新 年 快 乐 ! Happy Chinese New Year everyone!
Me and Rebecca go to weekly meetings for China now. We've met all 17 of the students going to China with us. They seem pretty cool! I just wanna hop on that plane already! But then again, how excited can one be for a 14 hour flight. Ahh, me and Rebecca are already planning what movies to download to watch during the flight. We'll survive somehow!
In
our meetings they told us to bring something from Canada to show them
Canadian culture. But, I'm not your typical Canadian. I don't like
hockey or maple syrup. However, I do say 'eh' a heck of a lot. At the
moment I have no idea what to bring from Canada... photos for sure but
what sort of...stuff? Meanwhile, Rebbecca isn't even legally Canadian!
What a pair we are...
We're going to a celebration for Chinese New Year this weekend. It should be lot's of fun! I can't wait to see the performances and eat Chinese food with my friends!
新 年 快 乐
再见,
Jen
早上好 readers! China is still quite far away but I thought I post about the little revelation I had in class this morning.
I don't want to be a tourist in China.
Yes, yes I know what you're thinking. Well, what else are you going to be then? By definition a tourist is: "a person who is travelling or visiting a place for pleasure" which isn't wrong per say... I don't want to be a mass tourist in particular. These are the people that are bussed around from place to place and only go where the tour guides tell you to go. I'm going to China to experience living there from the inside not the ouside.
Let me give you an example. There are a lot of things China is known for: Forbidden City and The Great Wall, both of which I will likely see, but I don't want the touristy cookie-cutter explaination of what it is and why it's important. I want to hear directly from a student what they think about these monumental landmarks.
I want a first hand account of what it's like to live in the city, not what tour guides are paid to tell me. I want to go on day trips and slip away with my native friends to see things that aren't on the schedule. I want experience China outside of the University as much as I can.
This requires me to make some pretty fast friends and gain the trust of our leaders that I won't disappear and never come back, but let's say that's my goal in my first few days.
再见,
Jen
So naturally, since we're going to China I'm brushing up on my minimal 普通话 (putonghua). I'm in the unique posistion where I see a fair amount of Chinese students in a given day. All of which, upon hearing that I was going to China, were interested in helping me study. I've also downloaded the app WeChat which a lot of Chinese friends have to talk to each other. A lot of them told me I was the only Canadian they had on the app. Too funny! I also have a very extensive Mandarin Dictionary on my phone called Pleco. I've also added a Chinese keyboard to my phone so hopefully with all these resources I'll be a little further along then when I started. I usually just ask them about vocab or phrases that I think would be handy to know. Then I send them messages using what I've learned to make sure I'm applying it correctly! I have until April to practice so...
加油!!! 加油!!!
My resources:
http://www.wechat.com/en/
http://www.pleco.com/
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.google.android.inputmethod.pinyin&hl=en
Until next time,
Jennifer
