort to gesticulating wildly in shops as often as I currently am.
                                                    Last edited by daire; 01-12-11, 10:23.

                                                    Comment


                                                      #27
                                                      Long time since the last update but, truth be told, there's been nothing to say. This post will probably be very boring and mundane with me just talking about the general shite I get up to every day (this type of bollocks is one thing I really dislike about the internet - people talking about their cats etc) but I think having this up as a testament to my laziness will guilt me into action over the next few weeks.

                                                      So in other words, this post is mainly for my own benefit and I'd skip if I were you.

                                                      I'll get the notable events out of the way first:
                                                      • I got accepted to my semester 2 university in Shanghai where I'll study business.
                                                      • I've organised a Chinese family to live with while I'm in Shanghai
                                                      • If all goes according to plan I'm going to be doing some work as a research assistant in the university while I'm there

                                                      So I've set myself up for a nice productive time in Shanghai, which is good as the last 3 weeks have been a total write-off. I went a 100 hour stretch without leaving the building this week (it's a big building tbf to me) and my sleep pattern is totally fucked to the point where I'm on Irish rather than Chinese time.

                                                      This is mostly down to malaise regarding living here. It's not a bad place to live but the atmosphere of the city just multiplies the weariness you get when grinding any sort of study/job and makes you more demotivated and fed up than you usually would be. When you're as spoiled and pampered as I am it's tough to drag yourself out of bed at 7:30 with the miasma of smog, howling wind and -5 degree temperatures outside.

                                                      Of course these are all excuses. There's no way of justifying only making it to 8 lectures in 3 weeks and doing no study. The main reason I started this blog was to avoid things like this so hopefully being judged here will force me into getting up at reasonable hours, studying and going to classes.

                                                      I'll leave it here and hopefully update after Christmas/exams with some more positive stuff.

                                                      Comment


                                                        #28
                                                        Only stumbled across this now, fascinating read. Having been on Erasmus last year I know how easy it is to get sucked into speaking English all the time and its a huge personnel regret that I didn't take advantage of the situation.

                                                        Few Q's about life in China, what's the social scene like? would you say you have many Chinese friends? Is it a case of going to a bar with them for a few beers or how does it work? Is nightlife any use? The wimmins still just looking for life partners or have any just been up for a good time?
                                                        With internet censorship I presume this includes the lovely lady sites?

                                                        Keep up the good work!
                                                        Double-decker bus enthusiast

                                                        Comment


                                                          #29
                                                          ...
                                                          "We're not f*cking Burundi" - Big Phil

                                                          Comment


                                                            #30
                                                            Originally posted by Rufio View Post
                                                            Only stumbled across this now, fascinating read. Having been on Erasmus last year I know how easy it is to get sucked into speaking English all the time and its a huge personnel regret that I didn't take advantage of the situation.

                                                            Few Q's about life in China, what's the social scene like? would you say you have many Chinese friends? Is it a case of going to a bar with them for a few beers or how does it work? Is nightlife any use? The wimmins still just looking for life partners or have any just been up for a good time?
                                                            With internet censorship I presume this includes the lovely lady sites?

                                                            Keep up the good work!
                                                            Sorry for taking so long to get back to ya!

                                                            The social scene is segregated to say the least. All us international students tend to hang out exclusively with each other and do very little integrating. Having a language partner that you meet with on a scheduled, formal basis is usually as far as integration goes.

                                                            This sounds pretty bad but the culture gap is pretty big and makes it difficult to relate to each other. Generally speaking it's going for a meal instead of a night out, slapstick instead of irony/sarcasm and going to an internet cafe instead of going to the pub/bar. Trying to get to know each other is a chore as you usually end up doing something you don't enjoy (same is also true from a Chinese perspective obv).

                                                            So I know Chinese people and could even consider some of them friends but I'd only hang out with them if I was in the mood to make an effort. Hanging out with them is a mundane, clock-watching affair in a cafe or park with frequent chasms of silence that you desperately scramble to fill. It's no one's fault really and it's unfortunate as it'd be great for my Chinese if I could find natives I got on with and enjoyed hanging out with.

                                                            Hopefully there'll be more westernised people in Shanghai that I can befriend and I'll be able to integrate a bit more. I intend on making a bigger effort anyway.

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                                                              #31
                                                              If you're over in Sichuan at all give me a shout!
                                                              Looking for full or part time poker and betting writers. PM if interested.

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                                                                #32
                                                                I was waiting on my exam results to come through before my next update so that I'd have something solid to report but stodgy bureaucracy seems to have gotten in the way and I haven't received them 5 weeks later. I'm currently packing to head back to Shanghai so I figure I can't really leave it much longer.

                                                                Christmas in BJ was probably the worst of my life but it wasn't without its charms. Christmas isn't celebrated too enthusiastically in China so it was weird walking about the streets with people going about their daily business. As corny as it sounds I think people genuinely are a bit cheerier around Christmas at home and I missed getting smiles and nods off strangers as you're walking by. Having said that there's a weird kind of camaraderie between all the expats you meet as everyone's in the same boat and trying to make the most of it so it was cool to get talking to a bunch of friendly people.

                                                                The general consensus with the group was that there was no point attempting a traditional Christmas dinner and that we may as well go on the session to make the most of it. We started the day at the Hilton for a buffet dinner with champers and lobster, delish. Afterwards we went to a bar in Wudaokou (student nightlife area) followed by a trip to the karaoke bar. We were fairly well on at this point and the karaoke bar was total carnage with people KOing all over the place and anyone alert to stand drawling into the mic. At one point 2 of the lads had decided to ignore the lyrics on-screen and were roaring "fuck you" at one of the girls, who was responding in a similar, unladylike fashion.

                                                                Anyway at the end of the night one of the lads ended up in hospital in a pretty bad way after getting battered by a gang of Chinese guys outside the bar. At one point he was getting kicked in the head while prone on the ground by 6 or so of them. The police saw the whole incident and didn't help us break it up and the incident has really soured me against Chinese police and government in general (not that I had too high an opinion of them to begin with). He's ok now but obviously it put a bit of a bad taste in our mouths as far as Chinese Christmas memories are concerned.

                                                                The last few weeks I've just been at home in Ireland so haven't had anything useful to put in here really. It's been really nice to see everyone but after the initial novelty of you being home has worn off you kinda get the feeling that you're a bit of an outsider and you're intruding. It's definitely been a somewhat alienating experience.

                                                                Even with my closest friends that I've hung out with since we were kids I find that I can't contribute to most conversations they're having as I simply haven't been around and amn't up to date on who scored who, who's emigrating, who got a new motor etc. Granted this isn't exactly a scene from the Breakfast Club but it's what friendships are built on and it got me down a bit. It's something I've found really frustrating as, while sitting mute on the sidelines isn't ideal, I also don't want to be the annoying guy at a movie asking "who's he now?" or any other similar bollocks no one wants to answer every couple of minutes.

                                                                So while I'll miss home I'm kinda glad to be heading back where I'll be going back to a situation where everyone's in the same boat. One of the great things about going away is that you can be super-forward with people without feeling like a tit as most foreign people you come across are just gonna be happy to have some like-minded company.

                                                                As far as improving my Chinese is concerned I'm less optimistic than I was. My homestay fell through so the plan at the minute is just to rent an apartment with a couple of other guys. So I'm really gonna have to get the finger out in terms of finding language partners and making Chinese friends if my Chinese is to improve as I'll have no language classes this semester.

                                                                I'm gonna make a checklist here and aim to have them all done in two weeks.
                                                                • Find an apartment
                                                                • Join gym and GAA club
                                                                • Get a (sane) language partner
                                                                • Have a conversation with at least 10 different Chinese people in Mandarin


                                                                Will update in a couple weeks with progress. Given there's no way you can tell if I'm lying I'm a lock to have done all in the first day or so!

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                                                                  #33
                                                                  Originally posted by daire View Post
                                                                  I'm gonna make a checklist here and aim to have them all done in two weeks.
                                                                  • Find an apartment
                                                                  • Join gym and GAA club
                                                                  • Get a (sane) language partner
                                                                  • Have a conversation with at least 10 different Chinese people in Mandarin


                                                                  Will update in a couple weeks with progress. Given there's no way you can tell if I'm lying I'm a lock to have done all in the first day or so!
                                                                  Pass, pass, fail, pass.

                                                                  3/4 ain't bad I guess. Will get on finding a language partner this week in college. Shanghainese students seem to be a lot more Western in their outlooks and lifestyles than Beijingers so that's definitely a good thing. Shouldn't be a problem finding a language partner I can meet a couple times a week and not dread it.

                                                                  I've been lashing myself into every activity possible with pup-like enthusiasm but I think I'm running out of steam. Was in Shanghai on my own for a bit and ended up talking a bunch to Chineseses (in Chinese!) which was cool. Once the other lads arrived I fell back into a rut but I'm gonna try get out by myself a couple times a week and talk to people as Shanghainese people are really friendly and, from my limited experience, they're happy to talk to you and explain vocab etc to you.

                                                                  As an aside, Shanghai is a seriously cool city and would highly recommend going to see it if you ever get a chance. The Pudong skyline is ridiculously impressive and because of the colonial past there are a bunch of cool, older areas with a more European feel in Puxi (west of the river) that you can mince about and shop/dine/get coffee/other classy activities.

                                                                  College orientation went pretty badly - I don't know what it is about continental Europeans that decide to study in China but they all seem to be total pretentious douchebags. I arrived late and could hear the nasal drone of French and German accents from a mile off. Despite this bad omen I decided to try be nice and approached a few different groups basically trying to make friends in as shameless a fashion as possible. My efforts were rebuffed. I then decided I'd try to look a bit more aloof and cool and asked someone for a light (had a lighter myself obv but great icebreaker). He literally turned his nose up at me, said "if you ask nicely" and then turned his back to me as soon as he had receipt of his lighter but not before I'd degraded myself by repeating my request with the addition of a "please". I'm not exactly a proud guy but I've decided it's not worth embarrassing myself anymore. I bumped into another Irish guy who had taken to doing laps of the group so as not to look too alone and we formed a sort of alliance so at least there's someone there that's willing to speak to me. Good thing I've only a 2 day college week or else my confidence would be totally shattered by the end!

                                                                  To go along with my newly-discovered social ineptitude, my fitness is disgraceful. I've done 2 sessions in the gym and I'm ashamed to be seen lifting in the place I've gone so weak. I also went to a spinning class (it's not gay) the other day and was in ribbons for days. Gaelic training should produce similar results I'd imagine.

                                                                  So all my enthusiasm and positive thinking is only serving to uncover personal flaws I was happy ignoring up to now. I think the above should serve as proof that the power of positive thinking/making an effort/The Secret is a load of bollocks and not to try at anything, ever, as it'll only lead to disappointment.

                                                                  That being said I'm gonna try get the following done by mid-March:
                                                                  -Find a language partner
                                                                  -Find a language tutor
                                                                  -Study Chinese 5 hours a week

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                                                                    #34
                                                                    PM me and ill put you in touch with some good irish people in shanghai. I'll be heading back there in about 3 weeks or so for a weekend, so lemme know your details and ill organise to meet up with you and some of the other irish lads i used to hang out with over there!
                                                                    Looking for full or part time poker and betting writers. PM if interested.

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                                                                      #35
                                                                      This thread just popped into my head now for some reason. Any updates, enjoyed reading the progress

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                                                                        #36
                                                                        Originally posted by ghostface View Post
                                                                        This thread just popped into my head now for some reason. Any updates, enjoyed reading the progress
                                                                        Hey man, thanks for the interest! Finishing up my exams, will try to post a decent roundup of my progress when I'm done. Unfortunately there wasn't much progress to be posting about recently but I'll do my best.

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                                                                          #37
                                                                          Great thread!

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                                                                            #38
                                                                            I stopped updating the thread because, to be completely honest about it, I'd given up learning Chinese in any sort of disciplined or structured fashion. The first semester in Beijing, while pretty decent for my language skills, was pretty miserable due to the weather, workload and general city environment. So when I got to Shanghai I made the decision pretty quickly to just enjoy myself and not worry too much about my progress language-wise. Having said that there was some progress due to everyday interactions and a bit of self-learning on my part so the Shanghai experience wasn't a total waste language-wise!

                                                                            I had no classes which gave me time to reflect on the methods teachers have been using to teach me Chinese and I've come to the conclusion that the methods behind teaching Chinese I've run into have been awful.

                                                                            In Beijing I was taking (mandatory, btw) intensive reading classes which are essentially just 90 minute-long blocks where you try to drill various esoteric characters into your skull. Of my 5 classes I had one reading, another intensive reading class (don't ask me what the difference is) and a writing class - all of which focus heavily on learning characters off-by-heart. This is all well and good when you've a foundation of really good verbal language skills but there wasn't anyone in my class that fell into this category (hyper-studious Aryan classmates included). UCD was very similar in that there is huge emphasis placed on being able to read and write from the earliest stages and it really hampers your progress in terms of picking up vocab, sentence structures and conversation skills. So following on from this colossal insight I decided to focus exclusively on vocab and conversation skills and not pick up a pen for the entire semester.

                                                                            Two resources I've found really helpful while self-learning (for anyone looking to learn Chinese) have been Rosetta Stone and a website called ChinesePod.

                                                                            Rosetta Stone should be available from your cousins and is really great for picking up bits of vocab (for example I learned the Chinese for glass, beach and fence off it, which I'm embarrassed to admit I didn't know after 2 years learning). It's not too much of a chore to fire up and get through a couple of 10 minute lessons a day and I reckon it added about 5-10 words to my vocab every day which isn't bad progress at all at all.

                                                                            ChinesePod is fantastic. For anyone looking to learn Chinese I can't recommend it highly enough. It's a series of podcasts where 2 people fluent in both languages create conversation scenarios and act them out while explaining in detail the turns of phrase and new vocab that come up as they're discussing it. It was great as they cover a lot of useful situations that simply don't come up often enough to practise such as arguments and parking tickets and the like. It's enjoyable and I feel like I've learned a lot from it so well worth the subscription fee imo. There are some samples on their website for anyone interested: www.chinesepod.com.

                                                                            Along with my textbooks I just kinda tipped away at these for the last 4 months. I didn't bother finding a language partner in the end as I figured I wouldn't enjoy it and a couple of my evenings would be tied up with coffee-shop drudgery every week, which I wanted to avoid bigtime.

                                                                            Overall my Chinese has improved over the year abroad but not by nearly as much as I'd have liked at the outset. Before leaving for China I had visions of myself coming home fluent and triumphant at the end of the year - that obviously hasn't happened. Having had time to reflect though I'm not too upset about the situation. I can get by on a day-to-day basis exclusively in Chinese and I've still got a year of university classes to go some maybe someday I'll reach those dizzying heights.

                                                                            I know a lot of people that study abroad regret about their lack of progress when they come home but I'm definitely not one of those. I tried the focussed, immersive thing and I just wasn't enjoying myself. If anyone is thinking of doing a similar trip to mine I'd just say to try enjoy yourself and while you should put some effort into learning, don't sweat it too much if you haven't improved as much as you'd have liked by the end. Also,if anyone wants more info about learning Chinese or moving abroad to learn a language I'd be more than happy to give whatever limited advice/assistance I can!

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                                                                              #39
                                                                              bump for jbravado

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                                                                                #40
                                                                                MOOOOOOOAAAAAAR!!!!

                                                                                Superb thread!

                                                                                More.

                                                                                Thanks for the bump Ghostface, cant believe I hadnt seen this thread.

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                                                                                  #41
                                                                                  Excellent read, well done daire.
                                                                                  Off to Beijing myself early month to teach English, you really dont make it sound too enticing. xD
                                                                                  Disaster - Dreamcrusher

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                                                                                    #42
                                                                                    Originally posted by BrianByrne View Post
                                                                                    Excellent read, well done daire.
                                                                                    Off to Beijing myself early month to teach English, you really dont make it sound too enticing. xD
                                                                                    Try searching jbravados posts, he has some good stories from his time in China as well.

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