The Youth Hostel
July 8th, 2006 by MarkAfter being refused a room by six or seven other places, I finally gave up and checked into Leo’s Youth Hostel last night. It was nearly midnight when I arrived, but the street was still festive outside, and dozens of people were in the common room just inside the hostel. I went up to the desk, asked how much it was for a room, and checked in. The process was pretty quick, and there weren’t any communication difficulties with the girl at the counter, despite the gulf between her Beijing accent and my Taiwanese one. The decorations looked pretty nice, and I felt a wave of relief wash over me as I realized I’d soon be able to take a shower, much needed after my 26 hour train ride to Beijing.
Then it happened. A solidly built man lumbered up next to me and asked in a British voice, “Ah! Gone native then, have we?”
“W-what do you mean? I just got to Beijing,” I stammered.
He gave me a side-long glance and said, “You’ve been speaking Chinese with the girl over there. It is impressive, but what are you trying to prove?”
“Well, it’s a habit, actually,” I replied. “I’ve been living in Taiwan for three years, and I pretty much always speak Chinese in situations like this.”
To that, he looked genuinely shocked and asked, “But, they don’t speak Chinese in Taiwan, do they?”
“Sure they do. Look at my card.” I handed him my Taiwanese residence permit.
“Hmm… I guess that is Chinese. Well, I’m off to drink with my mates. See you later.”
With that he turned around and went back in to the common room. It was then I realized that I was as much out of place at an international youth hostel as I would have been in a local one. The room was full of energetic back-packers, nearly all English speakers, who for the most part had much less interest in China than they did in travelling in general. Some were new to China. Others, were China “experts” who had been travelling all over the country for nearly a year. I saw six or seven travellers huddled around one of these experts, a German guy who was teaching people how to pronounce the Chinese numbers and telling people how much they should expect to pay for what, “You’ve gotta watch those little stands. Like the one with the pork dumplings accross the street. They say it costs two kuai for one, but you should only pay one.”
On the way into the hostel, I’d seen the same stand, and the price of the pork dumplings was written right on the stand. They only cost six mao. The “expert” was telling everybody to pay almost double the real price! Thinking back on my experience with the rickshaw drivers, I resolved to be doubly careful; if there was one street more than any other that was full of people looking to rip off ignorant westerners, I was living on it. I then stifled a chuckle as I realized that despite never having even been within a 1000 kilometers of Beijing before, I was far more capable of doing what I wanted and getting around than any of the “experts” in the hostel. What a great feeling! On the other hand, just by the virtue of that fact, I’d likely have little in common with the other travellers and feel a bit isolated.
Another issue was just that the vast majority of the tourists in the hostel were British or British commonwealth. Despite not living there for years, I was American. After putting my things away, and showering, I went out to the common room. After a bit of wandering around and fidgeting, I saw a table that seemed a bit more jovial than the others, introduced myself and sat down.
There were four British guys and a couple of Australian girls. One of the guys, named Shawn, was a riot. He just never seemed to run out of loud, boisterous conversation, jokes, reasons to call a toast, or high spirits. I can’t remember the names of the others, except that the two Australian girls’ names each end in -ie. They’re both of Chinese decent (though it doesn’t seem like they speak or read much Chinese), and they said my Chinese name isn’t a “real name”! I wanted to tell them that my teacher who named me, a Beijinger who was at CU during my freshman year, even gave me his family name. They didn’t think 小 could be in a name, either. I was burning to ask them about the tech company owner in southern China, named 小馬, or about the previous frickin president of China, who was named 小平, but I couldn’t. I just blew it off and tried to be as affable as I could and get to know everybody.
It was a really friendly group of people, but still, I felt my “American-ness” putting distance between us. There were a few good natured ribs about me needing to learn “English” (instead of “American”) before I went back to Taiwan and continued teaching, a few comments about politics, and a few other conversational landmines to avoid. Most of all, though, I just don’t talk like they do. A third of their jokes are incomprehensible to me, and I get the impression that my way of phrasing stuff grates on their ears. The other odd thing, is that nobody really seems to know anything about Taiwan. It’s a weird feeling. Sigh, it’s a good thing they’re such a friendly group! I’d have given up completely, otherwise.
After a few hours of chatting with them, I went back to my room and hit the sack.
:
July 17th, 2006 at 8:41 pm
Mark, rest assured we Brits are not all like that…I think you may just have stumbled across a certain genre of ‘traveller’ there! Hope you have a great time in Beijing, and go a little way towards clearing up ignorance about Taiwan. 加油!
July 17th, 2006 at 9:44 pm
I remember there’s a resturant nearby Leo’s, where offers local food and has good fitment, such as old posters on the wall and old phonograph ~ I like the way the staffs yelling when people come in and get out, a long-drawn tone, sounds like singing.. it’s fun to hear that
July 17th, 2006 at 9:50 pm
I went to that restaurant twice. I love that place!
July 18th, 2006 at 8:35 am
The hardcore backpacker crowd is a curious one… I’m not sure I would say that I dislike them–they after all have a lot of experiences that I don’t–but I do think that their shallow take on every place they go is … well … shallow.
I would much rather travel more slowly but actually have some clue as to what was going on wherever I was.
That said, in my limited experience staying in hostels (once for about a week in Washington DC, once for about a week in Shanghai) I met some really cool, interesting people, a few of which I stay in touch with today.
July 18th, 2006 at 2:13 pm
Ooo… I can sympathize with most of your adventures in that hostel. It brings back some memories of a few SE-Asia experiences.
If you think being an American in a British/OZ crowd is weird then imagine an Israeli is any sort of a western crowd. The culture clash, the accent differences, plus the politics makes it pretty intense and at times - uncomfortable.
“Turning local” was also an issue among backpackers in Vietnam (and sometimes even Taiwan), as if the western world should “stick together” to maintain the aristocratic distance from the “natives”.
Brilliant.
July 18th, 2006 at 2:27 pm
Eesh -
I’ve been pretty lucky in my own hostelling experiences here, I guess, but a lot of the backpackers I’ve overheard chatting with one another have come off as sounding depressingly the same: “Yeah, I was in Laos. Smoked opium there. Then I went to Thailand. Chiang Mai was beautiful. Cambodia was just so wonderful, except for the land mines…” etc.
I like the “turning local” line, because it seems like such a wonderful Britishism. Speaking foreign languages — we can’t be having with that!
July 20th, 2006 at 12:32 am
Great stuff - but if an American and a British person can’t understand each other’s language, what hope do the rest of us have in China/Taiwan..
Part of the problem, I suspect, was that it was Beijing. You meet those kinds of “experts” in the key, popular, backpacker trail places.
July 20th, 2006 at 12:34 am
Well, I don’t normally have problems understanding British people, but once those guys start drinking, they start using a lot of slang and making a lot of references to TV shows I’ve never seen. As far as the other way’s concerned, I think they understood everything I said. They just didn’t approve!
July 21st, 2006 at 1:37 am
Interesting post. I too have spent my time in hostels mainly in SE Asia and had similar experiences to the ones posted above. I was just curious about your line “I think they understood everything I said. They just didn’t approve!” Was this because you are not a long term backpacker or because you are an American?
July 21st, 2006 at 2:11 am
They don’t like my American corruption of their language! I answer, “do you have blah blah blah” with “Yes, I do.” They’d prefer, “Yes, I have.” It’s all stuff like that.
August 4th, 2006 at 7:22 am
[...] So, no problem, right? if Americans are now teaching their young ones Chinese, then an American speaking Chinese should look natural, eh? not quite. Reading through the wonderful Mark’s Taiwanese blog “Doubting to shuo” and his “Youth hostel” experiences in Beijing I was reminded of my own experiences in Asia regarding the other side of westerners knowing Asian languages I went up to the desk, asked how much it was for a room, and checked in. The process was pretty quick, and there weren’t any communication difficulties with the girl at the counter, despite the gulf between her Beijing accent and my Taiwanese one. […] [...]
August 5th, 2006 at 11:12 pm
I found that LEO’s had more of the Thailand fun and thrills backpacker crowd while people more interested in China seems to stay at the Beijing International (atleast when i was there)
In Shanghai i really found people who were into learning about China and not the typical backpacker crowd… in Xinjiang as well… Beijing/Chengdu/Lijiang/Kunming are just the default stops on the quick route and you get all kinds of people.
On the other hand, even with all your background, aren’t you being one of those “China experts” too? I’m sure some of those backpackers have insights on travelling in China that you wouldn’t have.
August 6th, 2006 at 1:02 am
No, I wasn’t. Despite the fact that I had an easier time finding or doing pretty much anything in the city than those “experts”, I pretty much just did my own thing. It was my first time on the mainland, and I only stayed in Beijing for a week. The last thing I wanted to do was gather a crowd around me and tell them all “what China’s like”. When people specifically came to me and asked for help translating things, or writing addresses for cab drivers, I obliged, but that was it. I sure as heck wasn’t giving false information about prices or that sort of thing.
As for insights, I’m sure you’re right. There are probably a lot of experiences that someone who can’t read or communicate with the locals would have that I wouldn’t. I guess my first glimpse of the mainland was “tarnished” by the fact that I already knew Chinese. I’ll never exactly what it’s like to those backpackers. I could only try to experience a bit of the feeling vicariously by hanging out with them.