PREPARATION, DEPARTURE AND ARRIVAL IN BEIJING:
(Program: Postgraduate – Mandarin Honours Degree. Exchange: September 2014 – January 2015)
Preparing for arrival in Beijing was chaotic to say the least. Even though we are part of a mandarin honours program our planning regarding our stay in Beijing was just as intense as any normal exchange student. The majority of our administrative duties were settled before our departure. Being Mandarin Honours student the majority of our time prior to departure were spent on tending to our thesis, the first draft had to be handed in in before we leave for China.
Our honours class became separated during this time as many had made their own travel arrangements and we all arrived on different dates in Beijing. Needless to say we were quite emotional on the day we left, leaving our friends and family behind whilst knowing that we will not see them for the next five months. Our flight left Cape Town and Arrive in Dubai at 12AM. My friend and classmate, Lauren travelled with me. We were exhausted and slept for about three hours in airport benches until we once again departed for our final destination and our home for the next few months, Beijing.
Arriving in Beijing was an experience unlike any other, the airport was lined with long queues of tired travellers and irritated business men. We hopped in the first available taxi and with our current level of Chinese we had no problem telling the driver were we needed to go. The taxi ride took about an hour and the majority of the time was spent stuck in traffic and falling in and out of sleep in the back of Chinese taxi. Once we unloaded our luggage on the side of a congested road we decided to walk the rest of the way to our dorm, the map BLCU provided us in our welcome package back in South Africa was of no use, and we would only later find out that this map was outdated and wrong. Regardless of this we managed to easily find our dorm without much trouble. Checking into our dorm was relatively easy. We were automatically placed in the same room as neither of us were willing to bunk with a complete stranger for five months. Our dorm was smaller than I had expected and only had 13 floors however I was later to learn that our dorm houses over 6000 international students from 63 different countries.
Our dorm room was extremely bare but we received all that could be expected. It resemble that of an army camp, two perfectly aligned beds with matching sheets in a faded brown colour along with two identical desks lined against the wall. We had our own private bathroom which was a big bonus for us as many other students are forced to share a bathroom with 40 odd students. Our bathroom was small and once you took a shower the entire floor was soaked but other than that our room was up to a good standard compared to the rest of residences on campus. The majority of neighbours were Korean and extremely friendly, the staff in our dorm were not so friendly. If you needed to know something or needed help with anything many of them were reluctant to offer assistance or merely just pretended not to understand what you were saying.
Registration at BLCU is quite the affair. Spent 3 days attempting to register ourselves in what should have been a simple and uncomplicated process. The majority the proceedings took place in Chinese and made it hard for people with limited or basic level of Chinese to get around here. We ran up and down trying to get the necessary forms for registration and each time we returned in attempt to register we were always missing some form or needed copies of our documents. I feel this process would have been made a lot easier if our welcome package included a list of all the things we needed for the registration process. It made SU’s registration process look like a walk in the park. Finally after being register for our proper programs we were told to return the following week for orientation which proved to be a waste of our time as this meeting gave no new information and mainly repeated the information given in our welcome pack. Looking back no from departure until now our first two weeks at BLCU has been nothing less than eventful (in a good and bad way).
HALFWAY THROUGH THE BEIJING EXPERIENCE:
Our mandarin classes at BLCU were not definitely not up to par with those at SU. During our registration process were placed in a certain level of Chinese based on a less than three minute conversation with a Chinese teacher. I personally felt that this was not an adequate means to measure our level of Chinese. We were also asked to submit our HSK results, this was something were not made aware of before departing South Africa so none of us had our results with us at the time, and it also due to this that some of us who which to move to a different class or level encountered problems. We required level HSK 5 or 6 to enter or even move up to a higher level of class unable to do so, we all remained in the levels assigned to us.
Once we started going to class only in the third week of September I discovered that some of the class seemed easy but were not, and our Chinese lesson were now divided into different sections. At SU our Chinese class consisted of one two hour class four days a week. At BLCU we were treated as freshman and our privileges as postgraduates were something of the past. We attended class every day from 8.30am until 12.30am, now four may not seem as long but the way of teaching here is so different that really each class could have been a one hour class only. Also our Chinese class is now divided into four different sections each focusing on a specific area, Listening, Reading, and Speaking and of course Grammar. Listening and speaking classes were some of the longest classes so far, the majority of these classes are boring and extremely repetitive and many students don’t even attend them. Reading and grammar was probably the most interesting classes here, the teachers have a unique way of teaching and using a tailor made BLCU textbook I thoroughly enjoy attending these classes. However regardless of my personal feelings aside I know for a fact that my lecturer back at SU would not approve of the level of work we are doing here at the moment at the moment as the level of our work here is far easier. Unfortunately there is not much we can do about it as our lecturer herself was not even aware of the content of the program we are attending here and by the time we became aware of our situation it was too late to do anything about it.
Attendance at BLCU was very strict. This as a postgraduate student was tough, usually only having class at 14.00 in the afternoon for two hours and now having to make a shift to attending class every day at 8.30am I felt like a first year all over again, and their rules regarding attendance did not make this any better. Attendance is strictly accounted for each day. The rule was as follow; if you came more than five minutes late for a class you would be marked absent even if you attend the full two hours after that. This was very strict and some cases I felt really unfair. Making matters even worse was the attendance record for every class as every class had a limit on the amount of classes you are allowed to miss and if you missed more than the assigned limit. You would then not qualify for the final exam at the end of the semester. This I felt was extremely harsh as our classes are easy and many students aced their exams without much effort but would be unable to attend the final examination and therefore, be unable to pass the module. Whereas at SU our program relied on continuous assessment and no final exam could determine a pass or a fail whilst BLCU’s final examinations account for 70% of your final grade and your work done during the term in class on a mere 30%.
Regardless of these rules attending class had its ups. My class mainly consists out of a variety of students from all over the world, giving you ample opportunity to socialise. The vast majority of the people originate from Asia whilst the one two oddballs (such as myself) come from a country no one has even heard of. It is interesting to talk with your fellow students about culture and to learn how they do things in the countries and even socialising after class provides ample fun.
Seeing these other foreigners, apart from making attendance for the exam, is probably one of the main reason I attend class every day. It makes one realize that no matter how much you think you know you can always learn something new and this is especially true at BLCU.
ARRIVING BACK IN SOUTH AFRICA FROM BEIJING:
I am finally back home! I landed back in South Africa about two days ago and apart from the jetlag and the scorching heat I am adjusting quite well. It was quite strange leaving a country in the midst of winter and arriving in my home country in the midst of summer. Our trip back was much better than the trip to Beijing, not only because we are coming home this time but also because we used our layover in Dubai to take a well-deserved rest and venture out into Dubai. We did not have much time but this gave us the opportunity to take in some of the sights and enjoy the local markets not to mention the opportunity to take a nap and a fresh shower before our 9 hour flight back to Cape Town, South Africa. We landed at midday and aside from minor jetlag we were very happy to be back home, nothing that a spur burger and some sleep can’t cure.
Departing Beijing was not as big a hassle as one might think because the majority of arrangements and admin were already sorted on our arrival. We merely had to check out, hand in our room keys, say our goodbyes and hop on the first taxi to the airport. It was an emotional day, on the one hand we were looking forward to going back home but also sad to leave as we were just starting to settle in at BLCU. We had many friends who came to see us off in the lobby and almost had us in tears but with promises to keep in touch to help keep our eyes dry. We checked out at 12am on a Saturday morning this was a tad bit problematic for us as the metro and all the main busses stopped running after 11pm so we had to take a taxi to the nearest airport bus station and from their take the airport bus to the airport. Our flight only left at 4am but we would rather be a little early than miss our flight back home. Once checked in and through security reality slowly started to set in and we started to reminisce about all the good and bad times we had at BLCU and our dorm. The fact the vast majority of photographs taken in Beijing was on our phones ensure for some good laughs and cries. Aside from the length of time spent confine in a plane, our flight was pleasant and could not have arrived sooner.
Coming back home was nothing short of shocking, on the drive home my father smoked and listened to a local Afrikaans radio station.
Looking around I see all the things that have changed especially in my neighbourhood. Many new roads were built or broadened, apartment complexes looked like that had erected themselves overnight and the clear blue skies that was visible all around was a more than welcome sight. One of the first few things I did once we arrived back at home was rummage through the fridge for some biltong, as many of you would know, biltong is nothing short of a staple food in South Africa and this delicacy was first on my list of things to be devoured. Food was the one thing in BLCU that was hard to adjust to as the majority of the dishes served in BLCU were vegetable based and extremely oily whereas our food back home was mainly meat based and extremely salty. Nevertheless I consumed my fair share of unhealthy goods before taking a shower and heading straight for bed. Jetlag prove to be a tough challenge as by the time I woke up it was past midnight and Cape Town was fast asleep. It was evident that it would take a few days before I would be back to my normal sleeping pattern.
Aside from that there were other things that had to be readjusted. In Beijing people walked and drove on the right-hand side of the street and now we once again had to be left-handed. It was often that I found myself walking on the wrong side of the road or walking into an oncoming crowd without realizing however, this habit quickly stopped as soon as you people started yelling insults at you. There were small things, such a water taps that were no longer automatic and the lack of public transport that still gets to me some days.
Adjusting to the radical change in temperature was one of my biggest challenges as 30 degrees suddenly felt like 40 degrees. I practically now live in my shorts and tank tops. Other than that I would say I feel my adjustment back home is going well. I am slowly but surely seeing my friends again, as the majority of them bombard you with questions and want to spend endless hours talking about China I thought it best to not see them all at once. It’s been almost a week now since I have come back home and boy did time fly! I have learnt much over the past five months and hopefully I will be able to apply all I have learnt in the coming year as a tackle all the new opportunities thrown my way.