Michael
Nashan, China
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Posted:
28 Apr, 2011 17:47:21 |
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Reminds me of when I first arrived in China I would be relying on this Besta 7,000 translator and this damn thing kept spitting out Golden Mountain Buddha and for the life of me I can't imagine how it came up with this answer. English to Chinese is iffy at best on any translation program. QQ, give me a break, nothing but an elaborate chatroom. Chinese characters 5,000 maybe traditional, maybe 500 regularly used. Hence translation is highly questionable when the rudimentory language is so broad and vague. Quite a few times I was too lazy to switch off the English subtitles on pirated western DVDs. Yeah, guess what? What I was hearing and what was being printed on the screen were two completely different concepts. Case in point I was watching a recent movie and the term Holy Sh*t was heard yet St. Sh*t was printed on the English subtitles. I don't know about you yet know the two are not the same thing. One can be holy yet not have reached sainthood. Three miracles have to be acknowledged by the church to be considered a saint.
China Shark Mike version 6.0
Food for thought???
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Neal
Poole, United Kingdom
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Posted:
02 May, 2011 00:56:03 |
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Mike liked the anecdote about the translator! Gave me a chuckle. But your last comment gave me an idea about my first impressions of China.
Follow up to translation woes -
Before coming to China and meeting your lady there are quite a few things you should really consider:
Food – if you think you’re going to eat Chinese food like it is prepared in the west, you best think again. All meat that has a bone in is cooked with the bone and that includes chicken and duck, but not in the same manner as we prepare our food. Everything is cut up into chunks with bone and then steamed or boiled to make a soup, every visible part of the animal is consumed [it isn’t processed into sausages or the like], and vegetables are fried or part steamed. I’ll never forget the chicken feet in my soup the first time it was offered to me. And some of the vegetables take some getting used to, but you will find traditional western veggies as well. Fish is cooked whole with the head and fins and you have to wade through the bones to find the flesh. Go to a restaurant and everything is in Chinese though most menus do include glossy photos to show the dish on offer, but you will have no idea what is in it! Luckily most of the food is quite tasty and not bad to the western pallet. Forget fresh milk!
But if you are really stuck you can always head to a ‘coffee shop’, which is a western style eatery that offers up steak and chops etc. and looks pretty good. It is usually not expensive and includes two starters and soup for about 100rmb. My language school and a local steak house did a promotion on western table manners. Of course yours truly got to be the white face to teach the class and the local television sent in a crew and filmed it all, three nights later I’m on the news! Boy has this added to my ‘face’. Failing all that head over to the nearest KFC or McDonalds, they are everywhere with KFC edging out big macs for popularity. Food can be a pretty big obstacle if you are picky or have certain dietary requirements.
Face – this concept is hard to explain, but rest assured it is alive and thriving here in China! No set rules and the minute you transgress one of these unknown rules you will be duly chastised and rebuked by your lady. I guess the best way to describe it is our concept of respect, integrity, and etiquette all rolled into one. But the level of face can vary from lady to lady and has to do with her ‘traditional values’, but I would say this doesn’t present a problem until you have committed to each other. And the family has a sense of face as well and you become an addition to that face. A bit like upholding the family values or name. Your lady will be fiercely loyal to you and she will expect the same in return, basically if you are used to flirting, change your ways!
You will also be known as the ‘white face’, which is the general description for all western men from our culture despite your actual ethnic background. In Shi shi I am probably the only white face living here that I have seen. I see the occasional new white face at the hotel where the school is located and taxi drivers have told my wife that some white faces do come to the bus and train station for business. So be prepared to go many days if not weeks before you see anyone from your own culture. This can give you a sense of being quite on your own.
Transport – my wife writes things for me in Chinese with the pin ying underneath so I can attempt to say where I want to go, but 95% of the time said driver reads the instructions. Traffic here is without rules and chaotic, bicycles regularly go against the flow of traffic and don’t be surprised to see a car following suit! If you have the green man to cross a road keep looking because tricycles and motos usually don’t heed any traffic signals. As you cross the road on foot conduct the traffic with hand signals to go behind you or put your hand up to stop them, don’t do this and you won’t survive here very long! You’re not safe even on zebra crossing! If you use a taxi, tricycle, or moto be prepared to pay over the odds, best not to go on your own. I always phone my wife when I get into the taxi and she tells the driver where to go and asks how much, if she isn’t happy with the price they usually argue the entire journey and she usually wins. It is all part of the process. Oh what’s a moto? It is small scooter or motorcycle that continually harasses you by offering to take you somewhere. No politeness here they just pull up and shout at you ‘Where go’ and you just reply ‘No go’, then they go onto the next victim. There are literally thousands of the damn things in this town all blaring their horns and shouting! Some even have air horns fitted!
Language – I’ve been in country 3 months now, and my Chinese is basic and rudimentary to say the least. But it isn’t the lack of speaking that gets to me, it is the not knowing where I am if in a new part of town. Shops don’t display English unless you’re in a mall, basically Chinese writing engulfs you and unless you look through the window or can see the goods on display you’ll have no idea what’s being sold. Even if they attempt Chinglish it is usually wrong because they have translated literally off the Internet and it doesn’t work. Sounds cute but it doesn’t make sense! So all this alien environment and culture can be a knock to the senses but boy it doesn’t half make you feel alive! Be wary of doing things on your own if absolutely strange to a city. I feel absolutely safe in Xiamen and I highly recommend this city to anyone who wants to see the modern vibrant China that may be more to your liking. Venture into the smaller cities or larger towns and you’ll come up against the usually vices and gangsters. Prostitution is big business here but dangerous for foreigners. Don’t forget we stick out in this crowd unless you’re in Shanghai or Beijing so any shenanigans you get up to soon gets around town… it’s ‘your face’ you play with and your pocket!
Naturally I must add I am no expert and I should imagine even if you live here 5, 10, or 20 years you’ll never comprehend it all, this is just my take on things. Ask me again in one year what I think and I’m sure it will have all changed!
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Neal
Poole, United Kingdom
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Posted:
07 May, 2011 16:01:38 |
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Further to China revelations
The wife has had to go home for the father-in-laws birthday preparations, so I am on my own for a couple of weeks. She left me enough food for a week but finally ran out yesterday! So, I ventured to our local Chinese restaurant where we frequent and had a light meal and a few beers. Now they know me so its not like I am a stranger and they really make me feel welcome, they love watching me eat with chopsticks and it bridges a gap. Other tables were soon shouting over hello and helping with my ordering and telling the girls to bring me another beer! The owner comes over and oversees the fuss and I think ‘God I love this place!’ I start watching the other people and two tables are playing a drinking game. It’s a bit like our ‘rock, scissors, paper’, but much more complicated and vocal. It’s the vocals that have me mesmerised, as they are so in time with each other I think it is only one person shouting the cadence! These people are so in tune with what is going on and have no worries or cares. They remind me a lot of the Greeks with their family values and attitude. I spent a year and half on Crete in my younger days. Maybe it’s the older the civilization the more entrenched family is? I’m watching the night swinging into action on the streets outside – nothing hectic just a steady stream of youngsters heading for the big KTV across the road. A night out here is Karaoke TV. You go in your group and hire [and maybe share] a room with other people and get drunk and sing your heart out. Don’t think for one minute this crowd can’t drink, they certainly aren’t bashful at trying to out drink you. But you don’t see lewd drunkenness or loutishness in the streets like in England. I’ve only ever seen one drunken person in the daytime here and I think he was coming home from the night before.
I have come to the conclusion that getting here and marrying one of these lovely women and making a life with her is a very rare event for western men. This country could swallow up to 5 or 10 thousand English teachers and not even sigh. There are 13 million students [in each grade] enrolled in junior and senior high school for grades 8 through 12 in Fujian province alone. Out west there is a fairly new city called [it’s not new but it is prominent due to its size] called Chongqing it has a population of 30 million! Two cities like that is the total population of the UK. And it is organized and it works in some sort of chaotic rhythm the Chinese have mastered. They can’t dance but by God give ‘em a chance and they’ll start to boogie and then we should be really worried. Their construction industry dwarfs anything I have seen any where in the world! Almost every tower crane in the world must be here! Last year the Chinese bought 18 million new cars NOT second hand cars but new cars! Shit, if our car industry in the UK sells 180,000 new in one year they are dancing jigs! This is the New Jerusalem. Brits will know what I mean by that. I just wish the land were a wee bit greener and pleasant….
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Neal
Poole, United Kingdom
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