Life in China | Dominik Mayer – Products, Asia, Productivity
In 2008 and 2009 I spent 1.5 years studying Chinese at Tongji University in Shanghai. This is my way to China, these are my experiences in Shanghai.
I arrive in China on page 15.
Rainy Hongkou
In front of the Rainbow City Lifestyle Mall.
Feihong Road and an entrances to the metro station Linping Road.
News About the Chair
“It is a good chair, it was made in Japan and was used in German in 1997.”
From Shanghai to Linan
The beginning of our two day study trip to Linan organized by the International School. Price: 50 Yuan (about 4,50 Euro).
Five buses in front of the International Students Building.
Large houses being built in the middle of nowhere. We’ve also seen developments with dozens of new, empty houses.
Oriental cherry?
Wood, Water and Stones
Fake tree
Waiting for the worst food so far.
I’ve been gnawing on one of the wooden things in front without any effect before I finally gave up. The other dishes weren’t much better.
Funny thing to pump water. We thought we’d help them by using it but it actually cost one Yuan.
More?
I asked my coordinator in Germany and she said I could stay longer. Let’s hope that I’ll get another admission from Tongji. If everything works out I would fly to Munich, write my exams and come back to Shanghai.
Maybe More
According to Tongji it’s no problem to stay longer as long as TUM agrees. So the question is: Do I really want to stay longer? I don’t know. Fortunately I don’t have to decide right away.
Teamwork
The midterms are over and learning for them has improved my Chinese quite a bit. Inspired by a student of Sinology I had decided not to study any tones as memorizing doesn’t work, I can’t speak them anyway and most Chinese also understand me if I don’t use them. That doesn’t mean that I won’t try to learn them by speaking.
In the midterms we solved some exercises in teamwork and I would have never thought that one day a Chinese would copy from me in a Chinese exam. ;-)
Chinese Candy
Made of vegetables
Update
Ubuntu 8.04 brought me Firefox 3 Beta 5 which is not yet supported by one of my crucial add-ons. Chinese Perapera-kun translates Chinese words by hovering over them. Very useful.
Now I have to get along with these:
- Chinaboard: Translates whole expressions
- Google Translate: Not very accurate but provides a rough overview
- dict.leo.org: German/Chinese and Pinyin
- Dict.cn: English/Chinese
No Hanzi on the Cell Phone
I get several of these messages per week. Mostly from China Mobile.
Perhaps I’ll get a new cell phone if I decide to stay longer.
Third Chance
I’ve tried twice but never got beyond two posts. With me being in Shanghai and twitter’s increasing popularity I’m thinking about giving it a third chance. Let’s try it for a few days.
Dscf0001.jpg
The tenthousandst picture I took with this camera since I got it for Christmas 2006 shows a ship on Huangpu River and the Oriental Pearl Tower in Pudong seen from Gucheng Park.
Hurry Up, LRZ
Would be great if the lrz could finally fix the problems with their VPN server that I’ve reported over a month ago. The golden shield prevents me from accessing several sites. This blog is one of them.