Well, I'm in China. In Wuxi, to be more precise which is west of Shanghai and near the north side of the blue blob of a lake featured on the map to the left.
I'm teaching at the "Jiangsu Institute of Technology," I think (I'm honestly not sure of the name), a learning institution which, for lack of a better term, we'll call a "college." I don't mean to be oblique, it's just that apparently in China universites and colleges are tiered and I'm not yet sure where my employer lies on that totem pole.
I finished my contract in Korea mid-June, flew to London and met up with Joey and Dave, and eventually Dave's friend (and now mine as well) James, and the four of us had a merry time traveling 'round Europe for the following month. Good times were had by all mas o menos, and I returned home to Raleigh a much richer person, at least metaphorically speaking; should we descend to the level of the literal then "rich" is not a word that would have applied to yours truly upon landing at RDU Int'l.
But I found a job and here I am.
China is what it is, having lived in Korea for two years and having visited China twice before I was more or less prepared. My pidgin Korean, pathetic as it was, is sorely missed as I now realize how much easier it was for me to get around the land of the morning calm than here. Korean was also a lot easier to read, because like most civilizations they divined the practicality of a set system of symbols representing sounds which could be combined to form words, an "alphabet" to those of you in the red states, whereas scripted Chinese looks to my untrained eye like a Rorschach test drawn by an epileptic and, of course, does not have an alphabet.
But I'll adapt. I've met some interesting people already, one of my co-teachers claims to be the former Mauritian ambassador to Australia (I say "claims" simply because it's such a fantastic claim that it must either be immediately doubted or accepted as gospel, and among the Disciples Thomas was always my favorite), another is a former German paratrooper. If you'd told me a month ago I'd be sharing drinks with a Mauritian ambassador and a German paratrooper, well, I'd believe you (after all, why would you lie?) but I would also think it sounded interesting. It is. Which is why I do this sort of thing in the first place.
1 comment:
If you're able to put a little effort in the meanings of the characters will start to get clearer.
Of course I had a friend in grad school who spoke excellent Mandarin but couldn't write a thing, so that could work for you too.
He did what you're doing. Taught there for a few years and picked it up.
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