{"id":1025,"date":"2023-09-06T09:27:35","date_gmt":"2023-09-06T08:27:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/?p=1025"},"modified":"2023-09-20T12:58:39","modified_gmt":"2023-09-20T11:58:39","slug":"a-brit-in-beijing-my-first-trip-to-china","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/2023\/09\/06\/a-brit-in-beijing-my-first-trip-to-china\/","title":{"rendered":"A Brit in Beijing: my first trip to China"},"content":{"rendered":"

Jeremy Boyle (BSc Biology), who recently graduated from Bath, learned Mandarin Chinese during his studies. He visited China for the first time this summer and shares his impressions of the country and how his trip dramatically improved his language skills.<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

This summer, I seized an opportunity to go to Beijing, my first time in China. While I had been to neighbouring Japan, Beijing was unlike anywhere I had been to before.<\/p>\n

Seeing the sights<\/h2>\n

\"Jeremy<\/a><\/p>\n

I went with a Chinese friend from my course and stayed at his house, setting out each day to all the major tourist attractions in Beijing: the Summer Palace (\u9890\u548c\u56edY\u00edh\u00e9yu\u00e1n), the Great Wall (\u957f\u57ce Ch\u00e1ngch\u00e9ng), Lama Temple (\u96cd\u548c\u5bab Y\u014dngh\u00e9 g\u014dng), Tiananmen Square (\u5929\u5b89\u95e8 Ti\u0101n'\u0101nm\u00e9n), and the Forbidden City (\u6545\u5bab G\u00f9g\u014dng), just to name a few.<\/p>\n

The June sun over Beijing was ferocious, but I was adamant to make the most of my week. I\u2019ll spare you an exhaustive list of everything I ate, but there was plenty of hotpot and intestines, delicious crayfish and duck, healthy home cooking, and some oddities like pig\u2019s brain.<\/p>\n

\"Lobster<\/a>\"Temple<\/a><\/p>\n

Speaking Chinese<\/h2>\n

But I\u2019m sure what my teacher Daisy Zhu (\u6731\u8001\u5e08 Zh\u016b l\u01ceosh\u012b) is most interested in is how I fared with the language.<\/p>\n

For context, I\u2019ve been studying Chinese for four years, initially self-taught before enrolling onto the Lower Intermediate, Intermediate, and Learn Chinese with Weekly News classes with the Skills Centre<\/a>, as well as participating in the University\u2019s Virtual Exchange Programme with Xi\u2019an International University<\/a>.<\/p>\n

My intermediate Chinese served me well in simple conversations, in shops, with staff and security. I was able to handle longer conversations with my friend\u2019s family with a little help, and even started talking in Chinese to my friend. When in Rome\u2026 (\u5165\u4e61\u968f\u4fd7 R\u00f9xi\u0101ngsu\u00eds\u00fa).<\/p>\n

In a single week, I felt my feel for the language (\u8bed\u611f y\u01d4g\u01cen) improve dramatically. Frequent occasions where my language skills were wanting became a new source of motivation.<\/p>\n

Uncovering China<\/h2>\n

I think the greatest part about my trip was simply being able to see the country I had learnt so much about. Perhaps clich\u00e9, my initial motivation to study Chinese was to better understand the Chinese people, beyond abstractions and stereotypes.<\/p>\n

My limited Chinese allowed me to do just this, by hearing mainlander perspectives on everything from daily life to the economy and seeing Beijing life from the heart of national politics to the quiet traditional neighbourhoods (\u80e1\u540c h\u00fatong).<\/p>\n

I saw old China, in the magnificent bronzes in museum exhibits and traditional architecture, and new China: skyscrapers, ubiquitous QR code payments, spotless subways and facial recognition vending machines. This contrast between old and new was one of the most fascinating aspects of my trip.<\/p>\n

Travel tips<\/h2>\n

The prevalence of technology in daily life can make it tricky as a foreigner outside of the system without the right mini-apps or a Chinese bank account (many of my Alipay payments were rejected and my friend had to bail me out several times...)<\/p>\n

My word of advice is to stick with a Chinese friend or a tour group and you\u2019ll have a fantastic time.<\/p>\n

\"The<\/a><\/p>\n

What next?<\/h2>\n

With newfound motivation, I intend to keep up my Chinese with a mix of graded readers, grammar Anki decks, media immersion and talking to native speakers with apps like HelloTalk.<\/p>\n

Attending Chinese classes at the University each week helped me stay on track with my practice and greatly improved my proficiency, so now that I\u2019ve graduated I need to take extra care to make Chinese study a self-directed daily habit.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ve found that having insights into someone\u2019s language and culture is a surefire way to make friends, which helps when there are so many ethnic Chinese scientists in UK institutions and abroad (China now publishes the most academic papers of any country<\/a> after all!)<\/p>\n

I believe my cultural understanding cultivated through language learning will allow for better collaboration and competition with Chinese colleagues in the future.<\/p>\n

But I only tasted a small slice of China. I\u2019ll most definitely be back, equipped with better Chinese.<\/p>\n

Next up: Shanghai, Xi\u2019an, or who knows where?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Jeremy Boyle (BSc Biology), who recently graduated from Bath, learned Mandarin Chinese during his studies. He visited China for the first time this summer and shares his impressions of the country and how his trip dramatically improved his language skills.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1438,"featured_media":1026,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[59,175,103],"tags":[161,157,282],"class_list":["post-1025","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-foreign-languages","category-intercultural-competency","category-student-skills-ambassador","tag-china","tag-learning-mandarin-chinese","tag-mandarin-chinese"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/84\/2023\/07\/Jeremy-Boyle-800x450-1.jpg","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":686,"url":"https:\/\/blogs.bath.ac.uk\/academic-and-employability-skills\/2021\/09\/01\/ni-hao-shanghai-my-summer-internship-in-china\/","url_meta":{"origin":1025,"position":0},"title":"N\u01d0 h\u01ceo Shanghai: My summer internship in China","author":"Kerry Vevers","date":"September 1, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Guest blogger Michal Nalepa, who recently graduated from the University of Bath with a BEng in Civil Engineering, describes how learning Mandarin Chinese with the Skills Centre paved the way for a two-month summer internship in Shanghai in 2019. 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