"Chinese Corner" in Dublni!

I'd heard about a Chinese Meetup in Dublin from a friend of mine, so I went along last Thursday. Basically, it's like “English Corner” in China: people who are learning the language can go to a place and practise the language with learners and native speakers. Been to many of them in China (English corners that is), some interesting, most not (more because of the lack of interesting conversation than language skill).

So, without any expectations, I hit off for Ron Black's pub in Dublin. I was surprised that there were so many Chinese people there, including one Chinese teacher who teaches in Trinity. I really enjoyed it cos I love speaking Chinese and it had been a long time since I actually spoke so much Chinese. It was like the flood-gates opened and out it came. Sort of like the time when I met an Irish guy in Dalian. I hadn't talked to another Irish person in weeks and it was so relieving to just be able to speak naturally instead of having to force myself into speaking “standard” English, to be sure, begorra.

The Irish people I met there had only learned a little Irish and I think they were a bit shy to try out their Chinese. That's the Irish for ya.

I hope these meetups continue. They are useful in a few ways: the obvious being to help people who are learning Chinese. However, they also give an opportunity for Chinese and Irish people to mix, which doesn't happen much.

I only with there way a 四川话 (Sichuan dialect) Meetup!!

images broken

I don't know what's up with the images. I used blogger to put in 2 photos in the previous post. In the past, it showed a smaller version of the image in the blog. Now, I think it's showing full size...

Election Time

The Local and European elections will be held in Ireland tomorrow. As you'd imagine, there are election posters everywhere and people canvasing all over the shop. I haven't been in Ireland during election time in years. What drew my attention was the multi-racial candidates on offer. In the past, all you could see were fat white fellas in crap suits with even dodgier heads on them. Now it's different. Although not foreign, a guy who in the same class as me in primary school is now a TD (member of parliament for our non-Irish readers). His father is Indian and his mother Irish. he's Irish himself and has grown up in the area. Now, we have a number of foreign nationals running for election. Some are independents, howver there are also a few on the tickets of the main parties. I took these pictures on the way to work today:


I don't know how well these guys will do against the locals. I can see 2 reasons why they might not succeed: 1 is that they are not locals so some may feel they might not know much about local affairs or culture. The second reason is good old-fashioned racism. Many won't vote for them simply because of the colour of their skin. We've come a long way but we've still a good distance to go yet.

He Blogs Again

I always seem to start blog posts with a clichéd "long time no blog" line. So no need to do that this time :P

I thought I'd get my ass in gear and write something in my blog. The name of the blog is sort of inapt for where I am now. I came home in August 2008, tried to find some sort of job in Ireland connected with China and/or the Chinese language. It seemed that most of the few jobs available were pretty much looking for native Chinese speaking call-centre people. I also looked for jobs in the IT sector and landed one with a well known American company. I've been doing that since October. I think I am pretty lucky to land a job like that, especially cos Ireland is in the firmly stuck a long way down the shitter in terms of finances and jobs.

I think I found it hard to adjust to Irish life at first: the fact that nobody understood me when I spoke Chinese (actually probably the same as when I was in China), the lack of Sichuan food, the over-indulgence in alcohol, the crappy weather (allegedly Ireland didn't even have a summer in 2008). However on the plus side, there are friends and family, good old Irish food like snack boxes and sausage rolls, and of course, the alcohol!!!

I landed home just before the poo-poo hit the proverbial fan. Then came the Freddie Mac/Frannie Mae (love those names) and the rest of the start of the financial crisis. The news here was just depressing: job loss after job loss, factory closure after factory closure. It was all doom and gloom. Then came the banks, and the drop in retail sales figures and then to top things off the government in all their wisdom slapped on a tax levy and increased VAT. The result of this was a mass exodus of shoppers north of the border, the weakness of Sterling catalysing this phenomenon.

Now it's June. There are not as many factory closures per week as before (maybe there aren't many left to close) but the banks are still in rag order. I don't think we've seen the bottom yet.

Talking to people in China last year, a lot of them didn't really feel the recession pinching. I think that has changed now. I've heard of factory closures and job losses. Their economy isn't growing as fast as before probably hugely affected by the fall in exports. However, they are probably in a better shape than we are in Ireland, cos I don't think their banks were let run loose as they were here. Maybe China will be bailing out Ireland in the same way they are bailing out the US!

There probably hasn't been much of a point/direction in this blog post. But at least it served the purpose of firing up my brain and prompting me to write something!

Finishing Up In China

The 3rd of the camps I taught finished on the 10th of August. There was another camp on the 13th, but they had enough teachers for that. I decided to spend my last few days in China in the place where it all started – Dalian.

Although it was a shame to leave Beijing in the midst of Olympic fever, it was also nice to get away from it all! On arrival, Dalian seemed small and provincial. Well, in fairness, most cities on earth would seem small and provincial when compared to Beijing with its sweeping, wide streets, shining new towers and sheer massive sprawliness.

Seemed like nothing Changed there. I stayed with Jason, one of the lads I used to play music with before. Stayed in the exact same room as I did the year before when I stopped in Dalian on the way from Korea to Chengdu. A few bars and cafes have opened (including the much-touted Brooklyn, whose proprietor is the ever-popular and all-round nice bloke, Wayne Hou) but overall, Dalian is pretty much in the same state in which I left it last year.

Spent a few days catching up with old friends and having a few beers, even taking in a beach party, where I happened to meet a lot of people I knew from my time there. I also bumped into a few people I knew on the street – wow Dalian is small! It’s a good spot, Dalian but I still think Chengdu edges it by a nose. Chengdu would be the perfect spot if they moved it beside the sea!

It was back to Beijing again for a day before I would catch a flight home on the 20th. The new terminal in Beijing airport is yet another impressive jewel in the Beijing crown. It seems a lot brighter, airier and spacious that the other terminals. And it has Burger King!

This time leaving China is different from the previous times. Before, I knew that I would definitely return. This time, although I really want to come back, it is not certain that I can. It will depend on job opportunities.

Olympics

All the waiting is over – ever since I came to China, it has been Olympics, Olympics, Olympics. TV, radio, newspapers, billboards, product labels, clothes, toys, tattoos ... Unless you were living under a really heavy rock, it would have been hard to escape it all! As you would expect, the locals are really hyped about the whole thing!

I was never much of an Olympics fan. I never really watched it unless there was an Irish athlete taking part. I am more of a World Cup fan rather than an Olympics fan. So, because it was on my doorstep this time, I paid more attention. I watched the opening ceremony and was really impressed! Zhang Yimou certainly did an impressive job! I really liked the drummers at the start and the sort of matrix of people who rose and fell to form various pictures and Chinese characters. The performances did give an impressive account of Chinese history and culture. Performances like these are definitely something that China does well. Zhang Yimou allegedly remarked that Western countries couldn’t compete with China in putting on these types of shows because westerners don’t work as hard as Chinese people. He said that westerners wouldn’t work the long hours and unions would demand breaks etc. Well, he’s damn right! I can’t see London putting on as extravagant a show as China has.

Opening ceremony aside, the atmosphere in Beijing is great – and contagious. The Chinese are sport-crazy, eyes are glued to every TV screen! I’ve even watched things like diving and ping-pong, that I’ve never watched before!

The organisers seem to have done a good job and the city is looking very well for the games. A few new subway lines have opened, which greatly improves transport in the city. Since I hadn’t anticipated being in Beijing at the time of the games, I didn’t buy tickets for any of the events. The guy I stayed with in Beijing went to 7 events! Sort of makes me wish I’d bought a ticket for something!


What China has plenty of is people, and all around the city, you could see the familiar blue and white of the Olympic volunteers (above pic): mostly university students whose job it is to help out tourists and participants in the games. On a few occasions, confusing me for a tourist, I was asked if I needed help with something. Fair play to them anyway.

Baotou To Beijing

On July 31st, the 12-day camp in Baotou Number 9 Middle School (its sports field pictured above) finally came to an end. The camp was tiring, due to the early starts and late finishes but the students’ enthusiastic attitude made it worthwhile. They were patient and approached every piece of work with enthusiasm. These students also showed a great deal of creativity, which surprised me greatly. Students I have previously taught were middlingly (yeah, I know it’s not a word) creative but these guys broke new boundaries! Makes the job all the more enjoyable.

After the final day’s teaching, the principal of the school brought us all out to the “Genghis Khan Palace” restaurant for a feast of meat. He also managed to get pretty much everyone drunk – on Baijiu. What started off as a standard Chinese dinner ended up a chaotic booze-fest! Go on ya good thing!

This was the only bit of Mongolian-style culture that we witnessed during our stay. Most of the population of Baotou is, as I mentioned in a previous post, comprised of Han Chinese. I did notice that some street signs and shop signs did have Mongolian script (see below) to pay lip service to the fact that it is Inner Mongolia. Seems similar to the bilingual (English/Irish) signs in Ireland – the fact is that few people in Ireland can actually understand Irish)


Returned to Beijing to find it in the grip of Olympic fever! People were getting geared up for the impending arrival of the Games. We, on the other hand had a day to rest before starting another camp – no Olympics for us, I’m afraid!

Inner Mongolia

I am now in the city of Baotou, Inner Mongolia. Taught a summer camp in Beijing and they offered me one in Inner Mongolia. The money worked out better that way and I thought that going to Inner Mongolia might be interesting, so here I am.

For those who are unaware, Inner Mongolia is a province of China. I expected there to be at least some remnants of Mongolian culture here, but alas no. It's a fairly standard Han Chinese city here. We are teaching in a middle school, 60 students per class and 6 hours teaching a day. It's fairly gruelling cos the classes start at 7:30AM and continue til 11:10, when we go back to the hotel for lunch and siesta until 3PM, when classes start again. We finish at 6:40PM and have dinner at 7:30PM. So, by the time dinner is over, the day is more or less gone! On the other hand, the students are very enthusiastic and eager to ask questions and participate in activities. They are the most creative students I have taught in my 3 year teaching career here. They also seem a lot more in touch with foreign culture. This is all very encouraging.

We finish this camp on July 31st and the plan is to return to Beijing and teach another camp. I have a ticket to Ireland booked for the 20th of August.

Well, no rest for the wicked: must have a look and see what I will teach tomorrow.