SHOCKED ME! (1)

Hello 你好, after I tried to write the blog about Chinese language, I found it was not interesting enough for me to convince myself continue writing and for the readers to keep reading my blog. So I decided to come back for narrating my experience story again!

This time I will talk about my culture shocks when I was an exchange student in China, so it will be some comparisons between Thai culture and Chinese culture.

1.Loudness

If mention Chinese people, the first thing you may think about is loudness. Chinese people talk in loud volume basically, it is very normal for them to shout even they are in a small room. I was very shocked when I first arrived in China, my host mother shout to my host sister for help. I thought they were having a haggle, but my mother then smiled to the sister so I can guess that they just talking in louder volume than I normally do. And time went by, I understand that there is nothing to do with when they shout to each other if there is no vulgar language.

2. Eating Behaviour

Soup - Chinese people eat soup by drinking it from the bowl, they do not use a spoon. On the contrary, in Thai culture, we never drink soup from the bowl. When I went to the noodle shop with my host sister, there was only a pair of chopsticks for eating noodles with super hot soup, I asked my sister for the spoon and she laughed at me, she said just sip it from the bowl! I thought she was pranked on me, but I looked around and everyone did that.

Chopsticks - Every dish, they have it by using chopsticks!!!

I was surprised when I saw Chinese people eat CAKE with the chopstick. It happened on my teacher’s birthday, she invited all of the exchange students to her house for the birthday party, after she blew the candles she passed each of us chopsticks for having cake, it was very funny for us though! Another funny story is on my friend’s birthday, we went to an Italian restaurant to celebrate with the same teacher, the teacher ordered spaghetti and she asked for chopsticks.

Plastic bags - Everything put in plastic bag

In China, when you go to the small shop (not in the restaurant) for your meal, you will get your order contained on top of the plastic bag, which put over the plate or the bowl. My Chinese friend told me that it is very convenient for the shop owner to keep their container clean, they do not need to wash the dishes, and for us to pack the left food back without asking the shop owner to pack your food.

Food scraps - put on the table is OK

In Chinese culture, they use a bowl to contain rice when having the meal, so when there are some food scraps they do not want to eat, they will spilt out on the table. I thought it was not a good manner to do that while eating with many people because in Thailand most of us would not openly split the food out from our mouth on the table, it is disgusting. But it is a normal thing they do in China, so I have to admit their culture and adapted myself to fit in the culture.

3. Perspective

Lots of my Chinese friends or even the teachers did not know that their country became the second most powerful country after the US. Many of them questioned me why I chose to go to China since there is nothing to experience or I might not get any benefit from staying there. Once I showed them how their country is very powerful, they asked is that real, why they have never known how advance their country is. It can be seen that lots of them are obstructed from the outside world so that they know just a few things that were going on. But lately, China is more opened country, many of Chinese people go to study at the other countries, and their perspective changed promptly.

These are some of my culture shocks when I was in China, next week I will come back with more experiences.

So see you next week, and hope that you will enjoy my blog ;)