The travels of Justin

Well, I’ve hit the 2-week mark of living in Tianjin and in some ways it’s really beginning to feel like home to me. I even saunter across the busy streets with reckless abandon much like the locals do.

Two of our classmates gratiously brought Ryan and I to Ancient Culture Street and I’ve finally managed to upload the other photos of that trip. It reminded me a bit like Granville Island in Vancouver in the sense that there’s very little that seems ancient about it. I think the significance of the street isn’t entirely clear, but I think the area was the centre of Chinatown while Tianjin was under British colonial rule. The best part of the trip was being explained the significance of every symbol, character, plant, or stone that we came across. In Chinese culture, so many things have special meaning and one can learn a lot just window shopping with people in the know.

Classes are… well… classes, I suppose. Even though I knew that the courses I’d take at TUT are the same TRU curriculum I’d study in Canada, there’s a natural curiousity whether they will really be the same as at home; it was nice to find that in the important respects they really are identical. The differences are superficial, such as the teacher clarifying the meaning of certain English words. Our classes apply the course material in the context of China which puts course concepts into a new historical perspective. I occassionally get small glimpses into how dramtically this country has changed in the last few decades. When I learned some percentage of workers in state-owned enterprises were laid off during past reforms I even let out an audible gasp when the percentage translated to 20 million workers. I think all of Canada is something like 32 million people!

Sometimes it feels like I’m accomplishing very little outside classes, but that statement doesn’t account for the complete experience of being thrust into a new culture and language. We meet new people every day and are always trying new foods. The most adventuous food so far must be pig feet and frog dumplings; I can’t say the feet were special tasting, but the frog was delicious. Its important to have a very open mind when you come here in the way I have. When I look at a menu, for example, I’m starting to recognize the characters for certain types of meat, and I’ll know if something is sliced, but after that it’s all guesswork. I can’t tell you how many times I’ve thrown my finger down on the menu and waited to discover what I’ll be eating. The plus of this is that the food is really fantastic everywhere I go so it almost doesn’t really matter what gets ordered. Even when talking to English speakers I try to speak my numbers in Chinese to improve my comfort level, and I can already see it paying off.

The dining experience is different though. For example, there’s nothing the least bit strange about sending someone eating with you out on a beer run and handing out beers (or any other food or drink) at a restaurant. Ryan didn’t want to seem rude by drinking his noodle soup broth without a spoon (they don’t give spoons in the place we were at), but a wise friend told us: “In China, real men drink from bowls.” So there you have it!

One of our new friends here helped me shop for a cell phone and now I have the most gagety-gadget I think I’ve ever owned. It plays MP3 music, has an organizer, a flashlight (progammed for S.O.S. if necessary), and all the phone features I never knew I needed. The most interesting difference about cell phone shopping here in China is the choosing of the number. Like everything, numbers have special meaning. Some of the younger people don’t really let that define their choice, but the whole concept is important enough to set individual prices for different phone numbers.

This evening, I’ll be hanging out at our “English Corner”. The idea is to have a place to just hang out and speak English with Chinese students. It’s supposed to be a safe place for them to practice speaking and get help with pronounciation. It’s a great concept and I’m looking forward to it. Many of my classmates and people I meet are a little embarassed by their difficulties with English, but I’m continually impressed with their ability to communicate. I can’t wait for the day I can have a simple conversation in Chinese with some of my new friends.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, September 14th, 2005 at 12:14 am and is filed under Tianjin, China. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Responses are currently closed, but you can trackback from your own site.