Ready to Go Abroad?

Ready To Go Abroad?

Living in Shanghai can be like living in any other modern city, take international events for example.  I recently went to see a Formula 1 race right in Shanghai.  The ticket cost about 800 Yuan, and was entirely worth it, minus the fact that there was not a single crash, I mean come on isn't that we're all secretly hoping to see close up when we go to one of these races?  But considering I probably wouldn't even go out of my way to find an event like that in the States (do they even host F1 in the States?) it was a good time.  I plan on going to see X-Games: Asia pretty soon, which will likely be pretty cool knock off the real thing, or as the Chinese would put it, 差不多 Chabuduo (approximately meaning: about, or just about).

^Start of the F1 Race in Shanghai!

You see, the Chinese have an interesting communication style.  It's often very indirect and circumvents their actual meaning in most cases, so as the save face by not giving an actual yes or no answer, or possibly it's just been so ingrained in their communication style that they have a very difficult time in being frank.  I don’t want to make a sweeping generalization so let's look at two Chabuduo examples (again meaning about, or just about).  Chifenglu metro stop, the metro stop for SUFE, recently opened a small store called "Imported Goods" geared towards imported snack foods.  So when I asked the lady at the shop if they were real imports, she told me, "Chabuduo."  Well either they're real or they aren't, but of course you wouldn't get an accurate response from a question like that.  Example two, I have recently been assisting the recruiting department conduct interviews by evaluating the candidates English skills.  So I do this over the phone and instead of handing the phone back to my Chinese colleagues I just end the call myself when I'm done with my part.  So the closing line they asked me to say is translated as, "Our communication today is just about finished, we will quickly give you a response." Well, to be honest our communication isn't "just about" finished, it's actually already done.  If you were to hear this in English, you would think, "just about" oh okay there must be one more order of business before we hang up the phone.  This indirectness is just one of the differences in communication styles between Westerners and the Chinese, so it is important to make note of these differences so as to improve your comprehension and speaking style as well.

Another valuable skill you will develop in your time abroad is the ability to manage your life remotely.  You often don't think too much about how helpful proximity to your normal life back home is.  When you're back in your college community you don't think about maintaining ties with certain people, you just run into them often enough that you stay up to date on their latest activities, or your on Facebook and Twitter enough to know it all.  Or maybe you rely on small pieces of information from friends in other on-campus organizations and or job opportunities that you hear about in passing, but that's the not the case while you're abroad.  You have to be vigilant about managing your relationships, staying connected with friends, seeking out job opportunities abroad and back home, replying to emails, registering for classes and/or housing, applying for financial aid, or solving any of the other administrative issues that you might encounter back home.  Then say you do get that interview you've been hoping for, you've got to set up a Skype or phone call interview at a time that is likely more convenient for your Western counterpart than it is for you, such 7:00AM Shanghai time.  When you're home these are simple matters, but when your facing differences in time zones, Internet restrictions, and coping with the new challenges of a life in a different place, all of these matters become a little more challenging.  But it gets better with time and it's an important skill to develop in highly globalized working environment, especially if you hope to work abroad in the future.