• ItGoesItGoes [he/him]
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    4 years ago

    I love to live and study in this country, I hope I can always stay here. China good.

    • Katieushka [they/them,she/her]
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      4 years ago

      Hiw is it, can you tell us more about your experience? More like cultural or accademic stuff, not necessarily politics, since i did study abroad for a little but had to quit cos it had a huge effect on my mental health

      • ItGoesItGoes [he/him]
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        4 years ago

        Sure! I'm actually glad you want to know, China is much more than politics.

        Well, as it was to be expected, everything here is different from my country. I could probably write pages and pages of curious cultural differences and so, but I will focus on a few things.

        (1) The food: just amazing, I feel like I'm at home. Spain has a great gastronomy, China is no different – we even share similar dishes (pig stomach, 油条, etc). In the West we taste bastardisations of real Chinese food; the food here is different and much more better. I personally really enjoy food from Xinjiang, I often get mistaken for someone from there too.

        I'm also surprised about how underrated and unknown Chinese food is. South American countries are famous for having the spiciest food in the world, but I'm sure Chinese beat them at it.

        (2) Education system: my teachers are just great. I don't know how it is in other countries, but in Spain teachers treat students like shit and want to make their lives a living hell (I'm not kidding, most of them are there for the power). Teachers in China treat us like equals or like parents: they care about us, they want us to learn, they are helpful and they want us to achieve our objectives. You can feel they like to teach and see their students improve.

        I also found Chinese books are more "straight forward" – at least when it comes to mathematics. No wonder why China beats records in the Mathematical Olympiad, they know how to teach them.

        (3) Peculiar things: there a lot of interesting differences, for example: you have to bring toilet paper with you because toilets tend to not have it; most toilets are squat toilets; old people dance and do exercise on squares and parks at day and night (I personally love it); a lot of neon and leds everywhere; etc.

        (4) Safety: I lived in one of the most dangerous neighborhoods of my country, but anyways, the level of safety in China is incredible.

        (5) The people: polite and respectful when you don't know them – friendly and nice when you do get to know them. Also they returned my phone on multiple occasions when they could have stole it, haha.

        To sum up: my experience has been good and I'm really enjoying the cultural differences. The only thing that has been a bit shocking and hard to watch was how wasteful some people are with plastics and so. Anyways, as Communists we have to understand that material conditions shape societal and personal priorities. Besides, certain changes take generations. No doubt the government is doing/will do something about it.

        Feel free to ask about anything else, especially if you want to know about something in particular.

        • Katieushka [they/them,she/her]
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          4 years ago

          Ok im gonna go on a tangent too even tho noone asked.

          I went to study in the netherlands when i was 16. It was supposed to be a year long thing but it ended up lasting 10 weeks for various reasons.

          A lot of ppl here praise northern europe and the NL for the great city planning. Personally i hated it, im sorry to say it. I was in a somewhat bourgie suburb town in limburg. Im from an old sea town in southern europe. It felt lifeless, without a history, and incredibly dull. I suppose i could go fast with a bike to school but it really couldnt bother me at this point.

          Going around in a bike isnt at all pleasurable. I used to take a school bus back at home, but here i had to take a bike to go around. Everyone assumed i had a driving licence for bikes (which i think is only a thing there since in most places in the world tyere are barely any bike lanes) and were kinda shocked when they found out i dibt know how to drive safely etc. Plus, in october it was already getting unreasobably cold, and i needed gloves to no get hand cramps, but i never figured out how to use an umbrella on a bike.

          Food was trash. I was hosted by a family and they sometimes did some rice and it was the only good thing they did. I cant cook, idk if thats weird for a 16 yo, so i couldnt show anything from my country. We litterally had one day a week where they only did fries. I didnt have lunch with them, only dinner. Breakfast and lunch had to be made by me and consumed at school, so i had brown bread sandwiches for two months straight twice a day. I think i lost around 10-15 pounds.

          The family was very liberal but in the bad sense of the word. I barely fekt any connection with them. Being around them alwats felt like a chore i had to put up with. My abroad study system didnt give us therapists or psycologists to talk to, which is a thing they grant you in other programs. So most of the stuff that happened to me had to stay within me. When they forcibly ended the program for me i got to talk to them about the stuff that i had enduring (some bullying here and there, people wanting me to stay away from them) they actually got angruer at me. They really wanted me to speak dutch, but i always felt too embarassed to try.

          The organizers and coordinators for this were such bitches, im sorry to say it. Other students agreed, they were really annoying and non-understanding. Everytime mine came to visit was only ever for bad behavior complains. Which mostly meant not being as sociable and more reclusive than theyd like.

          Now for some good stuff. Teachers were great, mostly young, mostly fun to talk to, mostly understanding of my situation.i say mostly cos there was this one litterature teacher who didnt have compassion for my non understanding of dutch and wanted her homework in dutch only, even tho she spoke english.

          I had two friends, one who was a texan also studying abroad, another one was a dutchie with vietnamese origins, they were the only reliably cool ones. All the white dutch people were always somewhat opposed to me, especially girls (Guys, whats wrong with your women).

          Lotsa muslim people which i all found interesting to talk to and compassionate, more so than the other ones. In my country there really arent culturally different people, they are all the same brand of european.

          Almost everyone spoke English. That was cool.