End of my Shanghai Stay… End of my Chinese Mission?

Ten months ago, I came back to Slovakia. So how did my stay in China go?

Life in China

The beginnings were a bit rough. You realize how much your life depends on a certain set of apps and websites only when they become basically useless. Getting used to Chinese counterparts takes a bit of practice, especially when you’re still not good enough in the language and most of the apps can’t be switched in English. On the other hand, that's perfect for a deep dive in the language.

It took me some time to find a place to stay. The prices of food, subway or taxi are very affordable in Shanghai. The same cannot be said about the rent. In the end, I managed to find a one room appartment very close to the Nanjing Road (which can be considered to be the most central part of Shanghai). The rent was about 750 € for some 50 m². Not the cheapest, but the view was definitely worth it. And I needed a good place to work and study, since I was about to spend a lot of time there.

View from my flat

View from the hallway of the building I lived in

Fudan University main meadow
and Guanghua Towers

As soon as the classes started, my weekdays were quite full. Fudan University offers 10 levels of Chinese courses. I enrolled in the level 3, but after a week, downgraded to level 2. Not because of the difficulty, but the level 2 had classes in the morning, whilst 3 and 4 in the afternoon, so it was a better fit with my full-time job. From Monday to Friday I went to classes and at around 14:00, I came back to my flat to work. That was about the same time my European colleagues started working, so it was a perfect fit.

For a European, learning Chinese means doing three things: Learning how to read, to speak and to write, as opposed to just having to learn to speak and read when learning a language with a Latin Alphabet. If you’re learning another European language, writing comes much easier together with reading. So I spent most of the weekends practising writing and reading. Of course, there was time for exploring and trips as well, although not as much as I’d wish.

My Chinese

During that one semester, I was supposed to climb levels 2 & 3. I was trying to work on my writing as much as possible, to burn in my memory those 900 characters that I was supposed to master. Because of the cell phones and the way young Chinese write—using Latin transliteration of the characters called Pinyin—you’re fine even if you don’t remember how to write a character, as long as you remember how to read it & how to use it.

Many people complimented on my speaking. Supposedly, I spoke much better than the second level. I was trying to “put myself out there” and tried initiating a conversation with the locals even if I could barely say anything. That probably helped. It was enough to find Chinese friends and in one case even to be invited in their home city (Wuxi). But I am still a beginner. I can a do a small talk via a cell phone without a dictionairy, but for more complex topics, I need to use a translator.

Trip to Wuxi

Trip to Jiangxi province

I passed the final test with relatively high result (90 % something). I am able to perform basic tasks—ask for directions, buy stuff, have a small talk, understand the basic meaning of various signs or restaurant menus. Knowing 900 characters puts me somewhere between HSK 3 and 4, the equivalent of which in CEFR is A2.

I fulfilled my dream of standing on the Bund (Shanghai riverside), looking towards the Shanghai Pudong skyscrapers and then returning to my flat… in Shanghai.

Does it end here?

I jumpstarted my Chinese as planned and now can continue to study on my own. I am happy I leveled up in this beautiful language. I bought a set of books for the next two levels (around 12 textbooks) and will continue to learn on my own. I am happy this chapter of my Chinese mission fulfilled its goal and I’m looking forward to improving my language skills further.