A Heart Truly Torn
July 12th, 2006 by MarkI can’t believe I’m writing what I am right now, but since these are the feelings that pull at my heart, these are the feelings I must put to paper. I don’t want go home. I don’t know how to leave Beijing. In Taiwan, I have friends, an apartment, a job, and numerous kids counting on me to teach them, but I don’t want to go back. Everything I feel tells me to stay. I love this city.
Walking around in the bustle of the hutongs, I feel more at ease than I have in years. I’m making friends, both local and western at a prodigious rate. I’m surrounded by both the ancient and the modern. I’m in a city of 16 million, and yet, it’s the most bicycle-friendly place I’ve seen in my life. I can feel the energy of all the young who come here chasing their dreams. Why shouldn’t I stay here and do the same?
From what I’ve seen and experienced so far, this could well be the best place on the planet to be a Chinese student. I’ve saved enough money that I could live here as a full time student for two or three years without working. By the time it ran out, I’m sure I’d have skills far beyond what I would if I stayed on my current course. It would be a bit scary to bet the entirety of my hard-earned savings like that, and I don’t like the prospect of having to start over from scratch at 30. Who said dreams were free, though? If I were just concerned with saving for my old age, I’d be working and living in the US.
I could be really happy here.
:
July 20th, 2006 at 4:16 am
You should stay, then… few things in life are as hard to find as happiness.
July 20th, 2006 at 7:09 am
sounds to me like your choice is made. follow your gut; you only live once, at least we normally can’t recall our past lives, so make the most out of this one. Give me a call if you come to town this weekend.
July 21st, 2006 at 3:22 am
Mark,
but what are you gonna do with good Chinese skills? Work as an interpreter/translator? Not sure whether it’s much better than English teacher..
What about bilingual American Chinese? Do they have many more opportunities?
July 21st, 2006 at 3:44 am
I might work as an interpreter or a translator for a while for the purpose of improving my Chinese, but I’m not learning Chinese for that reason.
What will I do with good Chinese skills? I’ll live a richer life. I’ll regularly read books in Chinese, make more Chinese friends, and maybe blog more in Chinese. Most of all, I’ll have a truly multicultural view of the world.
I have several American Chinese friends, but none of them can speak Chinese as well as I can. I’m sure that becoming truly bilingual would be a big plus for them, too, though.
Are you studying English so you can be an interpreter or a translator, Vitaly?
July 21st, 2006 at 2:35 pm
Yeah..Mark… if you love staying in Beijing, you should go there.
Follow your heart. There’s no need to worried about living coz I’m sure you can find a teaching job there if you really wanna work, and compared with Taiwan,mainland’s so cheap to live.
when you can read simplified chinese,read my novel..hah..
July 21st, 2006 at 2:49 pm
oh,plus,
I’m not sure if you’ll be interested in it:
There’s a FREE one year chinese course held in Foshan University in Foshan City. It’s actually for a promotion of image.
Foshan is famous of ceramics and chinese Kongfu, the Kongfu guy Huang Feihong is well known not only in China. Founded in Jin Dynasty (AD215-316) and was given the name in Tang Dynasty (AD628),is a famous cultural city with a long history. It was one of the ancient famous cities, well known at home and abroad for its handicraft industry. It was also the biggest commodities terminal, listed as one of the “Four Terminals” in China (Beijing in the North, Foshan in the South, Suzhou in the East and Hankou in the West).
the school pay 1000$ for your flight ticket, free accommodation, 1500rmb per month as monthy living subsidy, and you’ll have an accidental insurance of 12500$ for one year.
btw,Foshan is 3-4hrs bus ride from Hongkong.
think about it, it’s a good chance to learn chinese, then you can go to Beijing for further study.
July 22nd, 2006 at 4:37 am
Mark, your question means that even my written English can’t pass for native speaker’s:-)))
No, I am not going to be a translator. I am a software engineer.
If you want to invest money into your schooling then it means that you should expect some material benefits. Education is not a hobby to do it just for fun. It should boosts careers and lead to promotions although often it doesn’t work like that. What job would you like to do if you spent two years studing?
July 22nd, 2006 at 10:40 am
sorry for my negligence
I was doing something else at the same time as I posted this information about free chinese course, so I didn’t totally read it
I personally DO NOT suggest anyone go there after reading this introduction completely and asking the guy who’s incharging this program.
sorry again.
July 22nd, 2006 at 12:09 pm
Vitaly,
I guess we have different philosophies. I used to earn more than double what do now, when I was 20 and working as a programmer. If I’d only considered schooling as a way to get more money and advance my career, I’d never have gone back to college. I see learning as it’s own goal; life isn’t just about making money.
July 22nd, 2006 at 3:21 pm
Smokey,
You didn’t post a link the first time, so I didn’ have a chance to read it. Was it some sort of scam?
July 23rd, 2006 at 6:51 am
Vitaly -
Speaking from bitter personal experience, I can assure you that with few exceptions, translation pays much less than English teaching, although it does have the advantage, at least for me, of being usually tolerable and occasionally satisfying, neither of which was true of my TESL experience.
Mark -
Beijing’s a great town, as you’ve seen, and it has a lot to offer to students of Chinese, unlike Shanghai, which is (insert obligatory swipe at Shanghai here). I can say from experience that Beida’s Chinese-language program more or less blows at the advanced level, but I’ve heard fairly good things about BLCU’s, and Beijing Normal University is meant to be pretty good as well. And the foreign community, or at least the subset of it that hangs out at the Sandglass cafe, would be happy to have you.
August 9th, 2007 at 9:04 pm
Hello!
I found your blog by accident–and I’m really glad I did. I know how you feel, because I too stand at the cusp of change, of decisions. I want to lend my support for your gut feelings and echo earlier comments — you should absolutely do what you feel is right in your heart, because if you are passionate about what you are doing, right NOW (not the future, not the future), then you should DO that. Who knows what opportunities await you? You have an incredible asset (which is bilingualism, in Chinese, no less). You can do anything you want, but this skill that you hone will stay with you throughout all that you do, so long as you harness it.