Which pocket chinese translator?

I want to buy a pocket electronic translator. Looking things up in my dictionary is too annoying. It's big and heavy, and doesn't even have 'marketing' in it. It has Market, but not Marketing.

In class, many students have pocket translators. The best I have seen is a Sony Clie PDA, apparently with this one you can write chinese onto it using the pen.

I'm looking for a pocket translator with a pen. I saw some of these in HK - shoudl really have bought one then. I suppose one that understood both traditional as well as simplified chinese would be ideal, but maybe simplified would suffice for now. If it did do both, it would be nice if it could translate from simplified chinese to traditional chinese.

Also, given that one of these translator things will probably cost about 2-3000 rmb (200 pounds?) I need to see if I can get good software instead for my HP Ipaq PocketPC - which runs Windows CE. Actually my pda is still in HK, but I think it would be more convenient than carrying another gadget, when it comes to the medium / long term.

Not really sure where / how to look for these things, given that all of the info sources etc. are in chinese. Going to visit the electronics district this weekend - will have a look then.

Language School or Solo Study?

On Mondays I get depressed in class (our longest day - just under 6 hours straight). It's on Monday afternoons that I think about why I'm in class, that I'd much rather not be in class, and that it would be really rude for me to walk out of class, and wonder how I can politely encourage the teacher to teach better, or hope I can cope with the variability within my class itself.

My original plan was to do solo study - live in China, watch TV, listen to radio, get a tutor, get some language exchange buddies. I was offered the chance to study at Fudan though, with the advantage of structure and reputable study. Also, the tuition isn't expensive - 9000 RMB for 4 months (advertised as 6 months), which works out at about 100 RMB a day - equivalent to 1 hour's good private tuition, or 3 hour's basic private tuition.

Being in class has two major disadvantages. One, the other people in the class, generally slowing things down. Two, making friends who don't speak mandarin, and spending time with them because it's only natural to.

Being in class, naturally one learns some Mandarin. Being taught the Fudan way requires us to learn reading and writing as well as speaking. Whereas privately tutored, I might have different priorities. The result is that I am currently not practising my speaking, just my reading and writing. The sad part about this is that whilst my speaking isn't good, it probably won't improve through the classes for a good few weeks - which means that external observers (e.g. employers) don't actually see an improvement in my spoken mandarin.

Going solo mind you, takes a certain kind of person. It's not easy to learn on your own - motivation, drive, loneliness. Arranging accomodation, getting around, finding people to do sports etc. with, could all be difficult.

I think school will suit most people not in a hurry. It's social, and structured. It particularly suits holidayers and recent graduates. Or people taking a rest from work. If however you're impatient and demanding, and are part way through an ambitious plan, then actually I think it's pretty frustrating.

Money? Holes in pockets?

So far...

Being in Shanghai seems to have cost me about £4000. That includes £600 of school fees, £300 of household things, £300 of rent, £200 of wining and dining. Probably spending £100 a month on taxis. Not entirely sure where the rest went. Seems I'm spending about £1500 a month so far.

I'm expecting my costs to drop as I get settled in. I'm hoping to settle at around £800 a month, but have to accept that overseas movings costs will take their toll (e.g. buying an iron, hifi, installing internet etc.)

No time to study??

I'm amazed but I don't have time to study. Partly I think it's the slow pace of my mandarin class - because of the variety of standard (reading, writing, speaking, everyone has their own pace).

This is how my last 24 hours panned out.

Last night - up late chatting online to friends and catching up with emails.

This morning, woke at 10am after various phone calls from my landlady, enquiring after the maid who came yesterday. Went to the Foreign Student's Office to update a bit of paper which I need to apply for my Student Visa and Resident's Permit. Wanted to go to the Local Police Station to register my home, but was told that I needed to bring my landlady with me.

Bicycle broke (rear lock came loose, got trapped in rear spokes when riding, broke a few spokes), so took it to repair shop. Wasted half an hour waiting. Had ten minute lunch with friends, then walked to language class at about 12.30pm.

Class finished at 4pm. Made appointment with Landlady to go to police station tomorrow morning. Picked up bike from repair shop, went home, took taxi to Carrefour hypermarket to buy things for home. Bought wastepaper bins, soup tureen, mop, bucket etc. some frozen food. Back home for about 8pm, prepare dinner with friends, eat at 9.30pm, see them off at 11.30pm. Chat to friend Dipan from London. Write emails concerning job applications and chat to friends and family online until 2am.

Then write some stuff on my blog.

Do you see any time for me to do any serious Mandarin study???? I'm hoping that in time I will settle properly into my flat, and I will have completed all of the forms and queued in all of the offices as required. Then perhaps I can study. I might also hire my maid to come more frequently, to make sure that I can cook more often at home, and spend less time preparing my own meals. Certainly don't want to eat out any more often - whilst it's convenient, it's really unhealthy.

B class - better

is quite good fun

the structure of having a class is quite good discipline for rounded learning (reading, writing, speaking). but the class itself can be quite slow - because there are always those lagging behind (eg. our french and japanese classmates for speaking, and myself and Kellog for reading/writing).

the teachers for A and B classes aren't great. They map to the most basic level of HSK grading (HSK is some sort of official grading), and that maps across to only requiring the most basic qualifications for teaching. the C class teachers are better qualified, and i think noticeably better.

we've had problems in B class, with myself and the other English guy complaining about lack of structure, lack of interaction, repetition and overlap between teachers... At the end of the day it's a long way from the way I'd like to be taught, but hey, it's their way and mine's only an opinion. I'm still learning.

B class is pretty comfortable for me. I'm doing well with converational skills, well with reciting passages and reading out role plays, less well with reading straight chinese exercises and writing. I should soon begin finding some serious ways to get more familiar with chinese characters both for reading and writing. But there's still time!

Value of Money

I'm so confused about money here. It's very different. Yesterday I treated my aunt and cousin to dinner in an upmarket restaurant. It was a fancy splash out, and came out to be 100rmb a head. Crikey, that's 7 pounds each. That's slightly more than burger king in leicester square.

Kellog's bike got stolen two days ago - he was gutted. It did only cost about 11 pounds though - 170 kuai.

My apartment is 52 square metres, and costs about 120 pounds a month (i'm actually paying way over the odds because i'm on a 4 month lease).

I treated some friends to won tun noodle lunch a few days ago, that cost under 2 pounds (25 kuai) for the 5 of us.

For our dinner tonight in a local chinese restaurant, we ordered 7 dishes and 1 soup for 6 of us. That came to 20 kuai (just over a pound) each.

I thought paying a private tutor 30 kuai an hour (2 pounds) was dirt cheap. But when you think that an hour's tutoring will get you a bigggg evening meal, or a quarter of a new bicycle then actually it's bloomin good money.

My maid is going to cost just over a pound for 3 hours of help. Crikey, I really ought to get her to come for three hours every day. I mean sheesh, 3 hours of help, for a pound. That would be great - a super spotless apartment, and food bought prepared and ready to be cooked!

Half a hour's worth of taxi ride only costs about 30-40 kuai - 2 pounds. Bargain. A ride on the somewhat awful underground / tube, costs about 3-6 kuai. It's friggin slow too.

This said, alcohol is still pricey here - 20-30 kuai (1 to 2 pounds) a pint, perhaps 80 kuai (3-4 pounds) for a good scotch. Starbucks style coffee ranges from 15-20 kuai.

It's hard to understand saving cab money by taking the subway, only then to arrive and then buy a beer. Or two beers. Or eat a 5 kuai lunch, only to follow it with a 20 kuai coffee.

At first I found myself not drinking beer, whisky or coffee. But then that's kinda boring, and at the end of the day - it's no more expensive than it would be normally!

It puts a whole new value on money though. Back in London, a 20p coin really wasn't very much use to me. But here, 20p buys me a block of deliciously fresh tofu, or some freshly made noodles to cook, or a pair of socks. And so I've a new found respect for money. It's harder to fritter away or ignore 10 pounds here or there - because 10 pounds here is 150 kuai - and that could easily be 10 good restaurant cooked evening meals. Strange huh.

me in class 

chinese instruments. if i'm still here in 5 or ten years time i want to learn the gu zheng - the big long wooden thing with 20 strings, behind where this guy's head is. this one was going for 1300 kuai - about 100 pounds. the really good ones are all antiques. 

Home help - super cheap!

So happy - my maid is coming to help out next week. Which is good, because my bathroom is getting a little grubby dare I say, and I'm really bored of washing vegetables.

I'm having her come twice a week for three hours at a time for now. Get this - 6 kuai an hour. That's like 18 kuai for 3 hours... just over a pound!!!!

Tasks for my maid I think are:
- clean the flat
- wash and hang clothes
- shop for fresh fruit, veggies, meat, fish
- wash veggies
- marinate some meat
- boil soup

I'm hoping that i'll be able to have at least two good dinners during the week at home with this help, and have more time to study (less time washing vegetables!)

My landlady is very kind - she says she'll teach me how to make some chicken soup next week. :)

Was this lady really Heartless?

Last night, I got locked out of my apartment. My door has an old yale type lock, and it has a safety latch built into the lock mechanism, for keeping the lock 'open'. Anyway, it seems when I left the house yesterday morning, somehow this old safety latch thing got stuck, thereby preventing me from being able to open my door again. I could turn the key to double lock / unlock the door, but not actually turn it far enough to open the door.

I found this out at just gone 1am, on a night that had suddenly turned cold and wet. I took a cab back to the student dorms, thinking i'd kip with my friends in their dorm. However, the dorm staff wouldn't let me go up, as their rules don't allow overnight guests.

They have spare rooms to let there, but they need to be booked in advance. They wouldn't let me rent a room.

They also have chairs and tables on the ground floor, in full view of the staff. They wouldn't let me sit down and rest there either.

They required me to go back out into the rain and find somewhere else to stay. They were pretty horrible about it actually. Severely mean. I was soaked through and visibly shivering, at like 2am in the morning. My friends came down with a blanket, a towel and some hot tea, which was good. They took a great photo of my looking miserable.

I couldn't believe how totally heartless the staff there were. Allowing me to even sit in the relative dry warmth of the lobby wasn't exactly going to cause any sort of security risk or cause them any hassle, but they were absolutely resolute in kicking me out into the rain.

Given the particular situation, i.e. one where casting me outside was really very likely to result in me catching a very bad cold, and given I had explained I really couldn't get into my own apartment, and that my friends were willing to sign me in and vouch for my presence, it was difficult to understand just how any human being could manage to show absolutely no compassion at all.

I wish my mandarin was more capable - I wanted to explain upon leaving that being so unhelpful given the circumstances realy didn't give foreigners studying at Fudan University a good impression of China or of Fudan University.

My friends tell me I should complain, but I'm not sure what the most effective way is yet. For now, I am putting it down to learning. Not that the staff at the foreign dorms should be representative of China or of Fudan University, but it is true to say that they have provided me with an insight.

My friend Kellog suggests that perhaps the most unobliging lady has had a very difficult life herself, and so isn't readily kind to others. Or perhaps that she believes religiously following the rules no matter what is the most important thing. Either way, very interesting extremes. I wonder how many more examples like this I will come across.

I don't want to give Fudan University a bad impression. The staff at the foreign dorms follow rules in order to protect the privacy of the students living there - a good thing. In coming to China, I knew I would run into problems from time to time - cultural shock etc. It's not to say that it happens any more or less in Fudan - I only have my own experience to report.

At the end of the day though, Fudan is one of THE most reputable universities in China. So I think if anything it should be less problematic than others.

Online! But can I access Blogger?

Broadband set up at home now...

www.blogger.com doesn't resolve.... but I got a friend to ping it and tell me the server IP address - and now I can get to www.blogger! Wonder if I can post...

Cooking by Candlelight

After too many salty / oily meals, we resigned to cook a good meal at home. A stop off at the market, we bought a pricey fresh fish (30 rmb) and a fresh chicken (20 rmb). And fresh veggie, tofu, etc.

On arriving home though, found that there was no electricity in my house! On enquiring with the attendants it seemed an engineer had come that day and updated the electricity meters, but as I wasn't home he wasn't able to check that everything was working.

Anyway, we bought some candles and set about cooking by candlelight. Steamed fish with ginger and spring onions of course (delicious), steamed chicken pieces with ginger, chinese mushrooms and soy sauce (also delicious), and mountain piles of boiled veggie.

Wonderful... Good fun. Great photos too!

Day trip to ZhouZhuang

8 of us took a bus ride out to Zhou Zhuang today - a somewhat touristy Water village - the Venice of Shanghai if you will. Pleasant walking around, though the best fun was shopping for tourist tat. I bought a jade name seal (4 pounds, with my name inscribed on it, although I later found out I could have bought a grander one in the same shop for half the price), a little clay 'peeing boy' (you pour hot water on him and then he pees), and lots of interesting snacky things for class. Actually, lots of interesting snacky things.

We're about to go out for dinner - got to run!

Not on the internet yet...

Ok, so my communication skills are sufficient to ask my landlady to get me hooked up to the Internet, but not to try to persuade her to get it done soon. So... sorry, haven't been writing as much as I would want! I will catch up soon as I can.

Capgemini UK is Great!

I just wrote an email back to my boss in the UK to say what I was up to. My company in the UK are kind enough to be subsidising my trip out here, as well as allowing me to approach other companies to assess the job market.

It's pretty darned amazing of them really, but I understand it to be a thank you for the 5 years of loyalty and dedication I have given them.

If anyone out there is interested in Capgemini, or particularly the Consulting part of Capgemini, or even better consulting on the cusp of Business and Technology, or Transformation Consulting, or Organisational Design / Stakeholder / Change Management, then by all means get in touch with me.

why Fudan?

My brother pointed out I shouldn't just slag off Fudan for the admin side, which reminded me of what's good about Fudan.

Mostly it's reputation, as one of The Foremost universities in China. That's pretty significant. But it does have to be weighed up against lifestyle, because out in the stix where it is, you don't really get an impression of Shanghai city-centre life.

Opportunity - DEODOURANT

I can't believe this. I've been to two Carrefour hypermarkets now, and also the expat supermarket under the Ritz Carlton. At best I have found a roll-on deo stick at Carrefour, and ladies' deo at the expat supermarket.

Even so, I'd much rather have anti-perspirant. I've been using Lynx stuff for the last goodness how many years, and heck I'm almost out. Kellog is luckier - he brought 3 cans with him. Haha maybe I'll need to pay him black market prices to buy one off him!

Hey anyone in retail here? How about explaining to the general public that in summertime, they're gonna SMELL! Talk about opportunity, if you can persuade the population of Shanghai (14m?) that pleasant body odour is a common courtesy, then I'd say there was a ripe market for selling some high margin spray canisters. Hurry up!

Career vs. PRC? First true test of my plan

McKinsey presented me with a query yesterday. HR wanted confirmation that I had no issue working outside of the PRC. Funny, because all other employers want to confirm precisely the opposite. McKinsey say they would want me to read and write Mandarin/Chinese in order to work in the PRC.

They say I could live where I liked, i.e. Shanghai, but that my work would be in Korea, Japan, Hong Kong and Singapore. And though they didn't mention it, realistically I suppose, London.

Working for McKinsey, in their Business Technology Office (BTO) would be very good for my career. Big name; they'd train me in their rather intellectual way of working; excellent international experience and clients; and I believe they would reward (compensate) me well.

I believe their question to me is akin to "do you love us enough to abandon your PRC plans?" or "are you going to play hardball with us, and risk not getting the job".

Right now, I think I want to finish the interview process, to learn more about working with them, and find out how 'keen' they are to hire me. I think my business/tech management advisory background is rare, and so if I fit their intellectual profile they should be keen to hang onto me.

I'm keeping an open mind for now. If I really fall in love with the job, and see grand future prospects coming out of it, then maybe I'll compromise my plans. However my gut feeling is that I could work with them for a few years, but then I'd have lost sight of my future plans for working at senior levels in the PRC. So during the rest of the recruitment process I need to discuss with them whether working for them would help achieve my planned 'future', or perhaps some other equally fantastic 'future'. If you know what I mean...

Class C - first impression

I started classes yesterday. C is the third level class, on a scale of A through to I. Class A is the beginner bo po mo fo stuff.

I was shocked at the level of class C. If A was beginner, I didn't think I wanted to be in the B class, so I blagged my way into C class. But actually C class is friggin' hard. No pinyin; an assumed high level of reading; and grammar intricacies that aren't explained for very long. I was falling in behind in class simply because I couldn't copy down what the teacher was writing on the board quickly enough.

I think if I wanted to stay in C class I would have to prep for classes in advance, armed with a dictionary. That would take say 3-4 hours an evening. Tough, but it would force me to learn quickly.

I realised a major benefit of group teaching was the notion of needing to keep up with the program. I've done self teaching or personal tutoring before, for which clearly I can define the program and the pace. Fudan are keen on teaching reading/writing as well as speaking, which isn't necessarily every foreigner's preference. But actually I think at the pace this thing runs at, it'll be ok to learn reading and writing over and on top of speaking.

I'm going to drop down to B class today to see what it's like. I'm hoping to join my friend Kellog in B3 I think it is, though I'm a bit worried that his class schedule is a bit odd - I think his classes all fall over lunchtimes like 12 - 3pm, which makes lunching a bit awkward / antisocial.

I think there are about 5 A classes, 5 B classes, 3 C classes, and then 1 or 2 D, E, F etc. classes. My C class yesterday had about 15 people in it. The A class Janice was in I think had less than 10 people in it. The teaching quality seems to be very good. The teacher also put her name and various phone numbers on the board, inviting us to call her and be 'good friends' outside of school. Other than being friendly, I think that's an opportunity for us to get some additional tuition out of classroom hours, something which I'll consider once I'm underway. I believe private tutoring generally charges about 30 kuai an hour - 2 pounds. Compare this to the 40 pounds an hour I was paying in London.......... but that was through a corporate agency.

My First Cooked Lunch

So there's this market near to my apartment in Fudan. It's pretty 'local' / Very local. They sell meat, veg, noodles, fish, and various odds and sods including clothing.

On the way back from morning class, I shopped and made lunch with Janice. We bought a tomato, some fresh tofu, some fresh noodles, some bak choi vegetables and some oranges. I paid less than a kuai (less then 10 pence) for each thing, except the oranges which I paid 11 kuai for. I thought I might have been ripped off for the oranges, and Auntie Sheena says I most certainly was, but hey that's cool.

Cooking lunch was fun, and a lot more healthy than eating out. Around Fudan, there ain't a whole lot of choice. Which makes even my soggy soup combination attractive. Fantastic!