Chinese Habits that I kind of possibly maybe hate with every cell in my body

It is obvious that there are going to be many cultural differences and social habits that are different from the United States and China.  What might not be as obvious is how… not pleasing some of those habits can be.  This post is all about the non-awesomeness of some socially acceptable habits that would get you flogged in America.

Spitting.

People spit in America.  People hawk up loogies like it’s their job in China.  When people spit in America, they are subtle about it and will usually spit on the grass and always away from other people.  In China, people will spend up to 10 seconds hawking up a massive loogie and then spit it wherever they feel like.  When you walk down the sidewalk, you have to watch the ground to make sure you don’t step in spit.

Now I’m sure you are all reading this and picturing some random guy who is probably not very well off in China walking down the street and spitting.  This is not the case.  Everyone spits in China.  Little Kids.  Old Ladies.  Businessmen in suits.  Taxi drivers (they will hawk up a loogie and then open the door and spit it out).  This is one habit I:

    1.     Will not adopt

2.     Can’t stand

And 3.  Makes me miss America.

Sh*tting.  Pissing.

When we in America need to do our business, we find a bathroom, and handle the problem.  Babies have diapers and those diapers get changed in the private confines of a bathroom.

NOT IN CHINA.

In China the concept of a diaper has just not caught on for a significant amount of the population.  While adults may not poo and pee in the streets, little kids pick the burden of defiling the ground.  Little kids often wear pants that are slit in the front and back so that when it is ‘time’ they can just squat.  Now, you may say “As gross as that is, at least the little kids will drop their deuces in the woods or pee on a tree.” 

No.

The kids relieve themselves wherever they see fit.  The Sidewalk.  Trashcans.  Cultural Relics. 

I can’t talk about this anymore.  It’s making me sick.

 

Not Queuing Up.

Chinese people have a strong aversion to lines.  When you go to by food, when you go to buy a ticket to visit the summer palace, when you try and get into a cab, when you are trying to get into a taxi, when you try to just about anything, someone will cut you off and take your spot.  It’s terrible.  Most times, the people who but you in line will look at you as if to dare you to do something about it.  Being a foreigner, I usually just let it slide because I don’t want to get into a fight with someone because my Chinese language skills are not good enough to yell at someone (though I do know some decent curse words).  Other times I just can’t take it anymore and will just elbow/push the person behind me and stare right back at them daring to do something about it.  It is gratifying reclaiming my spot in line.  Very gratifying.

 

I’ll see you all in a few months when I return to the United Awesome States of America.

 

PS- Boston University hockey blows.

我非常喜欢北京

So I have been living in Beijing for about two months and I think it’s about time I updated you all on where I have been.

I have actually not been to that many places because I have been so busy with classes and generally being lazy, but I have been to a few pretty cool sites.

I have gone to the Forbidden City, the Temple of Heaven, the Silk Market, and Zhongguancun.  Each of those places were awesome in their own way; however, I’m going to tell you right now that the Silk Market is quite possibly the worst place on the entire planet.

The Forbidden City (故宫) is probably the coolest place that I have been since being in China.  There is so much history there along with a lot of traditional Chinese architecture.  It seemed as if every building that I walked into had some kind of Throne that people were all gathered around.  The Forbidden City also had what was probably the highlight of my trip so far: The Mountain of Accumulated Elegance.  It is not really a mountain as it is a large natural stone edifice, but it is still really cool.  The Chinese do a lot of really weird things (that I’ll talk about in my next post), but one thing that the Chinese do VERY well is naming things.  When you look at a sign and realize you are about to see a Mountain of Accumulated Elegance, you know that whatever that mountain is, it’s going to be amazing.

The Temple of Heaven was another traditional Chinese historic place that was split into three sections in addition to having a very large park.  The literal translation of The Temple of Heaven from Chinese to English is ‘The Sky Temple’ and that is because Chinese people do not believe in Heaven.  (Chinese fun fact, instead of saying “Oh my God!” Chinese people say “Oh My Sky!”)  The highlight of the temple of heaven was standing on a rock.  That may sound really lame.  History Time: Back in the olden-days, only the Emperor was allowed to stand on this certain rock and everyone had to listen to him when he was on that rock.  I stood on that rock.  I’m not clear on the whole process, but I’m fairly confident that I am now a Chinese Emperor.  I’ll be sure to let you all know how that turns out.

The Silk Market is where you go if you want to by fake clothes, shoes, watches, games, and just about anything fake that you would ever want other than computers and cell phones.  I needed to go buy a pair of dress shoes because I didn’t bring any and there were probably about 30-40 stores where I could have bought the shoes.  I went up to the first store I walked to, picked out a pair of shoes, tried them on, they fit, and so I began to negotiate.  Negotiating should be a fairly simple process of exchanging desired prices until a mutual agreement can be reached.  Not in China.  The first price I was given was 1,850 Yuan (over 340 US Dollars).  I responded by saying 100 Yuan.  That’s when things got interesting.  The more I talked with the store owners and talked about price, the more physical they got with me and they were refusing to allow me to leave the store.  I got pretty mad (I like my personal space) and so I was finally able to shove the owners out of the way and leave the store.  As I was walking away they agreed to give me the shoes for 255 Yuan.  I paid, and ran away.  I’m never going back there.   Ever.

Zhongguancun.  You probably have no idea what this is.  It is actually a street; however, on this street is where you buy everything that needs electricity.  Everything sold there is fake.  If I were to use one word to describe Zhongguancun in one word, that word would be Heaven.  This place is amazing.  It has tons of cell phones, computers, Playstations, Xboxes, and just about everything that I could ever want to buy.  If anyone wants me to get them a fake iPhone while I’m here, let me know.

That’s all for now, but I’ll be sure to post again soon!

 

我爱美国！

我的学校很意思！

So it has been way too long since my last blog post.  I’m going to try and have a post at least once a week form now on so keep you all up-to-date on my China travels (or lack thereof).

This post is going to be all about classes and school because, after all, that is why I am in China.  Do you remember how in my last blog post how I said that I had finalized my classes? If not, go check.  Good? Ok.  I lied.  My classes were not finalized then.

My classes are now:

1. Marketing Research (MBA)
2. Human Resource Management (MBA)
3. Doing Business In China (Undergrad)
4. Service Marketing (Undergrad)
5. Primary Business Chinese (MBA)
6. Consumer Behavior (MBA)

In addition to those classes I am also doing an independent study of Chinese 202.  That is being run through Miami because I need to get credit for CHI202 this semester but there was no equivalent class at PKU.

I’m sure some of you are wondering: “Why is Daniel taking so many classes?  Doesn’t he want to explore China and stuff while he is there?”  You would be right.  I do want to explore China.  And there is so much to see in the Beijing area alone (more on that in a later post).  However, of the classes listed above, 1, 2, and 3 end after the 10^th week of the semester, and 4 and 6 end after the 12^th week of the semester.  That leaves me a decent amount (read: over a month of 6 day weekends) of time to go and travel around China.

The MBA classes that I am in are actually easier than the Undergraduate classes.  My Marketing Research professor went to school at UIUC (small world).  Him and me had a pretty good talk about Illinois, which was pretty awesome.  My HRM class is quite possibly the most boring class known to man (closely followed by Doing Business in China).  My Service Marketing Professor… How to describe him?  The only way I can describe him is that he is The Man.  He blatantly favors foreign students, loves America, and spends class time occasionally recommending restaurants and talking about how the service industry (Restaurants, Airlines, etc.) in China sucks compared to the service industry in America.  The only downside to the Service Marketing class is that there is so much homework that I really just don’t want to do.

Because of my Chinese Minor at Miami, I should be taking the class Chinese 202 right now.  The only Chinese language class I can take here though is Primary Business Chinese, and that is for people who have NEVER studied Chinese.  So after berating Miami’s administration for months, I finally got an independent study of Chinese 202 approved so I can make progress on my minor while abroad.  My advisor for that is actually my PBC teacher.  My PBC teacher thinks I know so much Chinese and thinks I’m a genius because my Chinese is so much better than the rest of the class (no one else in the class has studied Chinese before, I’ve taken 2 years- it’s not really a fair comparison) and I’m not bothering to correct her. 

My Consumer Behavior class is just weird.  I’ll admit that the teacher is good looking.  But some of the Chinese students are just plain weird (read: messed up) about having a good-looking teacher.  One of the exchange students in my class was talking to a Chinese student in the class and according to the exchange student the dialogue went like this:

 

Exchange Student:  I’m really glad I got into this class.

Chinese Student:  I know.  She’s really beautiful isn’t she?

Exchange Student: (with blank stare) Not what I meant.

Chinese Student:  (Pulls out camera phone and takes picture of teacher)

Exchange Student:  (Goes to find new seat)

 

Overall, the classes are pretty easy.  The worst part is just having class on Sunday nights.  That is probably the worst part about being in China.  I’ll be sure to post updates more often- I am going to try and make my next post about general travellings around Beijing.  Beijing is a pretty awesome city and while it is very different from dinky little Oxford, Ohio, it is still a very exciting city with a lot more to do than Ohio.

 

再见!

The First Two Weeks

Sorry it has been so long since my last post, but I have been busy China-ing around since I have been in Beijing.

I have finally gotten settled in Beijing and as of right now I love it.  It is taking me a very long time to get used to the time change and this has caused me to go to bed at 5 PM and wake up at 8 AM randomly.  I really should try and get a normal sleep schedule; however, it is so hard to get on a normal schedule when there is just so much to see and do around China.

I’ll start by talking about actually being in school again.  After a two-month hiatus from all things school, it is taking me a while to get adjusted to having work and projects again.  I had a lot of trouble registering for classes because class times were changing and classes were closing and being cancelled and overall it was a huge mess.  In the end I have registered and am taking Marketing Research, Human Resource Management, Doing Business in China, Service Marketing, and a Chinese language class.  I have heard that the classes I am taking here will be fairly easy but such has not been the case in my first week of class.

I have not gotten a real chance to travel around the city a lot but I have seen some really cool things.  However, the thing I enjoy the most is meeting people from all over the world and listening to their stories.  I have met Israelis, French people, German people, Australian rugby hooligans, British backpackers, a Dutch man who works in a catering firm in Shanghai, a man from America who is fluent in Chinese and teaches kungfu in addition to being a translator and student, and many other random people that are a lot of fun to talk to.  Perhaps the craziest person I met was a Chinese magician who supposedly studied under David Blaine.

The biggest adjustment for me has been trying to communicate with people.  One would think that after taking a couple of years of Chinese in America that my Chinese would at least allow me to order food and get around the city?  My Chinese language skills are proving to be… less than awesome.  I am relying on my roommate and other people I meet to speak for me; however, I am beginning to understand more and am becoming more comfortable with speaking (I can now direct a cab to take me home even though I don’t know my address).

As I had stated in an earlier post, I am not the most adventurous eater.  That has changed.  Since being here I have eaten: Donkey, Cow Tail, lots of lamb, yak (including Yak jerky), eggplant dumplings, meat-on-a-stick, and even shrimp that had the head, skin, and legs still attached.  Most of the food (including the donkey) has been amazing and I can’t wait to continue trying more of the food.

 

I’ll post more random stories that I have in later posts but suffice to say that China is way different than America, but is still the coolest place I have ever been to.

Takin’ Care of International Business (ft. Me)

OK, so I’m going to tell you all right off the bat that the only reason that I am writing this blog is to get credit for school; however, this blog is still going to be awesome. 

Daniel’s Rule One of Blogging: Every post must include the word awesome. 

So I have begun to plan my upcoming trip to China and I must say, there is a lot to do.  Here is a list of the things I have done to prepare:

1. Buy a plane ticket.

That’s about all I have planned at this point.  Here is a list of things that I have yet to accomplish:

1. Get a visa
2. Find a place to live
3. Enroll in classes
4. Pack

Needless to say I have a bit left to do, but that doesn’t mean I have been totally unproductive in getting ready for my trip.

My parents are about to stroke out because of Everything China (at one point my Dad, who speaks NO Mandarin, said he was going to fly over with me to help finalize everything).  I am looking forward to this trip though with cautious optimism.  I’ll be the first to admit that I am not the most adventurous eater (my Mom is convinced I’m going to try and live off of peanut-butter sandwiches) but I am still excited to try some of the more… interesting cuisine.  I maintain that by the time I return to the States, I will have eaten Dog, Snake, and Scorpions (and if I can fit it in, one or two sea horses). 

 Well, I need to get back to figuring out all the stuff I have left to do.  

I leave you with this picture:

I REALLY hope they don't eat babies over there...