Former T-N worker adjusts to life in China

To the Editor:

ni hao! I’m sorry it’s taken me so long to reply. John (Smith, news editor) e-mailed me so long ago asking about whether or not I got a teaching assignment. Right after I got that e-mail, I got teaching assignments. Every day of work is a 10-hour day. Much of these days are spent traveling from bus to subway to bus to school. Pretty much every different place I travel to teach is an hour-and-a-half-long trip.

Shanghai is gargantuan. I should have gotten back to you all sooner, but generally after these long days I’m exhausted or occupied and fail to keep in touch. I am also studying Mandarin Chinese outside of work. For a language that sounds so strange, it can be very logical and I really enjoy it. Obviously, it also helps me a great deal in my daily life.

I hope everything at the Times-News is great! I still check on times-news.com on a regular basis. I noticed there is at least one new reporter in the building since I left. I miss working at the paper and I miss having Cumberland, LaVale and Frostburg for a home. When people here ask where I’m from, I always say, “Western Maryland.” Teaching — as you know — requires a lot of work and dedication inside and outside of the classroom. I also miss just being in the loop of a news cycle.

Currently, I teach first-graders. Once a week, I also teach an adult class. A big part of my job as a teacher in China is just being a foreigner. Chinese parents want their kids interacting with foreigners. Regardless, I seem to be making progress improving the broken English that is sometimes spoken by Chinese people (Chinglish). It’s funny seeing typos on everything.

DVDs are cheap here and usually they work fine, but the package is likely to have typos all over it. I’ve even seen typos on billboards. The signage in Shanghai is in Chinese, but often it has English translations of the Chinese characters. For example: Starting in May 2010, Shanghai will begin hosting the World Expo, which is obviously a big deal here. The slogan for the Expo in English is, “Better City, Better Life” (which sounds like the Papa John’s slogan: “Better Ingredients, Better Pizza” — and Papa John’s is a successful chain in Shanghai ...). A power company took the Expo slogan concept because they are a sponsor. They created a huge billboard that says, “Better Electricity, Brillianter Lights.” Even though there are countless English-speakers in Shanghai, the Chinese power company didn’t bother to have the huge billboard design looked over. I guess I can’t argue with the fact that something better than “brilliant” could be called “brillianter” if one didn’t know better.

Chinese people are very different culturally. There is definitely a group-mentality, but the younger generation seems to be embracing individuality more and more. I have a Chinese colleague — English-named John — who speaks great English and is always interested in Western culture. He explained the generation gap in China to me and is always interested in learning about Western culture, unlike many other people here.

The farther away from downtown Shanghai I get, the more people begin staring. I think they are just fascinated by seeing a foreigner. I’ve had people who just want to be in a picture with me. More often than not, though, people are just indifferent and take part in the daily grind like every other human being.