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Criticizing China
Now, before you go all Hulk Smash on me, I'm not actually going to criticize China... (well, maybe I will, I'm not sure yet)Its more about the Chinese people I have encountered and their own reactions to any type of criticism they may receive. This came to me recently when I was having a class with about 30 students (all adults of varying ages 18-50) and we were discussing the topic of pollution in china. Now obviously this is a topic that has gotten a lot of media attention in the last few years, so the students were well educated on the subject.Which brings me to the problem... While the students know about it, they offered me very few suggestions on how to improve the situation. So I told them a about Disney Land. When Walt Disney opened the park he realised that people were throwing trash on the ground. So he observed them for a while and worked out the average time people were willing to hold onto rubbish, before they eventually threw it on the ground. He worked it out to be around 30 seconds. So he then put rubbish bins all over the park about every 30 seconds walk away from each other. And people were willing to hold onto their rubbish a lot more after this change because they could now see a rubbish bin in sight.After I told the students this story they said what a clever idea it was. I asked them if they think this would work in Changsha, and they said 'yeah of course!'. To which I then reminded them that people in my city throw trash out their car windows on the street, even if they are next to a trash can they sometimes will just lob something on the ground.And all they said to me was "We know, but you shouldn't say it"We know, but you shouldn't say it.... We KNOW, but you SHOULDN'T say it....It took me a few seconds for my brain to digest this, I asked them why I shouldn't say it. They told me that while they know the problem exists there is nothing they can do themselves. Which made me think of the great line, "No snowflake feels responsible in an avalanche". I couldn't understand it. It frustrated me the defeat they felt at something like this. Then they started to get angry with me, saying I was willing to criticize without offering any kind of solution. That I'm not doing anything myself so I had no right to criticize. But I told them I never throw stuff on the ground. The local zoo here looks like a rubbish tip the way people throw rubbish into the animal cages. I looked at the students still in confusion. They again said that I really have no right to criticize China at all. So I responded with "Does that mean you have no right to criticize a movie unless you make a movie yourself? Does that mean you have no right to criticize music unless you make your own album?"I felt like my mother was in the room with me "If you don't have something nice to say, don't say anything at all". Maybe ignorance really is bliss... Perhaps I am being unfair, after all I come from London. I didn't chose to be born there, I just was, and have received benefits that aren't available in china.But I think sometimes just being aware isn't enough, and criticism is needed. My father was strict with me when I was a child and said "sometimes people just need a kick up the ass". Which means some people need negative reinforcement in order to motivate them to change. It really is true that sometimes it takes a disaster in order to create change.For example, if a husband and wife of are driving a car without seatbelts and they have a crash, the wife dies. The seatbelt could have saved her life. You can be damn sure the next time the husband drives he is going to make sure he is wearing his seatbelt. I think all kinds of criticism is welcome. Sometimes constructive and sometimes not. But why shun it? why should you not say it? If criticism can make at least one person think, or give one person the motivation to do something then it was worth it. Sometimes the truth is ugly, but lets hope its just an ugly duckling... it doesn't always have to be that way. If nobody ever criticized anyone then nobody would ever feel the need for change.
Why Chinglish is Wonderful
There is something that often annoys me with teaching English. And that is the demand for perfection from some teachers I have come across. One of the things I always let my students do is talk... talk talk talk talk talk... and nothing frustrates me more when some other teacher butts into the conversation, for no other purpose than to stop them mid flow to correct the verb tense, or for someone using an adjective instead of an adverb. It really drives me crazy.English is such a mongrel language mixed with, and stealing from all other languages of the world. And it is still evolving now. I studied theatre and English literature and had our language not moved on from Shakespeare I cant imagine it being as powerful and popular a language as it is now. I enjoy listening to the students tell me their stories. Yes, I even enjoy listening to their chinglish. Because language is a tool, that's all it is. A tool of communication. Not a sacred text to be left untouched and admired from afar and copied over and over again.I completely understand that my job in its very nature is to help students perfect this language. But how is this to be done? I am from London England. So should I tell the students perhaps, American, Australian, South African, Canadian, Irish or Scottish variants of English are wrong?I doubt it...English is to be adapted, toyed with, played with. That's what makes it so very wonderful.I'm not saying Chinglish should be the end of study, but its a great first step. The easier you find it to communicate in any language the easier you are going to adapt to its natural flexibility.I found a short video about English I hope you can spare some time to watch. It is from one of the great word smiths himself, Mr Stephen Fryhttp://my.tv.sohu.com/us/63331864/62789867.shtml
DIY Sandwich for foreigners.
One of my biggest gripes about china is the lack of sandwiches. Now, I'm not saying this is true for all people in China. I know the larger more popular cities have all kinds of foreign foods. I have been to Hong Kong and Shanghai and was surprised with all the choice of sandwich they have. But unfortunately, Changsha just doesn't have that... choice. So I decided a bit of food DIY (Do It Yourself) was in order.Here is what I made...1)Here are the ingredients I chose, some ham, bacon, butter, mayonnaise, lettuce, red onion, black pepper, butter and Tabasco Sauce (Changsha has given me a need for spicy food)2)Cut your bread along the top and then hollow out the loaf so you are left with a sort of crust bowl.3)Then spread butter inside and go about adding layers of all your selected ingredients.4)Now pop the top part you cut off earlier back on top5)Now wrap your loaf in tinfoil6)Then place something heavy on top of your sandwich and leave for 2-3 hours so it is completely flattend.7)Then eat! you can also toast it or just eat it cold. But it should be huge so you can share it with people or eat it over a few days.A lot of my students said it looked horrible, which i have to agree, it doesn't look pleasing to the eye... but trust me, it tastes so good! Especially if you are like me and never get to eat them. Anyway, this is a nice alternative if you live in a city where you can't buy sandwiches readily available.
fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice...
So I guess I should open my blog with a bang. This is my first ever actual blog... ever... ever ever.I want to share something that happened to me a few months after first arriving in china. This actually happened in 2010 during the summer. I was an innocent 24 year old man who had travelled across the world for some excitement and with the hopes of learning something new. Me and a friend I worked with decided a trip to shanghai would be a great idea. It would be easy to navigate with the subways and I was sure we could find English speakers should we need any help or get lost.We took an overnight train and we got to the hostel and lobbed all our stuff in the room so we could go out exploring. Which we did... in fact, perhaps we did too much exploring. we walked for hours and hours... and hours... and even more hours. But after about 8 hours of walking around we wanted to find a bar and go for a beer.It was now dark and about 9pm. After hopelessly walking around a guy came up to us and offered us a leaflet for a nude girly bar. We of course said no, but then asked him of he knew of any normal bars we could find. He quickly whipped out his phone and dialled a number, he spoke on the phone a few minutes and told us his friends were on the way and could show us a bar.tThen these 2 girls came up and told us they would take us to a bar. So the 4 of us jumped in a taxi. It turned out to be a KTV. which... wasn't so bad, at least we could just have a few beers anyway. The girls ended up staying in the room with us at KTV and we ordered some beers and started drinking and talking. All is going well, and it seemed like a nice end to the day.Then all of a sudden the door swings open and this guy tells us we have to pay the bill. I told him we weren't finished but he insisted we pay it now. I took the bill and it read 5500rmb... I told him there must be a mistake as we only had 8 Bottles of beer and a few glasses of whiskey. But he insisted. Then through the door burst about 4 big guys and demanded we pay and that we couldn't leave until the money was paid. I got out my wallet and showed them I had nowhere near enough to pay this kind of money. Two of the guys then grabbed me and dragged me outside to a bank and took my visa card. They demanded I put in my pin number and show them my account... which I did. I had about 2000rmb in there which they took out and shoved in their pockets.They then proceeded to drag me back into the KTV and ask for the rest of the money. Me and my friend were pretty much out of money, so they then just kicked us out of the KTV into the street. The girls stormed off, looking angry, and then it hit me that they probably worked for the KTV anyway.This was our first night in Shanghai... so the rest of the week we continued how we began... by walking around again... with no money left we walked and walked around the city enjoying as much free entertainment as we could. I actually went back to Shanghai the next year with my brother and we got to the river and I was approached by a girl asking if I wanted to go for a drink. So I turned and I ran as far as I could away. My brother obviously looking at me in complete confusion. I heard this is a regular type of scam in Shanghai, sometimes referred to as the 'Tea House' scam.So that's it... My first ever blog, my first time in Shanghai, my first time to get scammed!Me in Shanghai By The River
