再见 Shanghai!

November 14, 2008 was my last day studying in Shanghai and I hope to offer a quick word or two on how the experience ended, my thoughts on progress in Mandarin, and also some thoughts inspired by my visits to date of Beijing, Korea, and Japan and thoughts on whether my strategy of learning Mandarin prior to travel in Asia was a good one.

First, words on language acquisition. After seven weeks of intensively studying Mandarin in Shanghai, I think that I have reached a solid understanding of basic Mandarin and that I have the tools to both remember and build upon what I know about the language. I’m trying to figure out how to best go about not forgetting what I’ve learned, and I feel that a very important tool will be all of the notes that I took down while in Shanghai. Not only are they filled with new words, but idiomatic phrases that offer further insights into the language and which are best “internally” understood – i.e. to be understood as being within the Mandarin language and not just through translation. In addition, my notebooks are also filled with Chinese characters and musings upon the characters: playing around with them, repeatedly writing them, “studying” the different parts and proportions, and taking notes on similar characters. All of this work being encoded in written form gives me hope that even just a simple review of the notes will, in the future, quickly bring me up to speed to where I was in learning the language if I am ever able to take up further formal studies of Mandarin.

After leaving Shanghai, I went first to Beijing by train (in a hard-seater carriage, where I sat for thirteen hours without getting up until we had arrived at the capital!). On the train I tried to pull out my notes for continued studying, particulary of characters, but I quickly found that the limited space around me was not too suitable to take the notes that I wished to take, and also I saw that as soon as I brought out the materials several people around me were interested in conversation. Some of the conversation I could follow and other parts were very difficult. As in any country, the manner in which Mandarin is spoken varies widely by geographic location, education and class, and situation, among other factors. Whereas I had grown very accustomed to my Mandarin teachers’ spoken variety, the streets of Shanghai were filled both with Shanghainese and also the Shanghai accent of the Mandarin language. On the train, I was suddenly exposed to the Beijing accent where, to be bluntly honest, it sounds as if every spoken word is immediately eaten up somewhere in the middle to the back of the mouth of the speaker, making it quite difficult to understand what is spoken. It is this Mandarin that you will come across mostly with cab drivers, on the street with food sellers, with shopkeepers, etc. As such, therefore, it is necessary to become accustomed to it, although outside those very interactions it is difficult to come across these types of difficult accents because both on television and in the classroom, it is standard Mandarin which you hear and study.

In any case, arriving in Korea I realized just how much of Mandarin I had learned. I had immediate and instinctive responses as to what to say in most or all situations – be it in interactions with shopkeepers, in restaurants, on the street – where anywhere in China I could have easily used Mandarin but in Korea we were mainly left quite … silent. It was both frustrating and encouraging at the same time – frustrating because I suddenly could not communicate with those around me, but encouraging because it left me to realize exactly how much I had learned while in China. In addition, in Korea there are some Chinese-derived characters in use, although mostly in historical or very official contexts it seemed.

Having now arrived in Japan, there are many more Chinese-derived characters in use (kanji) but they are difficult to decipher for several reasons: (1) they are often or always intermixed with phonetic Japanese characters; (2) they appear to often or always be of the traditional Chinese variety; and (3) it seems that the meaning of some of the characters is not exactly that as used within Chinese. But despite these, my eye does tend to be drawn to them and sometimes it helps to recognize some of the characters on products or menus to at least begin to get a sense of what’s there. As a result, I’m again happy with my choice of studying Mandarin first – and spending time with the characters – and then traveling through East Asia.

The remaining tests will be Taiwan and Singapore. In Taiwan, Mandarin is spoken but traditional characters are used, so I will be very happy to be able to use my Mandarin once again. I will probably also resume studying my notebook of words and some phrases to continue increasing my spoken vocabulary, and hopefully I will remember the structures that I learned while studying in Shanghai.

And to finish off this entry, just a couple words on what I did my last day or two. On Friday, November 14, one of my classmates from France, Brigitte, had the idea to head to Shanghai’s art district (sort of like Beijing’s 798) and have a look around and grab some lunch. This turned out pretty great – the area is rather compact, free to get in everywhere, and the café we chose had food that was great and well-priced. The sculptures – contemporary for the most part – were stimulating and interesting. There were several studios we stepped in as well. I posted photos from this visit onto my Facebook account.

That same Friday evening we also did our traditional meal at the hotpot restaurant, returning to the Nanjing Lu location. Armed again with our translations and also memories of the previous week’s successful and not-so-successful orderings, we had a great time for even less money than before, or about 35 RMB per person (or under US $6). With plenty of left over, a smaller group then continued on to one of what seemed to be a popular ex-pat bar, not far from Nanjing Xi Lu but the name escapes me. We were able to get in a couple beers and also Sebastian, one of my classmates, and Ben, a roommate, encouraged us to try flaming up some Sambuca shots in our mouths.

Here’s a brief explanation of that process: You buy a shot of Sambuca. Don’t light it in the shotglass too much or the alcohol may be burned away and not leave enough for the cool part. Then, in a quick succession of movements, do the following: (1) dip a finger into the shot, (2) pour the shot into your mouth as someone simultaneously lights your finger on fire, (3) poke your finger into your Sambuca-filled mouth (as your head is tipped backwards so that the flames don’t burn your upper lip or nose), lighting the Sambuca inside, (4) put out the fire on your finger, which will begin to burn a little by this point and has probably singed off any hair you had on your finger. (Doing this on your own might be hard, so just have a friend “spot” you and help you put out your finger-fire.) Having done all of this, you don’t really feel the flame rising out of your mouth, and you can hold it there for a while I think.

* A serious word of caution, though: Do NOT blow the Sambuca out of your mouth, because everything it hits might potentially catch on fire. All you need to do to put out the flame is close your mouth – which shuts off the oxygen supply to the flame and promptly and safely puts it out. If you spit anything out, you might burn your face and have anything else onto which the alcohol lands catch on fire. Just to illustrate an angle of this, when I had one of my Sambuca shots lit on fire, as I picked it up, it spilled a little bit onto the table and my jeans – spilling not only the sticky liquid but also a blue flame. Quick action put it all out, though.

So that was my last night in Shanghai. The next morning and throughout the day I was able to post my belongings out back home which saved on space and weight in my suitcase to prepare for my next phases of travel. I also had a bunch of errands to run, including setting up finances and all of that to last the rest of my trip. This being done, I bought some snacks for the long train to Beijing, and headed off in the early evening after enjoying some dumplings with my flatmates.