You wanted me to come back this forum and tell my experience, should I?

[renzhe]

ChTTay you are missunderstanding my situation, I'm not hating anybody, is not that I hate China, in fact I feel like is China who is hating me, since the first time I felt attacked, wouldn't you feel angry if a thief take your money? Sorry what is suppose I should be feelling like, Happy? Then I told this ISC, they don't care. In my country, If this happen to you, probably we will take care of you by putting an accusation in the police or at least calling his boss and reporting the fact with the subsequent apologies., indeed I think we will take care of foreigners much better than our own citizens.

I think you're taking this too personally. You took a huge leap when moving across the globe to a completely new country. It turns out that the course is not what they promised, and that you got cheated a few times because you look foreign. Everybody would be upset by this, but how can it be that there is nothing positive about the whole experience at all?

I had a similar experience with a course once, which was supposed to be taught in English, but wasn't. The whole thing was a hodge-podge, professors didn't like that programme they were forced to teach, half of the stuff I was promised was blatantly made up, and I passed on a much better course because of that one. The first time I went shopping, I didn't have enough money (not familiar with the currency) and got lots of crap from a grumpy old hag standing behind me, without being able to even reply. The taxi driver was bitching about not getting a tip, and it rained for 3 weeks straight. This was not in China, but a similar situation to yours. I was upset about it at the time (I still am, years later), but I made the best of it, learned the language, got the degree and enjoyed everything the country had to offer. Met my current partner while studying. We're still together, 14 years later, and I have to say that it was more than worth it in the end. It took my life in a new, unexpected direction, I learned Chinese, visited China, ended up travelling the world due to the overseas experience that made me more independent, confident, and capable of improvising. If you manage to laugh at the situation and then see it as an adventure, it might end up transforming your life into something better too, who knows.

I've been ripped off by taxi drivers in so many places. People have tried to cheat me out of money countless times in dozens of countries (and sometimes succeeded). It happens. You're upset, but in the end, it's just a learning experience, there is no lasting damage -- you didn't get hurt or killed. My friends have been robbed so many times in Europe that I've lost count. The police make a note, then send you away. It's the way things go, life is like that, next time you'll be more careful.

Today is the first day of the Harbin ice festival, one of the biggest and most amazing in the world. It's something very few Venezuelans will ever see or experience. You can do something awesome today, something you will remember your entire life. Go there and have a blast.

[liuzhou]

 

indeed I think we will take care of foreigners much better than our own citizens.

 

In my experience, China often does the same. 

[Angelina]

Relax. If you don't like China, you can leave. Nobody is forcing you to stay in China, nobody will judge you for dropping out. 

 

I'm sorry that China did not turn out to be the utopia you thought it will be. It's ok, you are adult now, you have realized that life is not prefect. Maybe you can transfer to a language program this year and start your degree program next year. If you don't want this, leave!

 

Basically, these are your options:

 

1. Leave China right now;

2. Transfer to a language program;

3. Don't transfer and try to survive on your fellowship until you find something better. You will be receiving your monthly allowance until July and you have a dorm room. If you decide to go somewhere else outside of Venezuela, you have to know that the place will not be perfect. 

 

One poster said that they visited HIT before making the final decision to move to Harbin. I don't think everyone is able to do this. What if OP did not have the money you had and could not afford to visit the place beforehand? What if OP does not have the money to buy a plane ticket to leave China? What if she or he is stuck in China because of this? Not all currencies are strong, what if OP's family can't help either because of unfavourable exchange rates. 

 

This can serve as a warning. China is not utopia. 

[Lu]

Renzhe has good advice. Well, two good pieces of advice. If you don't take the first piece of advice, make sure to at least take the second one and go see the ice festival. It's amazing.

[sujeto]

[Demonic_Duck]

beacause probably I'm the first one with balls enough to say bad experiences

Have you even taken the time to read the rest of the forums outside of your own threads?

 

I'm not going to any ice festival, I'm a student not a f tourist. I came here for specific academical intentions, is possible maybe you can understand this?

You might find that if you don't willfully shy away from things which might be interesting or fun, you'll enjoy yourself more. Just a thought.

[Yorin]

 

I'm not going to any ice festival, I'm a student not a f tourist. I came here for specific academical intentions, is possible maybe you can understand this?

 

To study is to learn for your job - to experience and appreciate what other cultures and places have to offer is to learn for your life.

Right now, I'd say it could be very helpful for you to learn something for your life.

[roddy]

While I'm not inclined to close the topic, can I point out that pretty much everything worth saying has been said, and that there are loads of other interesting topics to read and post in - and to start. 

[Shelley]

Enjoying the great spectacle that is the ice festival and

specific academical intentions

 

are not mutually exclusive.

 

There is more to life than just books.

[Silent]

 

I'm not going to any ice festival, I'm a student not a f tourist. I came here for specific academical intentions, is possible maybe you people can understand this?

You may have come to study, you can't study all the time. At least it's very inefficient. Part of the processing in your brain is done in a diffuse mode so it's essential to have a break once in a while for these diffuse processes to take place. So a visit to the ice festival might even be beneficial.

[hedwards]

I agree with Shelley and Silent, don't put so much of your time and effort into academics. Things are apparently hard right now in school, so placing all your eggs in that basket is even more of a problem than it might normally be. I remember the rough bits when I was in China were mostly times when my life had gotten out of balance in favor of work and work itself wasn't going as well as I wanted.

 

This is China, even the government has had to make allowances for the fact that China will only be changed if China wants to be changed and China usually doesn't want to be changed. So, you can drive yourself nuts trying to force things to be the way that you like or you can realize that this is culture shock and it's not going to get any better until you just accept that YOU have to adapt here, not everybody else. YOU'RE the one that's suffering here and YOU'RE the one that's going to suffer or benefit from changes not anybody else.

 

Some griping and commiseration is to be expected, but at the end of the day, sometimes you have to choose between being right and getting what you want. It seems to me that you're rather fixated on being right and are willing to sacrifice basically everything you claim to want in order to be right.

[Lu]

Good to see that you appreciate some things of China, I hope you can gradually find more of them.

And don't go to the ice festival if you don't want to, by all means. But as others already said, even the most diligent student needs to take a break sometimes. Life is too short to worry about whether you're acting like a tourist.

[Angelina]

I know nothing is perfect, but there is something known as respect, I was disrespected the day I came here. Why should I leave, I worked hard and earned to be here, I invested a lot of my personal finance to be here. My complaints are not about China, since I have not been but in this city, I can't judge the other regions and cities. 

 

Great. Now make it work. 

 

I'm not going to any ice festival, I'm a student not a f tourist. I came here for specific academical intentions, is possible maybe you people can understand this?

 

So what? I came here for specific academic reasons myself. Doesn't mean that I should not be making any friends. Even if you end up working in academia, how are you going to network with other academics? People need to have a social life. Maybe a researcher has a very busy lifestyle and can't be partying every night, but this researcher should be an accomplished human being leading a meaningful life. 

 

If you don't like the ice festival, you don't have to go there. Do something else for fun. Talk to people! You are an academic, talk to other academics! What is your area of research? I can get you in touch with other grad students doing engineering in China. 

[Johnny20270]

I do empathise with the sujeto a little, I haven't read all the posts but from what I read he was lead to believe that the course was going to be taught in English. If that was the case and its taught in Chinese, that is totally inexcusable. No UK university could get away with that without serious reprimands.

 

Sujeto, I wonder if you are intentionally seeing things from a negative light. I read that you mentioned people making condescending remarks because you can't speak Chinese. Actually, almost all posters here have said the opposite, i.e. uncomfortable over praise for even the slightest knowledge of Chinese. Perhaps you just want to see the negative? I was the same at the start. I was getting p#ssed at just about everything. I think its good to ride over the bumps (if you can). 

 

Relating to your original comment, I do think this forum is not the most balanced in terms of view of china. I have read a few posts which seemed to undeservedly over praise china, almost bordering on the cringy. This is by no means a criticism, just an observation. Its to be expected though, Posters have taken a great interest in the country and / or language hence its natural to see comments leaning towards praise than criticism. My brother lived here for 2 years and absolutely hated it. He is not the only one, many others I met hated china and take no interest in the country. Thus, they wouldn't take the time to post on a forum like this, to balance out comments. 

 

I just got back from 3 weeks away and the reality of Beijing struck me again like getting a cold bucket of water thrown over me. I do look for the positives but weighting everything up, to put very crudely and bluntly,.... many other countries are simply better. For me that's the cold hard truth. (I'll still stay though )

 

I think this particular thread is interesting as it should peoples views on china, even if somewhat extreme. 

 

Edit: I believe that sujeto should not be blocked and continue posting as it does add breath to the forum. (Perhaps clean up the language and insults. )

[ChTTay]

On these forums, personally, I have found being negative about China is fine overall. However, whatever comments you make need to come across as reasonable and have a fairly solid basis. If you make throw away, immature or thoughtless comments, if you comments hint at stereotyping or racism, then they will be shot down. Equally, if you make negative comments based on an experience you just had, some people are bound to say 'yeah, i've had that!' while others will try and make see a different side of things. I see this as a good thing. This is surely the case for almost all topics that people choose to discuss openly, in public. I am speaking generally here, not about Sujeto's threads in particular.

 

I would also say that one reason I stuck around on this forum is that, on the whole, everyone is really nice to each other.

[Demonic_Duck]

@Johnny20270: Mind pointing out any examples of posts that you've seen that paint China in an unduly good light? I'm not saying they don't exist, but I don't remember seeing a great deal. As for blatant 五毛-style posting, I don't recall ever seeing it on here (but maybe that's just because roddy and imron are doing their jobs right...)

 

Also, I don't think an overall positive vibe towards its specialist subject is evidence of bias on a forum. For example, I'm sure if you're into cross-stitching, I'm sure the Cross Stitch Guild forum is a highly useful source of information, despite the fact you'll find lots of posters talking about how great cross stitch is, and not many saying "cross stitch is for losers", "cross stitch is boring" etc.

 

Meanwhile, the Mothers Against Cross Stitch forum would be a much less viable source of information.

[Lu]

Relating to your original comment, I do think this forum is not the most balanced in terms of view of China.

The funny things is, when Sujeto first came here to ask for views on his plans to study in China, people counseled him not to. People said the US would be a much better choice. He then accused us of all being anti-Chinese, and American propagandists. Apparently now that he agrees with those views, we're all pro-Chinese propagandists.

I sympathise with Sujeto. As I recall he had never left his country before and barely ever left his city. You can't even imagine what a culture shock is in such a case, let alone how big it will be. People here tried to tell him, but if you have no concept of being in an utterly foreign environment, it's hard to prepare yourself. And from his first post here, it sounds like he did try to make the most of it: looked for other professors, asked all the relevant offices for help, tried to find likeminded Chinese students. Not to mention that he did manage to make his way to Harbin and the university all by himself, on his first time abroad. (I for one was a bit worried and was glad to see him resurface after his trip, even if it was with complaints.)

I kind of hope he doesn't just pack up and go home. It would be a pity. If he can find some way forward (take Chinese classes and then study in Chinese; transfer to another university that does meet his academic needs; or even go to a completely different country instead) he can have an immensely valuable experience.

[Johnny20270]

@Demonic_Duck, 

 

its just a passing comment  about the the general feeling I myself got with this forum initially. I don't want to go through previous posts but I do recall making a similar comment myself before, relating to the somewhat naive view of china, in comparison to other countries at times from posters. I do think its fairly balanced but we must point out reality when warranted.

[Shelley]

I always felt his original post entitled

I NEED advices, travelling for firstime in my life out of my country to the RED CHINA? Please Help!

 

Had me worried from the start. The words "RED CHINA" rang alarm bells for me as to what he was expecting. I was going to mention this term he used but decided not to get involved.

 

I really wish he could find something good about China, he has traveled a long way, taken a leap in the unknown, probably spent a lot of money, and has been sadly disappointed..

 

 

[abcdefg]

I am inclined to ask Sujeto, in all seriousness and without any malice, whether he has considered the possibility that his own attitudes and actions might be triggering/attracting some undesired behavior on the part of the people he meets.

 

Your post # 38 --

 

"I have learned to talk strong and point at counting machine and look at them at the eyes and even show them my fist, so they don't try to scam me anymore. This is how they are."

 

If I recall correctly, you are a big guy, so this sort of implied threat is a serious thing here in China.

 

Angrily shaking your fist in a shopkeeper's face and saying, "You better not try to cheat me, you dishonest SOB" is not likely to make him into a new friend who will go out of his way to help you.

 

In my opinion, your life skills seem to be sorely lacking. The trouble you are having in China is not just because of a language barrier.