By Kyle Goodall
Special to The Review
It’s a normal day in Beijing. The zhiliao are buzzing, mom’s prepared a large breakfast, and we’re getting ready to scale the Xiang Shan Mountains.
Perhaps most people don’t start their weekend with a casual climb to the top of a mountain, but my host family is very generous about taking me on trips to famous sites around Beijing.
Contrary to what some believe, I am not on vacation. During the week I attend class at the experimental high school attached to Beijing’s Normal University.
Going to school and back on my own was difficult, but after a few days of crowded bus rides and hectic subway stations, public transportation in China isn’t so scary.
What you know of China’s population is probably true. Sometimes there are so many people on the bus that it’s better to open the windows to the 90 degree weather than to endure the body heat of everyone else!
Adjusting to Chinese life has not been too difficult. The overpopulation was a shocker, but the culture is fascinating.
I have a mom, a dad, and one younger brother, ‘Dou Dou,? his nickname. We live in an apartment in the Fengtai district of Beijing. My dad works as an accountant and my mom works at a hospital as a pharmacist.
Dou Dou, 12, just got back from basketball camp. Though he is shy, we’ve become great friends. My host father told me that Chinese children tend to lack confidence in themselves, so socializing can be very difficult for them. What better way for Dou Dou to climb over that mountain than to literally climb to the top of the mountain with me? He opened up a lot on our trip to Xiang Shan, and even more today on our trip to the ruins of Yuan Ming Yuan.
The Chinese are very modest people and very quick to compliment their guests. A custom that’s baffled me, though, is their tendency to avoid saying ‘no.?
In America, we feel comfortable telling people the rules of our home, but in China it’s different.
When you are a guest in a Chinese family’s home, they like to overfeed you and give you the best to show their respect.
Also, when you do something that they don’t like, they won’t tell you. It’s another way of showing a guest their respect. Even though I told my mom and dad to inform me if I behave incorrectly, I cannot know for sure if they were agreeing to my request because I’m their guest or because they’re willing to call me out.
It’s not all that hard to figure out their expectations though. They’ll drop little hints for you here and there. You just have to be keen to pick up their clues.
Though after just three days I was able to understand most of what people were saying, I still have trouble thoroughly responding.
I will never forget my first morning in Beijing. Mom and I were eating breakfast, and we hit our first language block. My mom cannot speak English, and my Chinese is very limited, so when either of us ask ‘shenme yisi?? (‘what does that mean??), we have to play charades Chinese style. We were having a conversation about Chinese vs. American life, and she was saying something about China’s geography.
‘Zai Beijing women you Bu tong de fang yan,? she’d say.
I didn’t understand her. ?’Fang yan? shenme yisi??
After 20 minutes of playing the guessing game, I finally figured out that ‘fang yan? meant ‘dialect.? It was a really cool connection we had because we established our way of understanding one another.
For more pictures and updates on my stay overseas, please visit me www.kgoodsinchina.blogspot.com.
Zai jian!