Meg Stivison of Simpson’s Paradox is second in our series of guest posts on the subject of China. I hope to include many diverse opinions and feature many new voices in this series. If you have anything to say on this very big topic or just want to introduce yourself, click on the link at the end of this post.
Meg was one of my first contacts with the China expat community, I have met many other bloggers through her network of friends. Thanks, Meg for agreeing to guest post today, and giving me a chance to introduce you to my friends.
Here’s Meg:
I originally went to China on a one-year contract, teaching ESL in Yantai in 2006. Despite the struggles of speaking Mandarin, I loved living abroad and seeing China, and I returned for a year, this time in Beijing, in the fall of 2007. I’m currently living in North Carolina and teaching SAT prep at Raleigh Academy of Chinese Language.
This is based on a post I wrote almost a year ago, I picked it because I think it’s a great capsule of expat life and learning Chinese.Thanks for including me!
My Mandarin Superpowers
Basic Chinese is my new superpower. I’ve been making a lot of progress with evocab and the hellish tones, and I’m starting to feel like Matt Parkman on Heroes, magically given the ability to hear what people around me are thinking, or in my case, saying out loud in my presence. In the grand scheme of superpowers perking my ears up at waiguoren isn’t the greatest power set. I’m still no Green Lantern, more like the lame supergroup sidekick who really should stay back at the secret base and not keep coming along on missions and becoming a kidnapping liability.
Superman! Professor X! Girl Who Understands Simple Sentences When Spoken At Low Speeds!
With my newfound powers, I added another 50 RMB to my Beijing transit debit card. This card makes me feel like a real BeijingRRR, balancing the bizarre combination of vacation splurge and desperate attempts at survival that is expat life in China. The card also keeps me from saying which stop I’m going to when I get on a bus, thus saving hours of my life which have previously been spent repeating words I can kinda sorta say until the bus conductor says “OH! The inteRRRsection of RRRRRR RRRRRRoad and RRRRRR StRRReet! Why didn’t you say so?”
Beijing buses really are an untapped resource for Monty Python sketches.
Anyway, I recharged my transit card, and I had a few seconds to gloat over my ability to handle basic tasks in the language of the country where I make my home, when I remembered that the other day, when we were using Stick’s transit card as unintended by the manufacturers, it met with an accident. (He used it to pop the lock when our apartment door jammed, if you must know. Stick and I divide our labour so that I talk the China talk, and he does the breaking and entering.)
I showed the woman at the service desk Stick’s mutilated card, and we had a pretty long conversation, where the patient lady told me that, yes, the card is broken and yes, there is money left on it, and yes, she does have new transit cards, but I wasn’t unable to convey that I wanted the remainder of the money taken off the broken card and put on a new one. It was later explained that we need to call the service number, but sadly my point-and-click Chinese doesn’t work well without hand gestures and overuse of 那个 and 这个. I have a superpower, but telephones are my Kryptonite.
This is part of a series of Guest Posts on China. If you would like to join us, click here: /calling-all-china-bloggers.html
Meg/Luke,
Having lived in Korea for the past three and a half years, I can certainly relate to the challenges which Meg describes with respect to the language issues.
That said, the alphabet in Mandarin looks much more complicated than the Korean alphabet, so no doubt the challenges which Meg describes are much greater than those of my own.
I have personally found that speaking in another language can be both frustrating and rewarding. It can be frustrating when you need to get things done and you just want straight answers, but it can also be extremely rewarding and I love the process of travelling around the countryside and managing in Korean as best I can.
Andrew,
Thanks for stopping by. The Korean alphabet really is impressive. The Chinese writing system (no alphabet) is tough to learn, but there are other parts of the language that are a little more friendly.
And, I agree that learning a new language is definitely worth the effort.
Hi Andrew! That’s exactly how I feel. I found amazing rewards in getting the simplest tasks done in my second language, even if it’s just mailing a letter or taking a taxi. I imagine it must be the same for you in Korea.
Pingback: Simpson’s Paradox » Blog Archive » Mandarin Superpowers And More On China
I’m visiting china soon, nice article. Ordering from restaurants is my biggest fear, don’t know what I’m going to end up with.
Hi Meg, I’m from China, and I can’t agree with you more on the last point about phone calls. I spent one year in London, and avoided phone calls the best I can. The problem is that I couldn’t understand what the other person was saying…They sure did expect foreigners to be very good at English
Luke and Meg, nice post here. Certainly was an interesting read. China has always been a scary place for me with regard to food mostly. It gives me the creeps. Anyway, thanks for the article. Cheers
Thanks for the article Meg. It reminds me of having the chance to live with people in another language (though they were learning English from me). They loved me having a go at their language pronunciations and word mix ups. Sounds like you’re over the embarassment of difficult Mandarin tones.