Back in Brisbane
I arrived back in Brisbane on Thursday afternoon. It's hard to believe my China adventure is over after all that build up! I had twelve hours in Hong Kong before my flight back to Brisbane on Wednesday night, and I was determined not to spend them in the airport, but in having a last look around Hong Kong, which I love. I also had some last minute dvd/book shopping to do. I arrived at the airport after a thankfully uneventful early morning flight - it was funny at the beginning though, I stopped at the row which I thought my seat was in and said to the man sitting in the seat next to mine, in Mandarin (he had lots of luggage in front of him so there was no way I could pass him) 'I'm sorry, sir, that's my seat over there, could you please let me get through?' He looked Chinese, hence my speaking in Mandarin ;) He looked completely baffled. At the time I put the bafflement down to misunderstanding because of my crappy Mandarin ;) Later I heard the attendants speaking to him *in English*. This was a reminder to me that I was doing what I criticized the Chinese for doing - i.e. speaking a particular language based on race - Chinese in his case, and the Chinese speaking English to me in my case. As it turns out, and as the flight attendant who was listening to our conversation (and clearly understood my Mandarin) told me, I was in the next row.
I wonder what it is like for people of Asian background in China who don't speak Mandarin. I can only imagine it must be extremely difficult as the Chinese assume anyone with an Asian face speaks Mandarin fluently. When I was checking out of my hotel, I had two receptionists helping me - both speaking in English, and when I said in Chinese, 'You know, you can speak Chinese to me', one of them looked horrified and said (ironically enough, in Chinese!) 'We speak Chinese to each other, NOT with you'. Although the other receptionist did then switch to Chinese.
*is temporarily distracted by beautiful rainbow in stormy sky* It's nice to be back in place where bleak grey skies mean rain, not pollution!
I think one of the things that will get to me regularly when I'm living in Beijing (which is still the plan once ye olde thesis is completed!) will be the refusal of some people to speak to me in Chinese. I know my Chinese is crap but it's frustrating that they won't help me improve it by speaking it to me. Whereas if I looked Asian I'd get rapid-fire Mandarin the whole time. Last year when I bought a mobile phone in Beijing, I went with a friend who was American Chinese. The attendants said *to her* "You have to tell your friend about X,Y and Z to do with the phone" assuming that I wouldn't understand - even though her Mandarin was no better than mine. Then last week when I was getting a taxi from the airport, the driver asked the attendant where I was going instead of asking me and I snapped 'To Wudaokou'. As it turns out he was a nice taxi driver and we had a good chat on the way there.
I understand totally why, at least initially, they won't speak Chinese to me - but surely when I speak Chinese to them, they could make the switch to speaking in Chinese?? To be fair, some people do. It's just the ones who refuse to that get to me a bit.
I think life in Beijing for a former classmate of mine must be difficult - he's white, has blonde hair, and speaks perfect Mandarin - but his wife is Singaporean Chinese and can't speak a word of the language (although she is learning, apparently). People would of course always assume he wouldn't speak Mandarin and that she could. Sadly I didn't get to see him while I was there - I emailed him but had no response until I came back here - apparently my email got lost amongst hundreds of messages and he only read it after I had left Beijing *sigh*. I also didn't get to see a former Beijing Language and Culture University teacher of mine. She's quite ill and is about to have an operation so needs lots of rest before hand. I hope she will be OK. She was my favourite teacher at BLCU and I have a lot of time for her both as a teacher and as a person. We'll stay in touch over email though, and she was thrilled when I said I'd be coming back to Beijing to work.
My choir, the Queensland University Musical Society is having a concert tonight. I should go - I made it to the first round of rehearsals but won't be performing since I've missed approximately ten thousand other rehearsals in the last month.
Since I got back, I've been doing a tonne of housework and a fair bit of sleeping! By 3pm on Thursday, I realized that I hadn't slept for 36 hours, so I went out to it for a few hours. I tried desperately to sleep on the plane - I thought two glasses of red wine would do the trick (yay for free alcohol on international flights!) but no luck :( Obviously I should have had a third glass when they asked me! Incidentally, I thoroughly recommend Cathay Pacific as a flight carrier - they were superb and the food was delicious. Yes, you read that right. Airplane food that is really really really good :)
Will update more with what I did in my last few days in China later on. Right now I'd better get ready for this concert!
I wonder what it is like for people of Asian background in China who don't speak Mandarin. I can only imagine it must be extremely difficult as the Chinese assume anyone with an Asian face speaks Mandarin fluently. When I was checking out of my hotel, I had two receptionists helping me - both speaking in English, and when I said in Chinese, 'You know, you can speak Chinese to me', one of them looked horrified and said (ironically enough, in Chinese!) 'We speak Chinese to each other, NOT with you'. Although the other receptionist did then switch to Chinese.
*is temporarily distracted by beautiful rainbow in stormy sky* It's nice to be back in place where bleak grey skies mean rain, not pollution!
I think one of the things that will get to me regularly when I'm living in Beijing (which is still the plan once ye olde thesis is completed!) will be the refusal of some people to speak to me in Chinese. I know my Chinese is crap but it's frustrating that they won't help me improve it by speaking it to me. Whereas if I looked Asian I'd get rapid-fire Mandarin the whole time. Last year when I bought a mobile phone in Beijing, I went with a friend who was American Chinese. The attendants said *to her* "You have to tell your friend about X,Y and Z to do with the phone" assuming that I wouldn't understand - even though her Mandarin was no better than mine. Then last week when I was getting a taxi from the airport, the driver asked the attendant where I was going instead of asking me and I snapped 'To Wudaokou'. As it turns out he was a nice taxi driver and we had a good chat on the way there.
I understand totally why, at least initially, they won't speak Chinese to me - but surely when I speak Chinese to them, they could make the switch to speaking in Chinese?? To be fair, some people do. It's just the ones who refuse to that get to me a bit.
I think life in Beijing for a former classmate of mine must be difficult - he's white, has blonde hair, and speaks perfect Mandarin - but his wife is Singaporean Chinese and can't speak a word of the language (although she is learning, apparently). People would of course always assume he wouldn't speak Mandarin and that she could. Sadly I didn't get to see him while I was there - I emailed him but had no response until I came back here - apparently my email got lost amongst hundreds of messages and he only read it after I had left Beijing *sigh*. I also didn't get to see a former Beijing Language and Culture University teacher of mine. She's quite ill and is about to have an operation so needs lots of rest before hand. I hope she will be OK. She was my favourite teacher at BLCU and I have a lot of time for her both as a teacher and as a person. We'll stay in touch over email though, and she was thrilled when I said I'd be coming back to Beijing to work.
My choir, the Queensland University Musical Society is having a concert tonight. I should go - I made it to the first round of rehearsals but won't be performing since I've missed approximately ten thousand other rehearsals in the last month.
Since I got back, I've been doing a tonne of housework and a fair bit of sleeping! By 3pm on Thursday, I realized that I hadn't slept for 36 hours, so I went out to it for a few hours. I tried desperately to sleep on the plane - I thought two glasses of red wine would do the trick (yay for free alcohol on international flights!) but no luck :( Obviously I should have had a third glass when they asked me! Incidentally, I thoroughly recommend Cathay Pacific as a flight carrier - they were superb and the food was delicious. Yes, you read that right. Airplane food that is really really really good :)
Will update more with what I did in my last few days in China later on. Right now I'd better get ready for this concert!