Living like a local
Kensington man finds life’s calling as a teacher in China
A silhouette of a man stands on the Summerside boardwalk that overlooks the harbour, which is covered in a blanket of snow.
Ricky Jamer acknowledges that it contrasts to the land where ancient sites built by powerful dynasties sit amid skyscrapers and where mountains shimmer against vast deserts.
Both lands are beautiful, but one has captured his heart.
“I was studying languages for two years, and originally wanted to go over to China for just one year to study and teach English. But I fell in love with the place and decided to move there,” said Jamer, a former resident of Kensington.
He set foot in the bustling city of Zhangzhou, located in the Fujian province of China, to study Mandarin in the summer of 2014.
“When I first got there I couldn’t speak any of the lan- guage. I could just say ‘ hello’ and ‘ thank you,’ so there language was a barrier.
“Food was diff erent, too, because I had to learn how to use chopsticks. Even the way they socialize is diff erent,” he said.
But despite the initial lost in translation feeling, Jamer quickly transitioned into a local. “I now go for weeks without speaking English,” he said.
“I see something in Chinese and know exactly what it means. But I wont know how to say it in English because of the sentence structure and grammar. It’s so different .”
One of the most liberating ways to explore China is on a motorcycle, acknowledged Jamer.
“In October my roommate, from England, and I rented some motorcycles and hit the road for about five or six hours, just travelling through the countryside. We had no plans. We just rode. It was the first moment I realized this was something special.”
Jamer’s sense of adventure took him hitchhiking along the Karakoram Highway, which connects China to Pakistan. “There’s the Karakoram mountain range just west of the Himalayas, and I met a bunch of really interesting people from Pakistan as I was hitchhiking. To get to this place it took me about 40 hours by train. And it was one of the coolest things I ever did.
Jamer said he did it for the sense of adventure. “I stayed for one month in the province of Xinjiang. It was the most beautiful place I have visited,” he said.
Jamer plans to spend one more year in China as a student, before completing his language degree at the University of Prince Edward Island in Charlottetown.
“I find that coming back now I am having a much harder time dealing with reverse culture shock than the initial culture shock when I first went there,” he said.
“I like living in a bigger city, and I feel like there’s a lot more opportunities for my interests.”
Study abroad has provided a new lease on his life, he said. “Someday I plan to open my own school in China and have other western teachers work for me.”
He continued, “In China they have this test called IELTS, which is an English proficiency test, and recently I have been training to teach other people to do these tests.
“Long term I would like to open up my own training cen- tre where I would teach this exam and have other Canadians and Americans work for me and teach the youth. That’s the dream.”
His New Year’s resolution for 2018 is to pass the HSK 6, a Chinese language certificate for foreign students.
“It’s similar to the IELTS, and this year I got my HSK 5. The HSK 6 is the highest level recognized by the Chinese government,” he concluded, with a grin.