Nik has been in China for two months now – he’s already come a long way since his first report. We’re really impressed that the Mandarin learning is coming on so fast!
Learning the language & culture
After a couple of months in China I’m starting to pick up the language; Although I am struggling with the characters, my speaking is starting to improve as well as my listening. It can be pretty frustrating when you are able to understand what somebody is saying but you’re unable to answer them!
We had a weeklong holiday because of the National Day. What I found very interesting was that we had to teach during the two weekends before the week’s holiday so that we caught up on the lost time. I felt that it made the holidays redundant but then again having a whole week off instead of just a weekend was quite refreshing.
National Day holiday trip
I went away on a trip. We went to a glass bridge which showcases the beautiful landscape of China. Although the hike up the mountain to reach the bridge was horrible, once we made it to the top it was definitely worth the views.
Because I’m white and the bridge was in an area where they don’t really get any tourists other than Chinese people, I was asked by lots of Chinese people if they could take pictures with me making me feel like more of an attraction than the glass bridge.
Winter is coming!
Another thing is that now the days are becoming incredibly short and it is pitch black by 4 pm, and the weather is starting to get pretty cold as it’s below zero. Although we know that it’s not even close to how cold it’ll get later on.
