Babi 2 Club in Chengdu, one of the best Chinese clubs I know.

To answer this question we have to look at Chinese values for a moment. Money ranks very high in the Chinese value system. Like it or not, a big wallet in China is an indicator of your importance in the society. In fact Chinese people mostly believe all white faces are rich. Surveys among Chinese women have show that money ranks among the most important factors for choosing a partner.

What does that have to do with sponsored drinks in China? If have accepted drinks more then once during your time in China, you may have observed something interesting. Sometimes it happens, sometimes not. This Chinese guy just offered you a drink. You accepted and he leaves the table. Only you and the ladies are left there at the table. What this guy did is, he just showed that he is economically superior and you are dependent on his beer (in a economical sense). While it may sound strange from the Western point of view, it makes quite sense from the Chinese viewpoint. What can be done?

If you plan to visit a certain location more than once you should consider buying your own drinks. Otherwise the lovely Chinese females may come to the conclusion that you really are a beggar and have no financial power. Another good idea is to visit two different places and dedicate one to get drunk, where you accept any drink offered, and another place where you pay for yourself and have a higher status.

So how to handle the situation? The best case is to have your own drink. The second best is the accept the drink immediately, smile, and say “Thanks dude”. The worst case is to say “no” for a while, only to give in afterwards and accept the drink. In this case you really subordinated yourself to the other guy and appear to be his tool. Don’t do that. I hope I could give some insight on Chinese nightlife to you. If you like to add something, feel free to comment. Cheers!

2010 professional career plans

This is straightforward for the first few months of 2010, however after that a lot depends on where I do get my first job. Asia or Europe.

• Finish my studies: First, I need to get my studies done in 2010. This is the main goal above all the others in 2010. This should happen sometime in spring 2010.
• Getting a job: After my studies are done, I need to get a job. Either by working at some company, or just by starting a new company.
• Student Loan: I have a student loan worth about 8000 Euro. By December 31. 2010 I want to pay off this loan.
• Asia or The Western World? Another question I have to think about (I thought about this a long time now, and I’m still confused). While the payment in the West is better, there is nothing like drinking green tea in a quiet teahouse, surrounded by lush trees, tea with freshly picked green tea leaves, nothing like the beautiful women of East Asia, and nothing like the tasty food available only in China. I have to make a decision on this, somehow.
• Design Patterns: We touched the subject of design patterns during my studies, however not in depth. Right now in January I want to work through the book Head First Design Patterns to get more knowledge about design patterns and applying them in software projects.
• J2EE or JavaME? J2EE pays better, however I have more experience in JavaME at the moment. During my studies I did a course on J2EE, however it only covered some of the rough basics. A friend gave me some book called Head First Servlets & JSP (Yea, the Head First series is really hot at the moment in IT). I want to work through this massive tome early this year, so I have a solid foundation choosing a job in either J2EE or JavaME.

2010 Chinese learning plans

My Chinese is progressing slowly, to slowly. It suffers most from not being in an Chinese speaking environment. While I do want to change this, life doesn’t allow me to just go. So I’ve been looking for some substitutes.

• Reading: My focus this year is getting my Chinese character recognition up to speed. From around 500 now to about 2000 at the end of the year. I’ll use the same strategy as previously. Reading Chinese books. I’ve previously mentioned the Chinese Breeze graded reader books, and I’ll continue to read these and then use some other material.
• Listening: Getting my ear in shape to understand spoken mandarin is essential. I’ve been using my BlackBerry and earphones to listen to Chinese podcasts while going to university, or just going anywhere. Unfortunately I stopped when my earphones broke apart and I didn’t buy new ones. I going to bey some just next week. Furthermore I want to watch some Chinese TV series on the internet. Overall I want to listen to at least five hours of Chinese a day.
• Speaking: I have a few Chinese friends, however we don’t speak Chinese for convenience. I want to change this and at least use Chinese for some parts of our conversation.
• Vocabulary: I want to learn the vocabulary of HSK 1 and HSK 2, so I can remember these with confidence. I still need to find some good learning tools for this.

One last change: Previously when I addressed my readers, I always used the capital “Y” in words like you, your, etc… From now on I will use the small caps “y” in addressing you, according to proper English grammar.

2010, here I am!

You can find the Chinese breeze books at Chinabooks.ch and StudyChineseCulture.com.

Another thing 2009 was that in the summer semester I performed way better than in the winter semester. This happend to me in 2008 and also in previous years. In spring and summer I’m full of energy, while in the autumn and winter I need to push myself to get going. I need to change this. Either with coffee or by staying in Australia from September to February.

I also visited Shanghai in summer 2009. I went there with a friend and my feeling about the trip is 马马虎虎. My friend showed me a lot of interesting places, however I had few chances to use my mandarin, because we normally talk German. Next time I won’t bring anyone along and instead mingle with the locals.

A frequently recurring theme during the second half of 2009 was my thinking about plans of the time after my studies. Nothing is decided, everything is possible. We will see how it works out at some point. My readers have me given a lot of thoughtful advice and I’m very thankful for this. I’m still considering the various alternatives and I guess this is one of the most difficult questions of my life so far. I guess I will write more about this in the future, as this topics still occupies a major part of my thinking capacity.

Finally Yo Learn Chinese is now a little bit older than two years. A long time and I get more and more readers. A fact I like very much as it satisfys my persisiting need for changing the public opinion towards a harmonous society

Overall 2009 was okay, but there is definitely room for improvement. Just a little bit better than then Copenhagen outcome.

• Why do I want to go to Asia? I made my personal reasons clear in countless posts here on the blog. But the question remains. Why did that happen to me? Why am I different from the rest of the population who just wants to stay at home and never move to another village? Life would be so much easier if I just desired to stay in Germany. Genes?
• I hope I can prove that Aremonus’ words are right. I was looking around recently and could find a few people who told me how they got to China or Asia right after their graduation. But none of them got a German salary right of the bat. Not even close (I’m not talking English teachers here, people with real jobs). Will I be able to secure that German salary somewhere in Asia?
• If my first job is in Germany, how long do I have to wait until I can get to Asia?
• And what opportunities will I miss by not being there?

Many questions, few answers….

During my study of Chinese I encountered a number of problems. I had certain problems in the beginning, that disappeared later and new problems which came up just recently.

At the beginning problems seemed small and motivation was high. However over time I wanted to say more complicated things including passive voice and conditional sentences. Until now these more advanced structures pose a real problem for me and I have not yet sliced through them. I wish I get through them eventually. The slow learning speed is really irritating and causes major headache for me.

School Chinese is not real Chinese. Before I went to China for the first time I had one year of evening school Chinese. And I could say so many things then. At least that is what I believed. Arriving in China was a shocking revelation. I was barely able to understand anything above Ni Hao. However with intensive exposure to the language on that trip I quickly became used to the local flavor of Mandarin Chinese.

Lacking learning material. Many Chinese textbooks are pretty boring compared to learning material in other languages. Why is that I don’t know. The stories are boring and remind me of the seriousness of a funeral speech. Maybe China is a very political country, but they could make an effort and add more fun to the Chinese textbooks. There is indeed material out there that is better and also incorporates more street language, but it takes time to find it. I’ve never written any book recommendations on this blog, but I think I have to do that to help my readers to find the gold nuggets in the worthless river sand. There are a few shiny pearls out there.

Native speakers who can only speak Chinese. While it is easy to find Chinese people here in Germany they motivation to talk Chinese with me is limited. They want to learn German and their German is better than my Chinese, so German is the natural language of choice. I wish there were Chinese people in Germany who cannot speak English and cannot speak German. That would make things easier for me.

Motivation. Motivation is a race for me that sometimes runs fast like a moonrocket, then moves as slowly as a frozen turtle. With the current outlook that I have to stay in Germany after my graduation for work my Motivation is at an all time low. For the last two weeks I didn’t even get my ass up to go to the evening course. This is a really sad story at the moment, but times can change quickly

Time. That is something we never have enough of. After my internship in China in spring/summer 2008 I really stepped up my efforts on my studies. At the same time I had less time for other things like learning Chinese. After that internship my studies became really important to me, so the Chinese learning had to suffer and still suffers because of this very reason.

That’s it so far from my personal perspective. Problems are many as you can see. But let’s not get distracted. China has a great present and future in terms of economics and women. There are many reasons to learn Chinese indeed. Let me add another appealing female reason at the end of this post. And don’t forget to check out the Learning Chinese difficulties post at MKL. Happy learning!

My apartment had a great view of high rises, medium sized houses and a park. Going to the park took just 5 minutes. Very convenient.

Hong Kong plans busted

A few of my readers know me quite well and they know my plan was to go to Hong Kong next spring after graduating. Unfortunately this plan vanished. For those who don’t know I’ll give a short overview of my original plan: After graduation in spring I wanted to go to Hong Kong and start working in a small software company. Recently we discussed about the possibilities, but it didn’t work out really, so I have to think now what next. Obviously the days are over when expats got insane salaries just for being an expat. The unhappy end to this unique opportunity came as I tried to balance cold money and quality of life. I have discussed this endless question previously in a long article. My opinion on this issue changed to some degree, but not that much… I guess I’m getting old. Being unemployed is as worthless as having a stressful full time job but no money at all. An equal balance of time, quality of life and money is necessary to remain happy.

So I wonder if I should send job applications to IT companies in Asia, or if this is wasted energy. My skills should be sufficient and I have no doubt a few companies would give me the opportunity of a job interview, however the payment won’t be sufficient for me. I’m out of the age of adventures. The age any payment would do… maybe even no payment. Alternatively I can apply for work in Germany, get skills and work experience and then move to Asia afterwards.

Asia

Yes, I don’t limit myself to China anymore. During the last few days I read a lot about other interesting places in Asia outside of mainland China. Except the obvious Hong Kong there are two other candidates that got my attention. First there is the other China, also known as Taiwan, and then there is the financial center of Singapore. Japan and South Korea are both interesting from a economic perspective, but language wise I’d start all over again. Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia might be another choice, although not that attractive at the moment.

Other roads

Do I really have to move to Asia directly after graduating? For a long time I thought: YES! But well, why not get some skills in Germany first? Payment is wonderful here, the tax rate painfully high. But that doesn’t matter really. It’s important what is left after all taxes, insurances, food, apartment and entertainment are paid. I’m pretty sure I’ll find something satisfying here in Germany. Maybe that company has some ties in Asia and they might even send me there.

Doing it the Tim Ferris way

There is another option still. For those who don’t know Tim Ferris, you should check the Tim Ferris Website. This smart fellow is the author of the best seller “The 4-hour workweek”, where he shows up ways to get a satisfying life and join the new rich. I definitely want to write a longer article about his book, but here is the short version: Start a company then reduce the amount of work you have to put in, just rake in the money. He suggests that once the company is started it should put on auto-pilot. This way the owner has the freedom to do whatever he wants to. Sounds easy? Well, maybe not. But the idea itself is clear and smart. I’ve collected a few skills in the IT world already and might put them to work. This would provide me with the freedom I desire (and a name card with the title CEO ).

I’ll keep you posted on this matter. This is constantly on my mind, so you can expect an update on this sooner or later.

This is a question everyone of us faces sooner or later. The more dreamy of us might be a musician, the lazybones might try English teacher, hard working people might get into some management position, but what do smart people do? Right, they join the rich people! This little Chinese girl had the same idea, check out her words during an interview:

Some first graders talk about their future. The girl at minute 1.58 – 2.07 is particularly ambitious.

“你长大了想做什么？” “想做官。”
“做什么样的官呢？”
“做……贪官，因为贪官有很多东西。”

Let’s keep it real: At least she wants to have a job, opposed to some lazy Chinese women who just want to marry a rich man. Good girl, I like ambitious women. To bad she is anonymous, otherwise I’d like to follow her and see how her career is going on. Let’s have a look at todays words.

贪官 tan1 guan1 – corrupt official

This is not the right time for dreamers, keeping it real is the way to go!

What happened?

First of all, this spring semester in university was the hardest ever for me. Basically I solved the most difficult 50% classes of my entire Bachelor studies in just this semester. A fact that also makes me very happy and proud. Furthermore I learned a lot of Chinese this spring. Besides learning a lot of words I also got through the 6 books of the lowest level of Chinese Breeze Reader. I’m going to write some more words about each of these books soon. Two months ago I could barely read the simplest Chinese characters, now I can confidently read about 500 different characters, which is hell of an increase for me. Before I focused on hearing and speaking, but left out reading. Actually it made sense to not read early on, but now is the right time for me to catchup with reading. And finally I visited some relatives in Lithuania, a nice country after all, good for some relaxing times in the nature and fishing and vodka.

What’ next?

For August and beginning of September I plan of improving my Chinese further. Suddenly being able to read these 500 characters gives me the motivation to learn another 500. To strengthen my learning I also want to write some Chinese Flashcard Software for my BlackBerry. I know there is a huge variety of free flashcard software available, but those for the BlackBerry all don’t satisfy my needs, so I will write a piece of software on my own (You might be able to buy a copy for a small fee once it is finished and support me to buy a new Ferrari ).

In Mid September I’m going to Shanghai! This is a long time dream for me and now it’s the right time to visit the big one at the shores of the 黄浦江 (Huángpǔ jiāng). The tickets are booked, I already got my visa. I plan to stay there for about 3 weeks and I think this is a good chance to practice my Chinese. I’m also thinking if I should buy one of those super small notebooks, also known as netbooks, as my normal notebook is to heavy, but such an electronic device could come in handy. I’m going to decide next week.

Beginning in October I will start to write my Bachelor thesis, further deepen my Chinese knowledge and get ready to jump into my life after university. You can also expect a lot of posts after my Shanghai trip, as I will have a lot of fresh material to post here. Until then, stay tuned!