languages and making sense of it all

So, I was just having a conversation with my roommate Albert about languages of the world. As well as learning more about Chinese culture and trying to make sense of it all. Last night, I was in a cab trying to tell the driver in Chinese where I needed to go. No luck. I sent a text message to my friend to tell me where to go in Pinyin and in Mandarin and I showed it to the cab driver. The cab driver took me in the wrong direction. Then I tried to argue with him in Mandarin. Needless to say, it was not a successful argument. I eventually gave up and just called a friend who knew Chinese to tell the cab driver for me. For those who doesn't know what Pinyin is, it's a system of letters of the alphabet written out for those who can't understand characters. It can be really useful since it gives you a better idea of how to pronounce it. Though many of the letters are pronounced differently. Anyway, after trying to struggle on my Chinese with the cab driver, I became more determined to learn Chinese. I have been taking a Chinese class provided by my school every Wednesday morning.

Talking about the Chinese language is very interesting to me. I have been struggling trying to read Pinyin, but I hear it takes years of practice to learn the pronounciations. There are certain sounds in Mandarin that can be impossible for someone of a Western language to say. But that goes both ways. The Chinese also have difficulty with sounds of some letters or words in English. This is good for me to keep in mind when I teach to my students. I have gotten frustrated when some of my students don't say the words right, but Albert told me that it's not that they aren't trying, it's just that they probably can't make that sound. Also, I learned more about the Japanese language. It has more simple sounds and it's more difficult to learn than the Chinese language. Plus, it is harder for the Japanese to make the sounds in English.

There is also more about the Chinese culture that I'm trying to make sense of. The relationship between a husband and wife in Asia. I have this perception that men are very old fashioned and women are totally submissive to them. I may sound very judgmental, but the way China is progressing in terms of economic and military might; I would think that it's societal norms would progress that way as well. But the dominant husband-submissive wife relationship is the most prevalent in Japan. In China, while that type of relationship is still present, but women are gaining more equality in this generation. I notice a huge difference between the older generations and this generation. Men in China tend to objectify women more than elsewhere in Asia and more similarly to Westerners; but the Chinese women can "take" it better than other Asian women. Chinese women of this generation seem like other Western women in my view; and the older Chinese women act like that they are so much more inferior and subservient to men. I've learned about all of this in my classes at college, but you don't really learn anything until you experience it yourself.

I just find this a little appalling and how different parts of the world are compared to home. Culture shock is everywhere and nothing about the world can be learned in a classroom. I'm really happy that I came out here in China. After being here for more than 6 weeks, I have more of a desire than ever before to see and travel everywhere. I want to go all over China; and I also want to go to India, Thailand, Cambodia, Mongolia and Japan. After I finish teaching, I think I may travel around China and southeast Asia; and then take the Trans-Siberian Railway from Beijing through Mongolia to Moscow. I just have this feeling that I won't be satisfied with teaching English abroad; I need to travel around as much as I can with the money I have to see this part of the world.

Another thing I am trying to make sense of here in China. The drinking age. I have been noticing that I have never seen any kind of ID check anywhere when it comes to alcohol. Albert told me that there isn't a drinking age in China. Even a 10-year-old can buy beer, assuming that he is buying for his parents. I was kind of surprised when I heard that, but not really. The Chinese don't really get wasted here. It's more of a Western kind of thing. However, with the next few years coming and people in Shanghai are getting richer, the younger generation probably will have too much money from their parents and piss it all away on alcohol (and probably drugs soon enough). Drugs are getting more common than ever before in the past few years, due to people earning more money and the more curious younger generation. I wouldn't be surprised that in the next few years, there will be laws enforcing a drinking age. But as of right now, drinking is not a problem in China, hence the no drinking age.