Racism and job applications, Beijing.

Dear Cathy,

I saw your ad on thebeijinger.com, and I wondered whether you were still looking for teachers?

I am an enthusiastic, confident and young British student currently living in Beijing. I am studying Mandarin and Marketing at Beishida, and I plan on living here in Beijing for the next two years, and I live between Mudanyuan and Xitucheng stations.

I have had in total, 2 years of education at Moscow State Univeristy and 2 years in Manchester University (I will return to England in 2011 to finish my Masters). Whilst in Moscow, I taught English for the whole duration of my stay, so I would say I am experienced in teaching foreigners, including children. I am also good at thinking of new and interesting ways to teach English.

If you are interested, we could perhaps have a chat or I could send you any further details you require.

I look forward to hearing from you,

Yours faithfully,

Aaron Hobday






Hello, Thanks your email . Yes , I still looking for a english teacher for my school fo english . you can give your CV . But I have to tell you , becuase our school is too small , so I cant give you too high rate . 100RMB / per hour , and we dont need black man . I'm sorry

Have a good day

Cathy

First day in Quarantine.

Quarantine; a word taken by the British from the French, which initially meant a ‘fortnight’ or ‘une quarantaine’. Whereby people were detained and observed for fourteen days and fourteen nights in the times of the Black Death.

Whilst I don’t have the Black Death, I still suffered the misfortune of going to a summer course at Beijing Uni with the ghastly people who caught swine flu. Whence they caught this flu, I don’t know. The two Japanese girls in my class stopped coming on Wednesday last week, and I was too drunk to come into class on one of those days, hence not being at class for five days.

Alas, pretty much everyone has been bundled into a van, given a mask and then taken to this posh swanky hotel, decorated with beautiful ‘chinglish’ signs everywhere, including in the shower, which reads ‘be careful of landslides’ – meaning ‘don’t slip over’.

How I got quarantined I still don’t know. My Russian classmate told me about the imminent saga yesterday night; he doesn’t speak English and his Chinese isn’t great. So I play Mr Aaronski Hobdayski. So, I called the student’s office last night and with the help of my Chinese housemates, it seemed I wouldn’t have to go and be quarantined. Then this morning they called again, I even nearly managed to talk my way out of it, by getting them down to 4 days in quarantine, 2 days then at home, and then they suggested a doctor see me. In the end they said I had to stay here for a day to check on me, yet after arriving here in the scariest and seemingly fastest ambulance ride to the hotel ever (Chinese road signs are merely a ‘guide’ for road users), many other students have to stay for 7 days…

But why, if I am healthy, go to a hotel where all the other potential swine flu ‘carriers’ are free to roam the corridors? It is Chinese logic I am sure. But thanks to my losing my temper and shouting in Chinese at the Chinese doctors, suddenly something clicked in my head, and my Chinese started to flow well for the first time. It looks hopeful that I won’t be here for too much longer, that is, if I haven’t already caught swine flu from the other students in the hotel…

Second week here in Beijing.

I think I’ve been partying way too much. Over the past few nights I have been lucky to enjoy 4 hours of sleep, but had some really fun times. Foreigners here are great, they really look after you and make you feel part of their group. Even at 23 however, I need to drink less. I mean, the fake alcohol you get everywhere is terrible for the body, and playing sports at stupid-o-clock makes for a very tired Aaron in lessons. We went to an amazing club on Sat night, the music was really really good, nothing in Manchester compared. Though a few of the tracks, despite my inebriated state were plagiarised from the album god’s kitchen 2009 I am sure. I was so drunk I was clinking glasses with everyone, I swear I think I’m fluent in Chinese after a few drinks…

Lessons in fact are going great. It’s so much work, and my teachers are great, though they expect me to translate everything from Chinese back into French, Russian, Japanese and Polish, so I never really am allowed to glaze over and take a back seat. I’m already speaking much better, which is mainly thanks to my housemates who have been very patient with me…

The early starts are hard to get used to. I’m up at 6 every day, but most westerners start work at 10 and finish late, around 9pm, so by the time you hang out with people, you should already be getting ready to sleep! Argh. That’s something I’m going to have to get used to.

Would be good to hear from people back home at some point!

First day in China.

I've already written this to a mate, so I thought I'd just post it on my blog to let everyone read this.

It’s about 6 am, I can’t sleep as it’s touching 40 degrees here. Plus the fact my body clock is all messed up…

Well the flight was not so long, yet I didn’t sleep a wink. I was way too excited to sleep. That and I’d met two Australian girls in front of me, who kept the banter going, and a Chinese girl who spoke amazing English.

I got off the plane and as we walked towards passport control, there are these cameras on tripods, which are heat sensitive. Of course, me being one of the lads with a heart warmer-than-others, I got stopped and put into the quarantine area for a while to check my temperature. They checked my ears and temperature of my armpits to see whether I was a potential swine flu victim, and after a short while, they let me go. I met a really friendly American girl in the quarantine area – we decided they were picking on us just because we were white!



Passport control was so simple, and the people in Beijing Capital airport were so helpful. I got through the main gate, and met Serina (who I now have to call Jingyi as that’s her Chinese name) alone with my two new Chinese flatmates. I tried telling a joke when I arrived, which always goes down well. My jokes aren’t funny in English, but in Chinese – I’m hilarious! Oh and I’m living with a couple; a guy called Wang Zhi, who does IT and is always making jokes and very intelligent, and his girlfriend Liu Jia, a girl from Xinjiang who is great fun to talk to. You should hear her on her phone, always smiling, talking loudly to her mates and shouting at people. They’re both mathematicians but very outgoing. I’m really lucky being landed with these two.


We registered at the Police station after a journey through the Beijing Underground. It was so strange being stared at but at first, I thought nothing of it. I guess being tall, with fair hair and green eyes would get some looks initially, though it is Beijing, and there are a few foreigners here (though I’ve yet to see one!).

Being stared at was nothing compared to our trip to the supermarket. The one thing you have to remember about China is that the population density is double that of the UK, so the supermarket is rammed. Not only that, but people all stare at me. They stop in their stride and their eyes follow me across the shop gawping at me. Either that or they stare at me and crash their trolley into the stack of instant noodles, which was f*cking hilarious. I wish I had the banner ‘epic fail’ to bring out at that point. Wang and Liu think it’s great. We were walking down the street and some guy just took a photo of me. I would have posed given the chance but hey, maybe next time. Also when in restaurants, every waitress goes bright red at the sight of me, and the restaurant goes deathly silent when I speak Chinese.

Maybe it’s the area I’m living in. I’m living in Haidian, an area in which most the Universities are. But living in a block of flats with Chinese people, means that that in itself is unusual; most foreigners live in Uni accommodation or in the ‘expensive’ area of Beijing. So I guess I’m the local celebrity. I was told not to buy apples on my own, or they’ll be triple in price. However, that it good, as I did try to order apples but I had to ask three times as the old woman was mesmerised by my big English, ahem, eyes. The golden moment was when in the supermarket buying bedding, some lady was staring at me so hard she crashed into a pyramid of instant noodles!



Speaking Chinese isn’t as bad as I thought. I worked hard on the speaking over summer, but my housemates speak a bit of English, though I think my Chinese is better, yet it’s nice to just talk in English now and then when I can’t remember the odd word. I’m also quite confident to talk, I make a lot of mistakes but my housemates understand me, and we spend most of the time laughing.

We ate so much yesterday. We had some spicy dish with garlic, beef, chilli and celery. Some pumpkin buns and the biggest two plates of roast duck you could imagine. All for just under 10 quid for three people! The restaurants are crazy, everyone shouts and there’s so much happening all at once, but it’s really good fun.

Facebook is blocked, though I can get on it. I'm just using a good proxy.

Be good!