LITTLE CHINA WHIRL
Think moving house is tough... try moving to the other side of the world where there’s a whole new language and customs to learn
WHEN I moved from the Gold Coast to communist China, conversations with my friends went something like this: “Guess what, I’m moving.” “Houses?”
“No. Countries.” Despite what you may expect, I really was excited because it was my choice to go.
But I wasn’t exactly sure what that choice would be getting me into.
China is huge and each province has its own cultural traditions.
Most of my experiences come from the north of China, Jilin Province, and more specifically, Changchun, a “small” rural city, that has summers of 30C or more, and winters of –30C. Yes, you read that right. Moving countries was far from easy.
There was language barriers, culture shock and adjusting to a new school curriculum.
But every challenge was able to be overcome, and there was often humour, and enjoyment involved in the processes.
For example, Changchun, in China’s terms, is quite a small and basic city, and with those characteristics comes the factor of no English.
Quite literally, none. As prepared as we were for the move, none of us could speak Mandarin, which isn’t exactly the easiest language to pick up.
So, for the first couple of weeks, we had to go through the immense struggle of communicating what food, pen, or dress we wanted without the use of words.
As strange as that might sound, it did set every shopping venture up to be full of weird and exciting revelations — and an occasional animal sound, depending on what dinner we had planned for that night.
But for every challenge that presented itself, there was also a new adventure to be had, a new friend to be made, or a new food to experience.
After graduating from high school in China earlier in the year, I travelled for three months to Bali, Germany and France then I moved to Guangzhou in China for three months to intern for an Australian company that does web design.
I’m moving back to Australia the beginning of next month to start university in February studying economics.