It’s beginning to feel a lot like Christmas… but I’m not writing masses of greeting cards at the moment. I think it is just me that is feeling Christmassy here in Shanghai, but it is helped along by random stores and street music playing Christmas carols – yes, in June.
Jinyang Road, behind our apartment, is a developing commercial area for expats, and to contribute to the ambience there is mostly always some music being played, and frequently this includes instrumental versions of movie and TV theme songs or Christmas carols – when we first arrived here it surprised us, but we just thought that getting organised for Christmas happened early (August) – as it turned out we were wrong, but that’s a whole different story.
But my current Christmas feeling really comes from the Christmas and school year down under. For as long as I can remember, the heralding of warmer weather and lengthening days was one of the indicators that the holiday season was about to kick off. When I was at school, the end of spring meant that we started winding down the academics and spending more time gearing up for the end of year performances, usually with a Christmas theme. When I was at university, the longer days coincided with the end of exams, and the start of the summer drinking sessions outside, and the planning of beachy getaways, usually to someone’s holiday house. When I was at work, the warmer weather meant it was time for catching up with friends, old and new, for “a drink before Christmas”. It always seemed so important to catch up one last time before the start of the new year.
Here in Shanghai, the warmer (read hot, stinky and humid) weather has brought on chats about the upcoming ‘laowai taitai’ (foreign wife) exodus. As a result, the social calendar has filled up as everyone gets ready to say good bye for summer. I have had a traditional Chinese foot massage with a friend who had a baby a week after Jamie, a ladies’ spa day (pedicures, massage and lunch) for the mums from playgroup, we have had dinners with friends, ‘last’ play dates for the kids and constant discussion about who is leaving when, and who’ll be on the same flight, or the next flight, and will we run into you at Pudong airport as we prepare to distribute ourselves across the globe. Prices have even gone up at the Fake Market, as the taitais stock up on gifts for people back home!!
I am glad that my time away is just over 2 weeks away from Mike. A lot of my taitai friends are leaving their husbands here to work through the summer and will be away from them for 6 or more weeks. Oh, the life and holidays of a school teacher! It is a lot for the mums to be sole parent away from home for that length of time, even though most will have their own parents to assist. I think it must be hard to be away from the routine, especially on your own.
I am leaving for Australia on Wednesday, with the kids, we come back for 5 days and then fly to the UK for a month. I am feeling quite nervous about the prospect of flying all the way to Brisbane, with a plane change in Sydney on my own with two, one infant and one tearaway toddler. I think it will be a very long 12 hours. But the light at the end of the tunnel is that I can’t wait for a trip to Coles and Priceline. I can’t wait to go into a shop and be able to ‘browse’. I can’t wait to feel confident crossing the road. I can’t wait to have no language difficulties. I can’t wait to get my feet in the sand, real sand, not builders sand in a sand pit. I can’t wait to see my Grandma and introduce baby James. I can’t wait for Ellie and Jamie to see their grandparents again. I can’t wait to be back in Australia!
Have a great summer everyone!!
Monday 15 June 2009
Saturday 13 June 2009
International Communities…
It really is an amazing experience living in Shanghai, especially with children. Our daily routine includes a trip to the compound playground most afternoons from about 3.30, until Daddy gets home somewhere between 4.30 and 5.30. Our playground has kids of all nationalities, speaking a diverse selection of languages. We also meet a wide range of expats at our various activities such as music and through other friends.
We, being English speakers, greet the Spanish speakers with ‘Hola’, the French with ‘Bonjour’, the Japanese with ‘Konichiwa’, the Chinese with ‘Hello’ and other English speakers with ‘Ni Hao’.
After 9 months I am finally feeling confident in going into a shop and asking if they have something. And then telling them that my Chinese is not very good and I don’t understand their response, which usually elicits a smile and a very simple answer that they don’t have it, or they show me what I am looking for. It is the best way to learn vocabulary though, for me, to go looking for a specific thing and learn the word for it beforehand.
Once I knew where I was going I quickly built up my taxi speak, but always just told the taxi driver to turn left or right, usually without much notice. Now I am getting quite good at asking them politely, or asking to go to a particular intersection and then just giving the final directions. They all think I am crazy though, as most of the time when I am in a taxi, I have Ellie climbing around like a monkey, and Jamie in his cocoon (which looks like a sports bag) or strapped to me in the baby carrier and the most enormous pram they have ever seen, plus whatever other essential paraphernalia I am lugging around.
At our main gate, we have a lovely lady selling fruit from her bike, and with her help I have slowly learned the Chinese words for the fruit we like, so have apples, bananas, mangos, kiwis and papaya down, grapes are coming into season, so will have to learn them soon. She often sells tomatoes, but for some reason I cannot for the life of me remember that one ever. Xihongshi – I dunno, can’t get it… maybe now I’ve written it down I’ll be OK, but I’ve already looked it up 100 times, so no promises. I have a special sign language, and she knows I mean tomatoes!! The other thing she has been great with is helping me with my number pronunciation.
Our Ayi, Zhu Qing Yun, is also slowly helping me with my Chinese. Although she is a very keen learner of English, and her English is progressing far faster than my Chinese. I am sure though, that Ellie is learning well from her though, and Jamie smiles and laughs when she chats to him, so I bet his Chinese ends up being the best of all of us. [Mental note – mandatory Mandarin classes for the kids when we are home again!!]
I sometimes go to a Pump class on Friday nights, in which I am usually the only non-Chinese. I smile a lot at the instructor so that he thinks I know what he’s talking about, and I hope that I learn all the main muscle groups in Chinese by osmosis. So far I can keep up with the class as much as my poor body can keep up, so I actually have lots of time to make sure that the action matches the demonstrated action, rather than the descriptive action. Two babies and no gym work for nearly 3 years means that my fitness levels are not the highest.
Interestingly to me, since I have started consciously thinking about words in Chinese, I have found that my memory of French and German vocab from school has been jump started, and sometimes when I am struggling to think of how to say something in Chinese, it pops into my head as clear as day in French or German or both, and while I’m not proclaiming to be suddenly fluent in either of these languages, I feel I could definitely express myself as required. (And as demonstrated at station coming home from Nanjing.) I also understand a lot of what other Mums are saying to their kids in these languages, so I must have learned something at school, because I can’t understand those speaking Japanese or Spanish!! However, Dora and Diego have a lot to answer for as far as contributing to the additional language skills of my toddler. Ellie has been picking Spanish at the rate of knots!! I have heard her say sube (when climbing the rope ladder), rapido (when telling me to hurry up), arriba (when wanting to be picked up) and telling me we have to save the river dolphins when we are swimming!!
Another interesting thing is how English differs around the world. I now have a lot of American friends and aside from the basic 'cookies' vs 'biscuits' kind of vocabulary differences, there are a lot of things that are just slightly out of step, for example Americans don't tend to use or understand the concept of a fortnight. I have chatted about this extensively with one of my American friends, and she is determined to draw up a nice table with word variations, and once she has maybe I'll be able to post a link to it here!
I really hope we all become fluent in Mandarin while we are here. It is something I am definitely working on, and making a big effort with!! Will let you know how we go!!
Zai jian.
We, being English speakers, greet the Spanish speakers with ‘Hola’, the French with ‘Bonjour’, the Japanese with ‘Konichiwa’, the Chinese with ‘Hello’ and other English speakers with ‘Ni Hao’.
After 9 months I am finally feeling confident in going into a shop and asking if they have something. And then telling them that my Chinese is not very good and I don’t understand their response, which usually elicits a smile and a very simple answer that they don’t have it, or they show me what I am looking for. It is the best way to learn vocabulary though, for me, to go looking for a specific thing and learn the word for it beforehand.
Once I knew where I was going I quickly built up my taxi speak, but always just told the taxi driver to turn left or right, usually without much notice. Now I am getting quite good at asking them politely, or asking to go to a particular intersection and then just giving the final directions. They all think I am crazy though, as most of the time when I am in a taxi, I have Ellie climbing around like a monkey, and Jamie in his cocoon (which looks like a sports bag) or strapped to me in the baby carrier and the most enormous pram they have ever seen, plus whatever other essential paraphernalia I am lugging around.
At our main gate, we have a lovely lady selling fruit from her bike, and with her help I have slowly learned the Chinese words for the fruit we like, so have apples, bananas, mangos, kiwis and papaya down, grapes are coming into season, so will have to learn them soon. She often sells tomatoes, but for some reason I cannot for the life of me remember that one ever. Xihongshi – I dunno, can’t get it… maybe now I’ve written it down I’ll be OK, but I’ve already looked it up 100 times, so no promises. I have a special sign language, and she knows I mean tomatoes!! The other thing she has been great with is helping me with my number pronunciation.
Our Ayi, Zhu Qing Yun, is also slowly helping me with my Chinese. Although she is a very keen learner of English, and her English is progressing far faster than my Chinese. I am sure though, that Ellie is learning well from her though, and Jamie smiles and laughs when she chats to him, so I bet his Chinese ends up being the best of all of us. [Mental note – mandatory Mandarin classes for the kids when we are home again!!]
I sometimes go to a Pump class on Friday nights, in which I am usually the only non-Chinese. I smile a lot at the instructor so that he thinks I know what he’s talking about, and I hope that I learn all the main muscle groups in Chinese by osmosis. So far I can keep up with the class as much as my poor body can keep up, so I actually have lots of time to make sure that the action matches the demonstrated action, rather than the descriptive action. Two babies and no gym work for nearly 3 years means that my fitness levels are not the highest.
Interestingly to me, since I have started consciously thinking about words in Chinese, I have found that my memory of French and German vocab from school has been jump started, and sometimes when I am struggling to think of how to say something in Chinese, it pops into my head as clear as day in French or German or both, and while I’m not proclaiming to be suddenly fluent in either of these languages, I feel I could definitely express myself as required. (And as demonstrated at station coming home from Nanjing.) I also understand a lot of what other Mums are saying to their kids in these languages, so I must have learned something at school, because I can’t understand those speaking Japanese or Spanish!! However, Dora and Diego have a lot to answer for as far as contributing to the additional language skills of my toddler. Ellie has been picking Spanish at the rate of knots!! I have heard her say sube (when climbing the rope ladder), rapido (when telling me to hurry up), arriba (when wanting to be picked up) and telling me we have to save the river dolphins when we are swimming!!
Another interesting thing is how English differs around the world. I now have a lot of American friends and aside from the basic 'cookies' vs 'biscuits' kind of vocabulary differences, there are a lot of things that are just slightly out of step, for example Americans don't tend to use or understand the concept of a fortnight. I have chatted about this extensively with one of my American friends, and she is determined to draw up a nice table with word variations, and once she has maybe I'll be able to post a link to it here!
I really hope we all become fluent in Mandarin while we are here. It is something I am definitely working on, and making a big effort with!! Will let you know how we go!!
Zai jian.
Friday 5 June 2009
Long weekend
I love long weekends, even though I don’t actually go off to work anymore, because it means Mike is around and spending time with me and our beautiful kids. Back home I might not have known the deep history of each holiday (although I probably did), but I instinctively knew each one, and when to expect the next holiday or long weekend. Here in China, public holidays just seem to pop up… and instead of just being an excuse for a camping trip or even just a BBQ each ‘holiday’ seems to be associated with a physical celebration, a celebratory food, ‘something’ going on, and usually fireworks!
The fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese Calendar is known as the ‘Double Fifth’ or Duan Wu. It is the Dragon Boat Festival. We were lucky enough to be able to watch the festivities on the Zhangjiabang River behind us from our balcony. It was particularly exciting to watch the Chinese version of High 5 performing, and Ellie and I were out there on the balcony copying all the actions!! Fortunately some were in English as well, so we knew when to spin, touch our toes and reach for the sun!
Mike also had 2 days left of paternity leave which had to be taken before the end of the school year, so made it a nice long break, so we jumped on a train and went to Nanjing. For parents of 2 small children we were a bit spontaneous, because we didn't book anything before we left... We turned up at the station and managed to catch a train, then when we got off the train in Nanjing we just started walking in the direction we thought the hotels would be!! Unfortunately the walk in prices were too high (asking RMB1700 per night at Sofitel), so Mike used my phone as a modem and connected his computer to the internet and booked 3 nights at the Crowne Plaza (RMB712 per night including breakfast!). We had a great couple of days - walked everywhere - around the lake, went to the Confucian Temple, and wandered around the tourist precinct, to Sun Yat Sen's mausoleum, and the site of the Nanjing Massacre (by the Japanese). Then, got train home again.
I had a bit of a language challenge waiting for the train to come home again... An older Chinese guy was looking at our double decker pram and then said to me "parlez vous francais?" I responded "un petit petit peu". Then he said he didn't speak English, so calling on my Year 9 French I managed to tell him that the kids ages, their names and which was a girl and boy, that Mike is a teacher in a school and that we were not Canadian but Australian and had been living in Shanghai since last August. My poor brain was quite fried by the end of it, because he was translating his French questions into Chinese to about 5 Chinese women also looking at our 2 sleeping kids, and so I translated my answers into Chinese as well. I was really quite impressed with myself, and Mike was just looking at me quite bewildered, and unfortunately couldn’t help me when I struggled with a word in both languages. The guy was a French professor at a Uni that was neither in Shanghai or Nanjing, but I am not sure where!
Nanjing was all very interesting, but I think what was nicest was just being about as a family. Getting out for a day’s excursion is something we do so rarely at home, that I think having 3 days in a row where we did stuff out of the house really made an impact. We even managed to have a “grown up” lunch when the kids were asleep in the pram.
The fifth day of the fifth month of the Chinese Calendar is known as the ‘Double Fifth’ or Duan Wu. It is the Dragon Boat Festival. We were lucky enough to be able to watch the festivities on the Zhangjiabang River behind us from our balcony. It was particularly exciting to watch the Chinese version of High 5 performing, and Ellie and I were out there on the balcony copying all the actions!! Fortunately some were in English as well, so we knew when to spin, touch our toes and reach for the sun!
Mike also had 2 days left of paternity leave which had to be taken before the end of the school year, so made it a nice long break, so we jumped on a train and went to Nanjing. For parents of 2 small children we were a bit spontaneous, because we didn't book anything before we left... We turned up at the station and managed to catch a train, then when we got off the train in Nanjing we just started walking in the direction we thought the hotels would be!! Unfortunately the walk in prices were too high (asking RMB1700 per night at Sofitel), so Mike used my phone as a modem and connected his computer to the internet and booked 3 nights at the Crowne Plaza (RMB712 per night including breakfast!). We had a great couple of days - walked everywhere - around the lake, went to the Confucian Temple, and wandered around the tourist precinct, to Sun Yat Sen's mausoleum, and the site of the Nanjing Massacre (by the Japanese). Then, got train home again.I had a bit of a language challenge waiting for the train to come home again... An older Chinese guy was looking at our double decker pram and then said to me "parlez vous francais?" I responded "un petit petit peu". Then he said he didn't speak English, so calling on my Year 9 French I managed to tell him that the kids ages, their names and which was a girl and boy, that Mike is a teacher in a school and that we were not Canadian but Australian and had been living in Shanghai since last August. My poor brain was quite fried by the end of it, because he was translating his French questions into Chinese to about 5 Chinese women also looking at our 2 sleeping kids, and so I translated my answers into Chinese as well. I was really quite impressed with myself, and Mike was just looking at me quite bewildered, and unfortunately couldn’t help me when I struggled with a word in both languages. The guy was a French professor at a Uni that was neither in Shanghai or Nanjing, but I am not sure where!
Nanjing was all very interesting, but I think what was nicest was just being about as a family. Getting out for a day’s excursion is something we do so rarely at home, that I think having 3 days in a row where we did stuff out of the house really made an impact. We even managed to have a “grown up” lunch when the kids were asleep in the pram.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)