MAIS Summer 2008
Wow, seven weeks of learning! (Especially intense, since I hopped out of finals, just to go back to class the following weekend.)
I took three courses within seven weeks; one was research-based, another was about the Chinese culture, from history of olden times to the ways one should interact in the present culture, and the last class taught us a bit more about business in China. In addition, there were seminars to help prepare the English teachers for teaching and living in China. The majority of Chinese students and I waived the Chinese beginner's language course.
The three main themes in Chinese culture are:
1) Guanxi - know the right people to get to the right places.
2) Face - never publicly embarrass anyone by giving people a "no" answer. Instead, make excuses if you really cannot make it (in other words, beat around the bush).
3) Face value means more than true value - as evidenced by the Chinese's want of diplomas (instead of transcripts) and Chinese people highly-valuing foreigners, based on looks and their 'foreign' background (even though American-born Chinese have a similar background).
4) Contracts don't mean a thing - it's thought of as a piece of paper that does not bind you and the other party by law. Be careful - some of them are empty promises.
Although I know of the Chinese culture, it did not occur to me that such themes were a large part of Chinese business. I think I'm adequately prepared to face my people, ha.
Also, after all these work-visa pains (other people were rejected because of the strict Olympics rules), I have finally found a job to teach English in Hangzhou. My application is being processed right now and I should be able to go to China in a month.
My classmates were generally really open and friendly. I enjoyed their company very much, but I'm a bit sad that we'll all be separated. Only two of my classmates will be joining me in my mission to teach university students English.
My professors were very knowledgeable, but it seemed most of them did not structure the classes very much. After all, it is difficult to use up ALL the time in an 8-hour day and continue being productive with short breaks. I felt that the research and business classes were reviews of what I've learned in my undergraduate studies, but the cultural class was mentally stimulating, due to the cornucopia of information that flooded my brain (China's long history yields many dynasties, as you may be aware) and the interactive skits.
Now, here are some incidents/paraphrased quotes that amused me:
1) The professor was demonstrating a survey to us by filling out an El Pollo Loco survey (to get $1 off his next meal). It asked, "Why haven't you tried El Pollo Chicken Sandwich?" The professor wrote, "I am a professor demonstrating a Powerpoint in class...it is fascinating." Hilarious.
2) My classmate A.W. was talking about guanxi and some incidents he experienced. He noted that people won't help you unless they know you. He needed some tools from a store, but they did not assist him until they got to know him as a community teacher. Thus, he also said he did not take advantage of guanxi and very rarely did "...flex [his] guanxi..." for evil purposes.
3) Randomly, the research professor once said, out of nowhere, "Have you ever looked at the word 'the' long enough that it looks stupid?"
4) The research professor was doing some examples in class regarding the tones and emotions one could pick up from dialogue. For one example, he stated that "both the names could be used in an ambidextrous way..." and some of my classmates corrected him with the word "androgynous," you know, the word meaning unisex.
5) A.W. has lived in China for a long time, but when he first got there, he wanted to ask something and said "亲吻" qin1wen2, instead of "请问" qing3wen4. The former means "kiss," while the second means, "Please ask." He had said the "kiss" phrase to a random woman, who took it offensively and stormed off. The second time he accidentally said "kiss," the random elderly lady smiled.
6) The research professor was talking about this gothic culture study and somehow said, "...testament of S&M...er, us & them." Freudian slip! LOL.
7) The other day, we played Jeopardy. M.W. wrote the Chinese numbers for 1-5 on the board. One of our classmates, C.S., asked, "What IS all that?!" The Chinese students shouted incredulously, "That's Chinese!!!" Apparently, the non-Chinese speakers thought that everything in China is in pinyin.
8) I don't remember the context for this quote, but one of our business professors (R.P.) said, "Na na na na...you can't fool Google!!"
I hope everyone has a safe trip to China. I look forward to hanging out with everyone (and especially singing karaoke).
I took three courses within seven weeks; one was research-based, another was about the Chinese culture, from history of olden times to the ways one should interact in the present culture, and the last class taught us a bit more about business in China. In addition, there were seminars to help prepare the English teachers for teaching and living in China. The majority of Chinese students and I waived the Chinese beginner's language course.
The three main themes in Chinese culture are:
1) Guanxi - know the right people to get to the right places.
2) Face - never publicly embarrass anyone by giving people a "no" answer. Instead, make excuses if you really cannot make it (in other words, beat around the bush).
3) Face value means more than true value - as evidenced by the Chinese's want of diplomas (instead of transcripts) and Chinese people highly-valuing foreigners, based on looks and their 'foreign' background (even though American-born Chinese have a similar background).
4) Contracts don't mean a thing - it's thought of as a piece of paper that does not bind you and the other party by law. Be careful - some of them are empty promises.
Although I know of the Chinese culture, it did not occur to me that such themes were a large part of Chinese business. I think I'm adequately prepared to face my people, ha.
Also, after all these work-visa pains (other people were rejected because of the strict Olympics rules), I have finally found a job to teach English in Hangzhou. My application is being processed right now and I should be able to go to China in a month.
My classmates were generally really open and friendly. I enjoyed their company very much, but I'm a bit sad that we'll all be separated. Only two of my classmates will be joining me in my mission to teach university students English.
My professors were very knowledgeable, but it seemed most of them did not structure the classes very much. After all, it is difficult to use up ALL the time in an 8-hour day and continue being productive with short breaks. I felt that the research and business classes were reviews of what I've learned in my undergraduate studies, but the cultural class was mentally stimulating, due to the cornucopia of information that flooded my brain (China's long history yields many dynasties, as you may be aware) and the interactive skits.
Now, here are some incidents/paraphrased quotes that amused me:
1) The professor was demonstrating a survey to us by filling out an El Pollo Loco survey (to get $1 off his next meal). It asked, "Why haven't you tried El Pollo Chicken Sandwich?" The professor wrote, "I am a professor demonstrating a Powerpoint in class...it is fascinating." Hilarious.
2) My classmate A.W. was talking about guanxi and some incidents he experienced. He noted that people won't help you unless they know you. He needed some tools from a store, but they did not assist him until they got to know him as a community teacher. Thus, he also said he did not take advantage of guanxi and very rarely did "...flex [his] guanxi..." for evil purposes.
3) Randomly, the research professor once said, out of nowhere, "Have you ever looked at the word 'the' long enough that it looks stupid?"
4) The research professor was doing some examples in class regarding the tones and emotions one could pick up from dialogue. For one example, he stated that "both the names could be used in an ambidextrous way..." and some of my classmates corrected him with the word "androgynous," you know, the word meaning unisex.
5) A.W. has lived in China for a long time, but when he first got there, he wanted to ask something and said "亲吻" qin1wen2, instead of "请问" qing3wen4. The former means "kiss," while the second means, "Please ask." He had said the "kiss" phrase to a random woman, who took it offensively and stormed off. The second time he accidentally said "kiss," the random elderly lady smiled.
6) The research professor was talking about this gothic culture study and somehow said, "...testament of S&M...er, us & them." Freudian slip! LOL.
7) The other day, we played Jeopardy. M.W. wrote the Chinese numbers for 1-5 on the board. One of our classmates, C.S., asked, "What IS all that?!" The Chinese students shouted incredulously, "That's Chinese!!!" Apparently, the non-Chinese speakers thought that everything in China is in pinyin.
8) I don't remember the context for this quote, but one of our business professors (R.P.) said, "Na na na na...you can't fool Google!!"
I hope everyone has a safe trip to China. I look forward to hanging out with everyone (and especially singing karaoke).
Comments