My Hypothetical Certificate in Applied Modern Chinese Studies
Today marks four years since my graduation from the University of California, Berkeley with a Bachelor of Arts in Latin American Studies. This means I’ve spent as much time as a university graduate as I did as a university student. The experiences feel parallel in terms of topical variety and timeframe. I’ve spent three of the past four years in China and one in California; I spent three of my college years in Berkeley and one particularly fabulous(!) year in Chile. To reflect on what I’ve learned over the past four years, I hereby grant myself a hypothetical certificate in “Applied Modern Chinese Studies.”
A photo from my first week in Jiaxing, in the convenience store across the street from the university.
Looking back at the lessons I’ve learned and the ways I’ve learned them, I propose the following course outline for this certificate:
Applied Chinese Language (3 years):
- Modules include casual chats with vegetable vendors and train travelmates; more than a year of twice-weekly one-on-one lessons with my wonderful tutor Layla; conversations about Barack Obama and basketball with students and taxi drivers; advanced pantomime and guessing; childrens’ books like 喜羊羊与灰太狼 .
喜羊羊与灰 太狼: that translates to “Pleasant Sheep and Big Big Wolf.” My best purchase today: A book featuring these cute characters, complete with both characters and pinyin. Its title translates to “The Blue Frog Prince” and I got lots of amused stares as I read it aloud with a patient, amused Chinese friend over dinner at one of my favorite vegetarian restaurants. Good times.
Happy New Year! And the Little Boy’s Favorite Toy
It’s nearly Chinese New Year. Here in Beijing there is remarkably little traffic, since many people have gone home for the holiday. The city seems to be taking a deep breath before two straight weeks of fireworks all day and all night.
Image Source: China Daily
I just received an email from someone considering the program that initially brought me to China, and she inspired me to look through my old mass emails. This story particularly cracked me up, so I’m sharing it again here. It’s part of an email I sent April 28, 2007.
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Students say the darndest things! For one of my lessons, I brought in a collection of random household products and toys for my students to advertise, including rubber duckies, a pink toilet plunger, a wooden back massage hammer, and a clay whistle in the shape of the chicken. I instructed each group to name the product, think of four or more unconventional uses for it, imagine its target customers, and put together a creative presentation. Many groups impressed me with their creativity. The duckies became trusted confidants, the pink plunger became a hat for toddlers to wear so their mothers wouldn’t lose sight of them in public places, the back massager became a self-defense weapon for elderly women, etc. I couldn’t help but laugh when one group advertised the chicken-shaped clay whistle. A shy boy explained, “This is small c*ck” (a word undoubtedly chosen with the help of an electronic dictionary). “Little boys think it is very interesting to play with. They play with it all day. Little girls think it is a bit boring….” Ah, I could not stop laughing….
But I also try to tackle some more substantial topics. I discussed the shooting at Virginia Tech with some classes. The Chinese are not allowed to own guns, and a large percentage of my students blamed this tragedy on insufficiently strict laws. They were horribly embarrassed by early news reports saying the shooter was Chinese. National pride runs deep here, as does the need to present a positive public image. However, a similar tragedy occurred at a Chinese university a few years ago, when a student stabbed his sleeping roommates. I guess that empathy and evil exist everywhere. All I can say is “rest in peace” and “seize the day.”
How I’ve Untemplated my Career in China
I contributed this article to Untemplater, a new website whose motto is “Work where you want, live how you want, be who you want to be.” Those that know me know my China story pretty well, but it’s always fun to share my experiences with a broader crowd.
My degree is in Latin American Studies. Even if there were a template called, “How to Use Your Latin American Studies Major,” I seriously doubt it would include moving to China. I’d never been to Asia, never studied Chinese, and never even taken a class about China. This rather random choice has brought me opportunities I’d never envisioned.
Here’s a short version of my China story.
A few days after my graduation from Berkeley in May 2006, I thumbed through my well-worn copy of Delaying the Real World – an inspiring and practical book that should be on every adventurous twenty-something’s desk – and looked up just about every international opportunity listed.
Read the rest at Untemplater. Great comments too!
Creativity in the Context of Chinese Legal Work
I’ve cross-posted this article from Beijing Corporate Training, the blog I just started for my company. I’m featuring it here because I think it definitely relates to the idea of China’s many stories, and I’m curious to hear comments from a different crowd. Enjoy!
I just had a fascinating conversation with one of my students, an attorney at a leading intellectual property law firm. We read “Fright Bulb: How to Crush Your Last Shard of Creativity,” the editor’s letter from the December 2009 issue of Psychology Today. [The article doesn't appear to be online. I teach him and his colleagues advanced, industry-specific, one-on-one English lessons.]
This note from editor Kaja Perina (yes, that’s her picture, from Psychology Today) begins:
For some people, there is no greater buzzkill than the chirpy imperative, “Be creative!” These words are especially irksome when accompanied by the clicking of a stopwatch or the knowledge that the speaker himself cannot solve the problem in question. The idea of creativity on demand can intimidate — or at least irritate — an otherwise innovative brain.
My student found this paragraph tricky for several reasons. He first noticed the unfamiliar colloquiallisms in the first few lines: “buzzkill,” “chirpy,” “irksome.” Once we tackled this vocabulary, the underlying sentiment surprised him more.
He kept saying, “I’m not creative.” In his work, it is rare for anyone to make “Be creative” a chirpy imperative. Legal work depends on both established procedures and clients’ expectations, and it would be quite odd for a manager to insist on explicitly creative output.
Also, he mentioned that a Chinese manager would lose face if he admitted that he “himself cannot solve the problem in question.” In the rare circumstance that he would communicate such a thing, he would do so in a roundabout way that would both maintain his dignity and imply the desire for assistance.
more »
Greetings from Beer Town, China!
From an email sent to friends and family, dated October 11, 2006, less than two months after my arrival in China.
With one of my many Chinese teachers, on a trip I took to a coastal landmark called Chengshantou with a Chinese tour group. I couldn’t understand the guide’s endless descriptions, which she said through a megaphone, but I did understand her when she spoke directly to me, since she asked very simple questions.
I just got back from an exhilarating trip to Qingdao (which was spelled Tsingtao in an older transliteration system, and that spelling stuck for the beer.) I had a week off for the National Day and Mid-Autumn Festival Holidays. I think that traveling alone is the absolute best way to pick up a language. With few English speakers around, I had to strike up conversations in Chinese, at a level that surprised and impressed the locals (and myself.)
Now, when people ask me, “Do you like Bush?” I understand the question, and can respond, “No, I don’t like Bush.” I don’t quite have the vocabulary to give a good reason, but it is a start. It is somewhat of a relief to be in a country where people are not accustomed to asking “why.” More commonly I get asked, “Do you like China?” and “Do you like basketball?” And those are much easier to answer with gestures and a limited vocabulary. more »
