My international experience to date includes France, Germany, the Dominican Republic, and Canada. I travelled to France four years ago with my high school’s French Club and we did some sightseeing in Frankfurt Germany on a particularly long layover. In France, we visited the major cultural landmarks around the northern part of the country and toured a lot of chateaus and cathedrals. My family visited Canada and the Dominican Republic on vacations.
I want to go to China because I love travelling to new places and experiencing new things. I don’t know if I will ever have an opportunity to travel to China again. In my senior year of high school I took Chinese, so I also want to practice some of the basic language skills I learned and see the cultural sites that my teacher often described.
I think the main professional work differences will be a greater emphasis on respect and social codes in the workplace. The employees may be more formal and serious. Since China is so much more collectivist than the U.S., I would also expect to see more people working in teams.
I think the main cultural difference will be the language barrier. Obviously Chinese is completely different from English. You can’t make educated guesses on the meaning of words based on Latin roots like you can for French or Spanish. Beyond the language barrier, I expect China to be more conservative, especially in terms of clothing.
I think the main political differences I will experience will be the censorship. Things that are acceptable here won’t be allowed there; it will be strange to have internet access but to not be able to get on Facebook. I’ve heard the internet restrictions in China referred to as “The Great Firewall.” Because of all the censorship, I expect that one wouldn’t hear or see public critiques of the government like we do every day in the U.S.
I think the students I meet will be very kind and welcoming. They will probably know more about our culture than we know about theirs, so they may surprise us with random pieces of American pop culture. I think they will also be more serious about their studies. Without a lot of extra-curricular activities, they have more time to study and higher expectations from others to perform well academically.
I predict I will be surprised to find how different the food is in China compared to the United States. There will probably be animals that we don’t eat in the U.S. on menus in China. It will be odd to see bugs as ingredients in food or as snacks on a stick. I’m sure portion sizes will also be different.
I think the major differences in living conditions will be the sizes of houses and rooms. Since China is more crowded and the people have smaller personal space needs, I think it would be more common to have smaller living areas. I expect to see some areas in China that are very well-off and others that are strongly poverty-ridden, but that is true in the U.S. as well.
nyeplus3china2012 