Preparing for China- Language and Culture

So, as mentioned below (I think this updates in such a fashion, anyway), I am a Japanese major. I was not always, but then my college developed two new majors and I jumped on Japanese. In short, this means I have not had any major Chinese study.


Culture

So, I've had some minimal exposure to Chinese culture. Mainly by studying older aspects of China. And through a calendar and almanac class I took, focused on the Chinese Almanac. I enjoyed the class immensely, and I'm glad I didn't sell my books back. So glad.

But still, these books are not culturally deep, and don't help me know what to expect. So I've been reading online a lot about how to travel in China, what cultureshocks might happen, and from people who live in China currently. I've also kept in touch with my friend Ann, who has been asking questions from our alums in China. (I just read blogs of alums for the indirect approach).

I'm also reading books on China's current economy and how it affects nations globally, but that feels like political science and since I pretend not to be interested, I'm going to cut this phrase short.

What I have discovered is what will be my biggest obstacle: China is not Japan. Not anywhere close. The indirectness might play a part of many Asian mentalities, but there is no bartering in Japan, there is always toilet paper, there are lines, and organization. In China, it appears (remember I have not yet experienced it for myself) to be much more chaotic- but a chaos that somehow works. So I'll look forward to chaos in my future.

So long as it isn't in my flight plans, ok.

Language

I asked my teacher Rob (his blog of knowledge and power is linked here) quickly one day about what he would recommend someone who is doing super-quick study in Chinese language, and he mentioned pronunciation. With my background in Japanese, I should be able to pick out characters and meanings, but the readings and listenings not so much. So I'm working on making word lists, and listening. There are two main things I am using: Chinesepod, introduced to me by my friend Ann, and Eurotalk. Eurotalk isn't by any means the best software, but I'm familiar with it, and it will build my vocab, which is all I'm going for right now. Grammar kinda has to come later, despite how frustrating that is for me. But I can't make sentences before I have words, so I must allow myself to be frustrated. I've also got an audible account that I'll have to cancel before I go (it is a monthly subscription), and I have a few other audiobooks for Chinese there, too. The free credit thing for a subscription fee isn't as bad as it could be, I think, and it's through Amazon, so the audiobooks play on my super-battery Kindle.

So my language learning is almost completely audio based for now. On the upside, I find that I really like listening to tones. I can't always hear them, but I keep getting better and better. I hope when I'm in China I can really work at pronunciation, too.