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Living to Learn and Learning to Live in China
It has been a wonderful opportunity to come to this great land, which sometimes referred to as the“biggest neighbor” in Asia. Though there are lots of similarities with my country’s (Philippines) cultureand China’s, it is still interesting to note some particular practices in daily basis that I haven’t experienceliving with Chinese neighbors in my hometown in the Philippines.I grew up in “Bruce Lee (Li Chang Long) era” which greatly affects my way of thinking and interests inlife. Though American films are many in those days (1970’s), Chinese films are equally not a few,month after month, year after year, particularly Bruce Lee’s movies. I remember one instance, where Ihave to cheat my parents just to sneak in to see Kung Fu or “Shaolin” movies. My favorites were that of Bruce Lee, Wang Tao, Carter Wang and the like. That was the beginning of my fascination to Chineseculture. In the later years however, this desire to like Chinese stuff or anything about Chinese wastemporarily disturbed by strong western influences and name calling like “communism” in the early1980’s. So wide is the propaganda that I remember as a college student being warned against joiningsuch kind of group or even mentioning it in class or something. Since I don’t like politics, I continue tointensify my desire to like Chinese movies, though the “Remington Steele” and “Superman” kept flyingin most TV and movie screens respectively. Well, I like those Hollywood treks as well as Jacky Chan’sand Jet Li’s martial arts, though the American stuff is becoming more and more popular in those times.Hence, I need to borrow tapes (Betamax that time) just to watch my favorite Jackie Chan or Jet Limovies. Anyway, as I said earlier, it’s only temporary for as I began to grow and went to college, the old pattern of acculturated life to Chinese stuff was restored back, yet with more meaningful spheres of experience. I was working in the morning and study in the evening with Chinese employers. That washow I finished my college degree, though I really don’t like my job that much. Since all my employerswere Chinese, whether half or pure blooded, I began to savor Chinese food and “Chinese table manners”which actually sank to my system up to this time. Those employers, I really don’t know exactly where inChina, all I knew that they all come from the south and they speak different Chinese language, yet theculture is the same. In fact, the experiences I had with those employers expand the horizon of appreciation anything Chinese, from cooking to medicine. I even dreamed to marry a Chinese girl. Now that I am here, I want to deal with the subject of 
 Living 
and
 Learning 
in China, particularly in the booming mainland. How is it like in a foreigner’s point of view especially to the first timers like me?Let me divide this into two major discussions:
a.
 Living and Learning with the People
,
b.
 Learning and  Living with the Language
.
Living and Learning with the People
First, living with people is not very hard if you share some detailed cultural norms, or beliefs and therebyeasier to learn something from each other. This is not easy to be found here with my experience though
 
there are some similarities in both Chinese and Filipino cultures such as loyalty to friend, individualshyness and respect for the elderly. Aside from these, I still have to deal with the extremes, like one timeI was giving an apple to a child, actually a son of one of my neighbors in Shijiazhuang City, near Beijing. The child was not only shy to refuse my offering but I was told later that they don’t usuallyaccept something from a stranger. Well, I really thought that what I offered was not delicious but only tofind myself learning something about “strangers” in the eye of a Chinese child. Another thing Idiscovered, apples in Shijiazhuang is literally cheap and a lot cheaper than my country’s. I was not verysure if this is one of the reasons, but as I lived in this Hebei’s capital for two and a half years, Idiscovered that there were times that a lot of rotten apples piled up in the street corners in the nearbylittle market. I was amazed by the abundance of fruits like apples in this part of China, where I can eat itanytime I like. So I began to live the old saying “An apple a day keeps the doctor away”. My diet wasstrictly balanced not only with apples but also with the different invitations from my neighbors almostevery two days. Can you imagined?, I dined with almost every family living around my apartment andsince I came two months closer to the Spring Festival, my stomach was filled in every corner of it. Oh boy! Each family does not only make sure that you are “baula” (term for being full after eating), but theywant you to bring some of their goodies laid on the dining table earlier. Since there’s no way you canrefuse, I have to take a lot of candies, delicacies, sunflower seeds, and the like. It was fun though.The learning part while living with those neighbors flow smoothly to my daily routines. I began to bemore appreciative to everyone I met, as they warmly smile at me everyday. After each meal with eachfamily, as if the ice was broken so to speak and the next time I give something to any of the children,they began to smile while accepting it. Hence, I learned that dining with Chinese is as important as breathing itself. You can forget the food you ate, but you can never forget the feelings and friendlygestures attached to the association of each dinner or lunch.
Learning and Living with the Language
As English major, I learned a great deal of Teaching English as a Second Language both in theory and practice as a Secondary and Tertiary level Language teacher for the past ten years now. Yet, I never imagine myself learning one of the world’s most difficult languages, the Chinese language. Anyway, itseemed easy to learn my first Chinese phrase; “Ni hao ma!”, for ”hello or hi, how are you?”. Yeah, eventhe “tingbudong” became my favorite expression whenever I went shopping or just to go around the city proper. Sometimes I have to accompany this with a non verbal cue, having my forefinger swinging justin front my lips to add meaning to my broken Chinese tone for “I don’t know” or “I don’t understand”.Unlike “xiexie ni”, for thank you, and “baula” for “I’m full” after a dinner, which are quite easier to pronounce and remember, most Chinese words or expressions are really difficult to learn for older language learners like me. In a larger sense however, whether easy or hard, whenever a foreigner speaksa Chinese word, it serves as a passport to a skyway of cultural understanding and friendly association.With this in mind, I began to be serious about learning Chinese. So, when the school (Hebei Universityof Science and Technology) where I used to work offered free Chinese lessons for the foreign teachers, I
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