This is going to be a boring post.
As requested by a good friend, I am going to start adding phonetic enunciation. Though pinyin (the romanization of Chinese characters) can usually be sounded out using phonics, there are notable exceptions that don't follow the logical (or illogical) patterns of English. The complication in using the roman alphabet to symbolize Chinese words is largely based on the lack of any sort of alphabet in China. Without going too much in depth, the character 馬 means horse. The lines and shape of the character have nothing to do with how the word is spoken. Absolutely nothing. Despite this, you would read this character as "ma." The problem in translation and transliteration between languages is that the alphabet limits the speaker to the the sounds defined by that language. So when using the phonetic sounds of English to say Chinese words, many of the sounds required for the language fall outside of the limits of our native tongue.
So to compensate for this discrepancy, letters and combinations of letters take on different sounds. For example:
zh = j (as in Joseph), Zhonggua (Middle Kingdom) is spoken as "Jong-gua"
c = ts (as in whats), Zhongqua Cai (Chinese food) is spoken as "Jong-gua tsai"
z = ds (as in words), Zaoshang (morning) is spoken as "dsao-shang"
q = ch (as in change), Qingdao (Green Island) is "Ching-dao"
x = sh (as in wish), xiexie (thank you) is spoken as shyeah shyeah.
There are many more little quirks that I am not going to teach you. Instead, I will try to remember to give phonetic enunciation of Chinese words in the future. The best online dictionary for translating Chinese can be found at Yellow Bridge. Also, for those of you who have no interest in learning any Chinese, don't worry about tones. They will confuse and frustrate, though I might post something about them later. Probably when I'm struggling with them on a daily basis.
In summary, in three weeks time I will be moving to Qingdao (Ching-dao). Questions?
Tuesday, June 15, 2010
Monday, June 14, 2010
I'm moving to Qingdao, China
This blog is going to serve as a venue for my thoughts and observations during the months (or years) I spend in the Middle Kingdom. As far as content goes, I'll try to be informative about the issues of living daily life in different culture, my personal interactions with people, and the coping mechanisms employed to pass idle time. What does this mean? Basically, that I'll write what I want and you can read it if you want, or you can just scroll down and look at the pictures. Either way, this exercise is for me as much as anyone else, but hope it is enlightening for us all.
First thing is first. Most people I know have very little knowledge of China. So I'm going to attempt to give a brief explanation of what I think I am walking into. According to Wikipedia, Qingdao has been a center for human activity for as long as 6,000 years. That doesn't really apply here, but the fact that the Germans fortified the city and gave it its namesake in the 1890s does matter. The first photos I saw of Qingdao reminded me of Bern, Switzerland (Both pictured below. You can guess which photo is of Qingdao by the smog). The German influence in the city gives it the distinction of brewing the only Chinese beer you have ever had or heard of, Tsingtao.
The urban portion of the city boasts around 3 million residents, while the growing sprawl bumps that number up to 8 million. This might seem large in comparison to the U.S., but if you consider the number of Chinese cities with over 1 million people, it becomes less significant. This cool graphic from Chinfographics.com puts things in perspective.
The city is a beach town with a comparable latitude to San Fransisco, and sees a large number of tourists in the summer months. It is not far from Korea or Japan, and is half way between Beijing and Shanghai.
View Larger Map
A few quick notes about the country itself. Since the early 80's China has undergone complete economic reforms that have successfully shifted the nation from Communists to Capitalists. Mao's successor, Deng Xiaoping pushed concepts like "Poverty is not socialism. To be rich is glorious" and "Let some people get rich first." Since this has happened, China's economy has grown exponentially, completely transforming the entire country on every level conceivable. A glimpse of Shanghai's changing skyline over the years is a solid representation of what's been happening. With the growing economies, cities have ballooned with immigrants from the rural countryside. This shift of population from rural to urban (and west to east) is the largest movement of people in human history. Though the quality of life for all Chinese has improved substantially, the migrant population and factory economy has led to a large disparity of wealth and complicated urban dynamics. The long term environmental impact of rapid industrialization on the population has yet to be determined, though the issue was emerged on the world stage during the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Leading up to the events, Qingdao served as a focus for media attention due to the amount of algae in the water.
As far as the specifics of the what my day-to-day life will be like, I can only venture to guess. Qingdao is one of the wealthier cities in the nation, and the area I will be living and working appears to be clean and aesthetically pleasing. I plan on eating lots and lots of food, exploring large portions of the city on foot, while searching out any sort of local music and arts scene. I'll keep you updated as events unfold. Oh, and I leave in three weeks.
First thing is first. Most people I know have very little knowledge of China. So I'm going to attempt to give a brief explanation of what I think I am walking into. According to Wikipedia, Qingdao has been a center for human activity for as long as 6,000 years. That doesn't really apply here, but the fact that the Germans fortified the city and gave it its namesake in the 1890s does matter. The first photos I saw of Qingdao reminded me of Bern, Switzerland (Both pictured below. You can guess which photo is of Qingdao by the smog). The German influence in the city gives it the distinction of brewing the only Chinese beer you have ever had or heard of, Tsingtao.
The urban portion of the city boasts around 3 million residents, while the growing sprawl bumps that number up to 8 million. This might seem large in comparison to the U.S., but if you consider the number of Chinese cities with over 1 million people, it becomes less significant. This cool graphic from Chinfographics.com puts things in perspective.
The city is a beach town with a comparable latitude to San Fransisco, and sees a large number of tourists in the summer months. It is not far from Korea or Japan, and is half way between Beijing and Shanghai.
View Larger Map
A few quick notes about the country itself. Since the early 80's China has undergone complete economic reforms that have successfully shifted the nation from Communists to Capitalists. Mao's successor, Deng Xiaoping pushed concepts like "Poverty is not socialism. To be rich is glorious" and "Let some people get rich first." Since this has happened, China's economy has grown exponentially, completely transforming the entire country on every level conceivable. A glimpse of Shanghai's changing skyline over the years is a solid representation of what's been happening. With the growing economies, cities have ballooned with immigrants from the rural countryside. This shift of population from rural to urban (and west to east) is the largest movement of people in human history. Though the quality of life for all Chinese has improved substantially, the migrant population and factory economy has led to a large disparity of wealth and complicated urban dynamics. The long term environmental impact of rapid industrialization on the population has yet to be determined, though the issue was emerged on the world stage during the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. Leading up to the events, Qingdao served as a focus for media attention due to the amount of algae in the water.
As far as the specifics of the what my day-to-day life will be like, I can only venture to guess. Qingdao is one of the wealthier cities in the nation, and the area I will be living and working appears to be clean and aesthetically pleasing. I plan on eating lots and lots of food, exploring large portions of the city on foot, while searching out any sort of local music and arts scene. I'll keep you updated as events unfold. Oh, and I leave in three weeks.
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