Copyright by Oriol Gascon It was the first semester in my final-year study and I was deeply gratified to have befriended three classmates from China - Gong Wei (龚巍) from Hubei province, Jun Yang (俊阳) from Shanghai municipality and Wang Bo (王波) from Jiangsu province - three great companies who shared with me many interesting stories from their homeland. It sure was a lot of fun so much so that I decided to visualise that I was in China for the duration of the entire semester, and to subsequently make China my theme for the semester where I literally spoke, breathe and did all things Chinese. Like Albert Einstein used to say - logic takes you from A to B, but imagination takes you everywhere. So I let my imagination run wild and and the results were nothing short of spectacular.
Refreshingly new routines
Since China was the theme for the semester, I made time for activities that underlie this theme. Activities that I had not previously made a conscious effort to immerse myself in suddenly became routines in my days. One activity that I spend a fair amount of time doing included tuning in to CCTV9 and Feng Huang (凤凰) - popular TV channels in mainland China. Moreover, I also viewed a series of videos in YouTube to improve my spoken Mandarin. I relished watching these videos as the two hosts take viewers to many places across China while imparting lessons on Putonghua - a bonus indeed, so it was travelogue and learning Mandarin rolled into one. The third activity - the one that I valued the most - was that of spending time interacting with my three friends. A plethora of things were shared - ranging from those which were funny, bizzare, serious and uplifting. Presented below are five interesting accounts that I selectively pick up for sharing.
1. "Dog don't care" steamed stuffed bun
Of course that's just a literal translation from its Chinese name - 狗不理包子. This bun is a famous snack in Tianjin (天津) and across many other places across China. Founded in 1958, Goubuli (狗不理) is one of China's longest established restaurant brands. The company adopted an English name called "Go Believe" in anticipation of the Olympic Games in 2008. Although being commented as inappropriate owing to its erroneous grammartical structure, the Chairman of the company's group is pleased with such naming as it is said to meaningfully convey the company's conviction and honesty in conducting its business.
The bun's name originates from the nickname of the restaurant's founder - 狗仔 (literally little dog). Such name apparently sounds acrimonious, more so that it is used as a person's name. Nevertheless, Gong Wei said it is customary in China to give someone a name that is conventionally unfavourable as such is believed to be able to protect the person from back luck or can enable him or her to withstand bad fortune. As the restaurant's business prospered, 狗仔 was so busy so much so that he did not have the time to chat and pay attention (不理) to his customers. Thereafter, people started calling him 狗不理 (literally doggie does not care); as time passed, his bun's name was dubbed 狗不理包子.
2. China Military Parade
This spectacular showcase that China put on in conjunction with the Republic's 60th national day can rival that of the Olympic in 2008. I was told that the Republic will organise a grand show every ten years; so everyone should watch the show this time around, for the military weapon will be even mightier (武器更牛, like one of them said). It turned out to be so true. I particularly enjoyed the firework display during the evening party at Changan Highway; so lavish the display was that I told them it was like a firework downpour from the sky.
For one thing that I notice, the Chinese are really patriotic and passionate about sharing things from their country. Immediately after lecture on that day, they visited websites to watch the live show from Beijing. This should not come as a surprise for they are positively proud their nation - the emerging superpower in the world whose GDP now rival that of Japan. Those who have watched 2012 will sense that the script writer sure understands China's power in using resources to construct things that are of larger-than-life size - take the episode when one actor commented about the 7 giant-size space ships stationed in Mount Everest to save humans from the earth crust displacement. "Only the Chinese can do this!", he said. Well such is just a movie script, there sure is a lot to be said about China's power. One 2012 forum in Australia saw one user posts several funny comments: if you need secret stuff made somewhere totally oblivious to the planet, get the Chinese to do it; the chinese finish monolithic projects years ahead of time. Worth pondering.
3. China's Mandarin versus Malaysia's Mandarin
As much as I could recall, the episode of chatting on Mandarin - that of the Chinese from China and Chinese from Malaysia, was the most humorous of all. I got to know first-hand about the Malaysian way of speaking Mandarin from someone who is a native speaker of this language. Wang Bo particularly commented a lot on this for he has a Malaysian girlfriend and hence spend a considerable amount of time associating with Malaysians. A lot of expression initially got him puzzled for he has absolutely no ideas in decoding these expressions. Over time, he is able to adapt and also able to utter a few Mandarin expressions which are uniquely the Malaysian way.
Examples of such Malayian expressions and its corresponding expressions spoken by the Chinese in China are as follows:
- 你做么叻 - 你怎么啦
- 我不懂 - 我不知道
- 你吃饱了没有 - 你吃饱了没
Jim Rohn is quoted as saying you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with. This implies that our consciousness level can be leapfrogged to higher level or lower level depending upon the level of consciousness of the people we most often associate with. To connect this with spicing up one's spoken language, our ability to converse on a particular language can also be determined by the average speaking ability (for this language) of the five people we spend the most time interacting with. Five is just a benchmark, a metaphorical figure. This just serves to illustrate that we should strive to increase our time chatting with more people who can speak competently on the language with which we want to improve. It is only a matter a time when one's spoken language is on par with or exceed that of the people we chat most often with.
4. Sichuan beauties
Okay, this may sound slightly subjective. But when four guys from China agreed on this, there surely is a lot to be said. What is this thing you ask? They commented that ladies from Sichuan are just the sort of dream girls every males will want to date. They said that one of the reasons is that of their smooth skin, which come as a result of constantly dining spicy delicacies (of which Sichuan is so famous for). One of them recalled that a friend of him were practically drenched when relishing Sichuan dishes, so much so that one can be forgiven for thinking that he has just taken a bath. That is the marvel of Sichuan spice!
Guys, be forewarned. "Don't go to Sichuan if you have girlfriend. You will regret", said one of them. Hmm...
5. The Chinese's greatest fear
For the Chinese in China, there really is nothing to be afraid of. For theirs is a nation that wields influence and power slowly and consistently in the globe. And being an economic superpower, getting anything they want is just a snap. Gong Wei said the fear lies in people from other countries being able to speak Putonghua, especially people from the West. There is one saying that goes something like this: 中国人天不怕,地不怕,只怕老外说中国话. Literally it means that people from China have fear nothing, except encoutering foreigners that can speak Mandarin.
With China slowly gaining world superpower status, there is no doubt that many people will start learning this language as there will be more trade relationship with the Chinese. Even legendary investor Jim Rogers said that for whichever foreign languages one learn, one ought to ensure one of the languages is Mandarin. The consequence of this is that people who are used to gossip, sneer or pose whichever remarks that are not nice-to-hear in Mandarin will need to exert greater caution. Otherwise, they may get a slap in their face when all of a sudden the foreigners respond to their remarks in Mandarin. Hence the Chinese's fear of foreigners speaking Mandarin. Mr Kevin Rudd sure comes across formidable!
Trying It For Yourself
As a result of repetitive habitual routines over a lengthy period of time, you may start to sense that these activities are monotonous. Or at the end of the spectrum, you may find yourself enjoying your works so passionately that not doing them may possibly invoke a feeling of lackadaisical. Either case you can benefit from setting a theme for your daily routines. By injecting a fresh theme underlying all your routines, this can break you out of your automatic thinking patterns and lead you into seeing things from newer perspectives which you may have previously overlooked. And with this ceasing of automatic thinking patterns, you will find yourself getting more creative gradually.