So we had a cultural excursion to Beijing, Luoyang, and Xi'an last week, and it was quite a fantastic experience. Trying new foods, engaging in a different aspect of culture, delving deep into 5000 years of history, trying兒 to 兒 figure 兒out 兒what 兒everyone 兒is 兒saying 兒 in兒 Bei兒jing兒 accent兒, it was all vastly beneficial for my understating of Chinese in a possible pursuit of a minor. But the problem, was it was really BAMBAMBAMBAM (or is it du-ddu- du-ddu- du?) the whole programme went by in a flash, that unfortunately, I find it hard to remember what we did each day, as it all melded together.
I could talk about what we did, but you can probably read about 5 other blogs about that, so I'm going to talk about something wholly nerdy for a linguistics major- accents. Our guides had very different accents and different ways of speaking English and Chinese (I swear one of them spoke in an Australian accent), and I wish I had a pencil and paper to write down the consistent issues I found in each one to present them as case studies to my students. I'm really sad that I couldn't teach them anymore English, because their tests are tomorrow (now today whoops), and I wanted to motivate them, so I called a bunch of them to hype them up and told them if they did well I would get them a treat, as well as answered any questions they had about English and remind them of what we have learnt in class, and common mistakes I have realised is a common trend amongst the students.
The biggest challenge I have faced this week is dealing with extroversion; since I am not one, sometimes (especially in China) I don't think making oneself stand out is the best way to go, and rather than impart our Americanisms on the passersby, we should embrace the Chinese concept of cohesiveness with the community, something I think many (including me who blasts music through my headphones on the way to school when NO ONE ELSE DOES THAT) could learn. I am well aware that I am not a very progressive person sometimes (I think the dresses we got for the girls for our performance should go way past the knees :), but sometimes when I say we should be a little more conservative in our actions, and my suggestions are blatantly ignored, I feel disrespected as a person; I have studied Chinese and the culture for a while, and whilst I am no means an expert, I feel I have some knowledge that others lack and from which they could learn- and often people choose not to learn, essentially making me feel like my years learning Chinese were worthless (that was a ridiculously long sentence). I hope this doesn't happen in Guilin, because I can't ask a person to change his or her fundamental operating principles/paradigms, but I don't feel that it has a place in China, ESPECIALLY when we are without a teacher travelling in a new city in a foreign country. I haven't quite figured out how to handle this situation, but I've handled it so far, so I guess just keep trekkin'?
Also, to tie back into the theme, I drank half my coconut milk today (which I HIGHLY ADVISE EVERYONE TO DRINK LITRES OF EVERY DAY) and put it on my nightstand to have after my shower, and then after my shower I brushed my teeth and realised I am a complete simpleton and my memory is some buns/baozi/包子