Now i've graduated University, this academic year i'm living and working in China as an English language teacher. My blog is just going to be about everything I get up to whilst i'm here. It's pretty detailed as this blog is doubling as my diary and record of everything I do. Happy Reading. I'm posting all the pictures I take on Flickr , find them at this address: https://www.flickr.com/photos/gillianyoung/
Tuesday, 28 October 2014
Happy Halloween
Thursday, 23 October 2014
Guangzhou Botanical Gardens
We decided to hire some of these bikes things to tour around the grounds - so much fun but I think we ruined the tranquility slightly. If there were rules to abide to we certainly didn't but we'll blame that on the language barrier! Owen and I did have a great time bringing smiles to the faces of everyone we passed though by saying Ni Hao and waving VERY enthusiastically. It was definitely an afternoon of hilarity (and some pretty hard work - those things are not efficient to peddle).
Time is flying
I've got to say though, that it feels like i've been teaching for a lot longer than 8 weeks! Maybe that's why my teaching stamina has gone and abandoned me this week - I only seem to have the energy to sit or sleep this week! Not quite sure why that's the case! So my lack of energy has definitely made the teaching less enjoyable this week (the subject was family). Saying that the students feel less enthusiastic and more rowdy this week - maybe it's not just me.
The weather is also on the change which i'm not particularly happy about. Today is a lot cooler (probably low 20s) - i'm going to have to start digging out the trusty jumpers soon! The sun also hasn't come out today - the one day this week when I remember to pick up my sunglasses.
Saying that i'm interested to see what a Guangdong winter is like. I keep telling my classes it's 2oC in Scotland - i'm not convinced they even know what 2oC feels like!
G x
Sunday, 19 October 2014
Local foreigner
This past week I feel like i'm being acknowledged as being a local resident rather than just a passing tourist. More teachers than every before have acknowledged me and smiled as we walked past each other in the corridors of the school (maybe it's because I always pointedly look at them whilst saying 'Ni hao' (hello) and smiling) - maybe my tactic of being friendly to everyone I walk past is working!
The security guards at the school gate are endlessly entertaining. One of them won't stop shouting 'hello' at me until I also say hello back (even though i've already greeted him in Chinese first).
I was teaching a bunch of older male teachers the other day the word 'bald' the other day - obviously having bald friends is also a source of entertainment here!
But truely, I feel my greatest moment of acceptance are the gate and security guards around my building happily greeting me with recognition rather than confusion and curiosity.
Saying all this though the bus driver the other day took a good few seconds to register the fact that a non-chinese girl was getting on his bus the other day. One women also nearly crashed her car because she was so busy watching me cross the road - maybe I should wear a t-shirt saying 'keep your eyes on the road' (in chinese obviously).
Life in China is never dull
G x
Wednesday, 15 October 2014
So it's not just me...
number 8 - in my experience people just give you their children to take pictures with.
http://www.businessinsider.com/things-people-do-in-china-that-outsiders-find-crazy-2014-10?utm_content=buffer010f8&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer
G x
Sunday, 12 October 2014
First, let me take a selfie...
Saturday, 11 October 2014
Holidays are the best
On our way back down we crashed into some of the other ELAs, Roberta (Bert) and Elisa who we didn't even know were in Hong Kong - so that was a nice surprise. That made for a very happy and chatty reunion all the way back down on the gondola and back into central Hong Kong (via metro).
We finished off our day in Hong Kong by heading back to the border and negotiating border control - joys.
There were a few things we didn't get to see because of the protests. There were supposed to be fireworks on the 1st October to celebrate but they were cancelled (for obvious reasons). There was also supposed to have been a free concert on the Thursday night but that was also cancelled. One general tourist thing to forgot to go and see was the symphony of lights - it's a nightly light show on Victoria harbour - if we hadn't been in a queue to get back down we probably would have seen it from the Peak on the Thursday.
After our days in Hong Kong we decided to finish off our little trip in Shenzhen, the Chinese city which sits on the border with Hong Kong. Everyone seems to rave about Shenzhen, it was nice but I almost feel like we were in the wrong part or not doing the right things because to me it was just another city - it did have a lot of hotels and spas though!
After a slight mishap with our accommodation (the hostel didn't exist), we ended up staying in an alright hotel (which just so happened to be where the hostel was supposed to be - all very confusing).
After a lazy Saturday morning start - we needed it after our busy days, we did a little bit of exploring our surroundings. We found a lovely park in the middle of the city - definitely more natural than the one in Foshan. The culture trip continued with an afternoon in 2 museums - one was lots of modern art installations - they had an art exhibition by artists from Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan and mainland China which was interesting. The second museum was a design museum on which had lots of costumes designers had made - definitely more my kind of art!
Friday, 10 October 2014
The Scotland Skirt
So as well as my students learning, my students have taught me something new this week. They have taught me that 'ya tao' is the Chinese word for braces (they featured in my lesson on clothing and accessories). Another word to add to my growing vocabulary list (not that I can actually remember any of it yet!).
I've quite enjoyed teaching this week - possibly due to the fact that the students are all wearing the clothes we are talking about means I can use them as props which is always fun. Their terrified faces when I ask them to stand up to (because they are wearing the item of clothing we are talking about) is also quite funny. One girl took off her check patterned jacket because I kept referring to it (i'm not quite sure how she was wearing it in this heat in the first place...suffering for fashion).
Another class tried to tell me that a material that clothes are made of is leaves!! I wasn't entirely sure if they were serious to begin with or if it was actually a Chinese word instead of English. I eventually worked out that they were talking about their Chinese ancestors who made their clothes out of leaves - it was a fair point (I was quite impressed) but not quite what I was going for in terms of modern clothing.
Life here in China never fails to entertain.
G x
Sunday, 5 October 2014
Differences between Hong Kong and mainland China
So The first thing I smelt when we stepped off the bus in Hong Kong was chips - I haven't smelt, let alone seen anyone eating chips whilst I've been in the Mainland! The kinds of food available in Hong Kong is one of the many major differences between there and the mainland. The food was much more heavily western influenced than the mainland - KFC, McDonald's and Pizza Hut is about as Western as they readily get here, whereas Hong Kong had just about every western chain going and a lot of restaurants had a western inspired chinese section on the menu. Saying that the restaurants here in the Mainland could have that but I wouldn't have a clue because everything is in Chinese!
That was definitely a welcome difference on our little holiday - knowing what we were ordering and being able to read the signs (even though I'm still enjoying the food lottery). Most people in Hong Kong also speak English - the national languages in Home Kong are Chinese and English - life was very easy for the last few days! The minute we crossed the border back into mainland China no one could speak a word of English (no word of a lie). It was funny though because our almost habitual attempts to speak mandarin were completely wasted because they didn't seem to have a clue - this is supposed to be their national language now. The south of China (where I am) is cantonese speaking country but everyone can also understand and talk mandarin - but then they have been using it longer than they have in Hong Kong.
I'd forgotten, before we went to Hong Kong, that none of the signs here in the Mainland are actually in English, only Pinyin (which is the romanisation of Chinese characters) and even then that's only mostly the road signs - tourist information maps are a no go and to males matters harder they aren't even orientated the right way! If you're lucky, public announcements come in English!
The cost of living is much much higher in Hong Kong than it is in the Mainland - something I didn't expect to such a degree. The average meal price would be about 60hkd (about 55rmb) whereas the average meal price in Foshan is about 15rmb - so not such a teachering salary budget friendly place! I think the cost of living is closer to the cost of the UK than Mainland China - but still slightly cheaper if you are going on holiday there, most things would seem like a bargain. Except alcohol (that stuff is pricey) I payed 60hkd for a glass of wine! I haven't had wine since I arrived here though so it was money well spent.
People in Hong Kong have a much more western body shape than their mainland neighbours aka they are a bit fatter. This is by no means saying that Hong Kongers are fat because they aren't, but I think it's definitely got a lot to do with the easy access to fast food (we walked past a kiosk purely selling chips and what looked like a million different topping choices).
The Chinese population of Hong Kong also look different to the population of the mainland, in the same way that British people look subtly different to continental Europeans. But we did learn at the history museum that Hong Kongers are decended from the Your people and the majority of Chinese are decended from the Han people in the north.
Religion is legal and embraced in Hong Kong, whereas preaching, or even education for that matter, of any religion is illegal in the Mainland. I hadn't realised this difference until we passed an outdoor sermon at the Occupy Central protest - I genuinely had a nervous look around for the police.
Protesting is also something that wouldn't and couldn't happen on the mainland - that alone shows you how different the culture is in Hong Kong.
Cars also drive on the left there, here in the Mainland they drive on the right.
People queue in an orderly fashion for things is Hong Kong - Tom and I regularly had to reign in our new chinese style of queuing habit a.k.a ignore the end of the line and stand wherever the hell you want.
Queuing on the right side of underground escalators was great it means you can actually get past inside of someone causing a back log because they just fancied stopping half way up next to an old man. I did hear that they were promoting that habit on the underground in shenzhen yesterday but not surprisingly that was ignored.
Spitting does not happen in Hong Kong - its seen a revolting (which it is) whereas everyone spits everywhere I'm the mainland; this includes hotel foyers, corridors, carpets, indoors outdoors - whenever the mood takes them!
Western toilets (with toilet roll and soap) are everywhere here - definitely a pleasant surprise as I braced myself to use the ones in the shopping mall the day we arrived!
The prevalence of western toilets could be due to the sheer numbers of westerners in Hong Kong - I saw more non-chinese people in the first hour in Hong Kong than I have in the entire time I've been in the Mainland (Beijing included). It's funny though, you don't feel particularly unique when there's so many other people that look similar to you and no one is stopping and staring or trying to take a sneaky picture (a women in Foshan nearly crashed her car the other day because she was so shocked to see me crossing the road!)
I genuinely never thought that within 500m (between border controls) there could be so much difference within one country! I would have expected more obvious differences between Beijing and Guangdong due to the distance but mind is slightly blown by the differences between Hong Kong and Shenzhen - the unfluence of British Colonisation is very evident everywhere.
It's not only a case on one country, two systems but a case of one country, two cultures.
G x