問我anything with Demonic_Duck

[Yadang]

Hey everyone,

 

We're continuing our 問我anything series with Demonic_Duck. Remember that Demonic_Duck can choose not to answer any of the questions posted.

 

You can check out the rest of the 問我anything topics here.

 

 

A few questions to get us started:

 

You mentioned in Why Chinese that you started self-studying Chinese on the side, and then started taking university courses on the side, graduated, and got the first job you applied for in China... (This quick recap doesn't do justice to the whole story, so if anyone hasn't read it, I recommend doing so in link above).

 

1. You're still in China - what are you doing now? Are you still at the same job?

 

2. If you are, how much are you able to incorporate your Chinese into the job? Are all of your co-workers Chinese or is it a foreign company?

 

3. What was your original major in college?

 

 

[Tianjin42]

Which came first: your username "Demonic_Duck" or the picture of a demonic duck that you use to represent yourself? 

 

Also, knowing that you live in Beijing, I am interested to ask how long you think you will/ could live here. As well as the wonderful positives there are also well documented negatives and many speak of this 5 year limit for many foreigners. Could you see it going long-term?

[Demonic_Duck]

1. You're still in China - what are you doing now? Are you still at the same job?

 

2. If you are, how much are you able to incorporate your Chinese into the job? Are all of your co-workers Chinese or is it a foreign company?

 

3. What was your original major in college?

 

1. I am indeed, I'm currently a full-time student studying Tsinghua university's language programme. For background, my first job was with a large education company, and my second was working at the international programme of a well-known Beijing high school, though the position was via a company that works with various schools within China. Both were teaching jobs, and both were roughly year-long contracts.

 

2. I'll answer the question for the two aforementioned jobs: the first company I worked for is a multinational, and the colleagues I had the most contact with were roughly half-and-half Chinese and non-Chinese. Most communication within the workplace was carried out in English; there were various initiatives from the higher-ups aimed at increasing the use of English and decreasing the use of Chinese within centers, but our center never really paid much attention to them, and took the pragmatic approach that it doesn't really matter what language is spoken within the teacher's office as long as communication is effective. All the same, at the time almost all of my Chinese colleagues had better English than my Chinese, so pragmatism dictated that we'd use English most of the time, at least for work-related things.

 

As for the second job, the international programme at the school was still in its infancy, and a large number of the Chinese staff involved in the programme had little or no English to speak of, so outside the classroom I had plenty of opportunity (and need) to use Chinese.

 

3. My major was Philosophy. I chose it because I'd discovered in secondary school I was pretty good at it, and at that time had no real idea what I wanted to do with my life (to be honest, I'm still trying to figure that one out...)

 

Which came first: your username "Demonic_Duck" or the picture of a demonic duck that you use to represent yourself? 

 

Also, knowing that you live in Beijing, I am interested to ask how long you think you will/ could live here. As well as the wonderful positives there are also well documented negatives and many speak of this 5 year limit for many foreigners. Could you see it going long-term?

 

1. The username came first, but it came from a picture of a demonic duck I'd seen elsewhere. It's a pretty dumb name really, maybe I'll get around to changing it at some point.

 

2. I love Beijing, because I'm never bored here. Though I don't think I'll stay my whole life, I think I'll be reluctant to leave. I think if/when I do leave, it'll be because of being pulled away by other places, not pushed away by Beijing itself. I've never heard about the "5 year limit", though I do notice a lot of friends who aren't Beijing natives (whether they're from other parts of China or abroad) end up moving away in the end.

[ChTTay]

1. How do you find Tsinghua? Is it worth attending? Negatives and positives?

 

2. If you had to give one 'tip' for studying Chinese, what would it be?

 

 

though the position was via a company that works with various schools within China.

 

3. What was the company that works with various school in China?

[ChTTay]

 

many speak of this 5 year limit for many foreigners

 

Is this supposed to be a rule/guideline? or is 5 years an average before people leave?

 

I work with a load of people who are over this limit. I guess i'm closing in on it ...

[Tianjin42]

It isn't a hard and fast rule (have also heard a 3 and 7 year rule). It is a rule of thumb I heard amongst expats for when someone living in Beijing decides to leave/ runs out of patience. 

[Mr John]

Hi Demonic Duck,

 

I also majored in philosophy. I'm curious about the extent to which you think philosophy has influenced your interpretation of China. I also wonder how you dealt with the stage in which you were unable to express the more complex ideas you're interested in. Finally, have you met many Chinese that are also interested in philosophy, and if so, what areas have they generally been most interested in?

 

Thanks,

John 

[anonymoose]

I seem to recall you were in Cambridge before moving to Beijing? Did you study philosophy at Cambridge University?

[Demonic_Duck]

@ChTTay:

1. Overall, I think it's a decent programme, and provided the needed structure to my studies. I'm not the biggest fan of some of the textbooks used (particularly the Boya one, which is a bit dull), but I think the teaching is of a good quality.
2. One tip? I don't think I'm the best person to ask as my own study tends to be a bit haphazard, although I guess I've attained a decent level so far. I think it would be never to miss an opportunity for learning; whenever you hear a new word come up in conversation, ask what it means, do a quick dictionary look-up on your phone, and add a flashcard if you think it'll be particularly useful. Even though whipping out your phone every now and then might seem a bit antisocial, I've never been aware of anyone taking offense to it - they just compliment me on my dedication, and sometimes ask about the app I'm using.
3. I wouldn't recommend them, but if you really want to know drop me a PM.

@Mr John:

For the majority of the time I've been here, I've essentially "avoided" engaging in any philosophy - haven't read, written or conversed in any depth about philosophical subjects (or at least about any of the more abstract areas of philosophy). Recently, however, I've started getting back into it - I've made a couple of aborted efforts at the 庄子, and tried writing in Chinese on a couple of philosophical topics.

 

How did I deal with being unable to express complex ideas? Well, I'd say I'm still dealing with it, though I'm now at a stage where I can at least make a decent stab at expressing more-or-less any topic I'm familiar enough with in English. But it has been, and still is, frustrating when I can't make myself understood, or when I find my conceptual vocabulary is a level or two below where it really needs to be, resulting in mangled, tortuous and barely intelligible Chinese. I don't think there's any shortcut here really, but I think reading and writing lots (neither of which I do as much as I should) help immensely, and I think only once you're able express yourself elegantly in writing are you going to be able to express yourself elegantly in spoken language.

 

I think many Chinese people are interested in philosophy, at least on some level, and are willing to talk about it; strangely enough, though, I haven't come across any Chinese people who are very knowledgeable about Chinese philosophy as such. But there are many people who'll be more than happy to engage with and offer their take on some interesting ethical or epistemological problem.

 

@anonymoose:

I studied philosophy at a university in Cambridge.

[Shelley]

If you ever had to leave China/Beijing for whatever reason, what is the one thing you would miss the most and the one thing you would not miss at all?

 

What keeps you busy when not doing something work or Chinese learning related?

 

Do you have a favourite author/genre in English and/or Chinese?

[Demonic_Duck]

@Shelley:

1. The thing I'd miss the most is undoubtedly the people, especially those I've become close friends with. There's one family in particular who are like my second family here, and also some of my colleagues from my first job who I'm still in contact with, who I can honestly say are some of the nicest people I've ever known. I think the thing I'd miss the least is the weather - including the smog, of course, but also the fact it's almost always so dry (and when it eventually rains places get flooded).
2. Lately it's been playing the guitar - I'm self-studying and not very good at it, but playing relaxes me and puts me in a better mood.
3. As I mentioned above, I don't think I read nearly as much as I should, and that goes for English as well as Chinese. The only novel I've read so far in Chinese is 《活着》 by 余华, and I'd definitely recommend it, I like his style, and it's not too difficult. For English, I used to enjoy reading Terry Pratchett a lot, although haven't read any of his in a good while. Other than that, I tend to read non-fiction - I like reading popular science stuff (both in Chinese and English).

[Mr John]

@ Demonic Duck

 

Thanks for the reply. I took a bunch of books about philosophy and political economy with me to China. In the first year, I only managed to read one haha. Something about struggling to manage even the most rudimentary tasks kept me grounded. I don't know exactly where your Chinese is at present, but I'd be very happy if I could hobble my way through some philosophical discussions at some point in Chinese.

 

If you don't mind, I'd like to ask another question. With respect to your preconceptions about China - what, if anything, were you most wrong about?  

[Shelley]

It is really nice to hear that it would be the people, just reinforces my belief that it is usually the people that make a place livable and not just the physical surroundings although they do help.

 

What style of guitar are you learning, acoustic, electric, classic, rock? This leads on to what kind of music do you like?

[roddy]

If you and a few other site members of your choosing were to be marooned on a desert island, with no choice but to form a rudimentary society, await rescue, and perhaps attempt to build some kind of crude raft, who would you choose and why? 

[Demonic_Duck]

@Mr John: I think I somehow managed to avoid coming here with too many preconceptions, probably largely thanks to this forum right here. I guess my perceptions have tended to swing back and forth somewhat, particularly with respect to how people feel about censorship and lack of political freedom. Before I got here, I just assumed most people were vaguely unhappy about it. After being here for a while, I assumed I'd been mistaken, as people rarely complained about it (at least to me). Now, I'd say I underestimated the amount of discontent there - it's bubbling away, but most people are resigned to the status quo. That said, I think people are definitely more bothered about concrete things such as corruption, pollution, quality of life etc. than abstract ideals such as "freedom". I'm also fairly sure that censorship here bothers the average foreigner here much more than it does the average native citizen, as much as native Chinese will ridicule it.

 

@Shelley: I mainly just work out the chords to songs I'm listening and strum along to them (steel-string acoustic guitar), maybe getting a little more elaborate if I feel like it. I have a decent grounding in basic aspects of music theory from having learnt the violin as a kid (though I wasn't a good student), but my technical abilities are pretty limited. As for my favourite style of music, I'm mostly into rock of various stripes, but I'm pretty open-minded to good music of any style. Chinese folk is nice, though I'm not really into it enough to name favourite artists.

 

@roddy: well now, that's a tough one. I don't know who has the best survival skills! I guess I'd be wise to pick you and imron, as you're the only two I know for certain have experience running communities smoothly... then I'd pick One Eye, as he's one of the smartest and most hard-working posters. Meng Lelan cuz she's a badass kungfu expert (as is imron). And finally, Benny Lewis, because he'd stay optimistic and keep our spirits up even if it was clear we were all going to die (also cuz I imagine he's probably actually a really nice dude in real life).

[ChTTay]

I think you forgot about your chinese forum Beijing meet up friends ... You know we can drink beer and eat Western food pretty well!

[Demonic_Duck]

This is true. If the desert island has lots of beer and western food, I'll definitely choose you guys.

[Yadang]

 

I'm currently a full-time student studying Tsinghua university's language programme

 

My major was Philosophy. I chose it because I'd discovered in secondary school I was pretty good at it, and at that time had no real idea what I wanted to do with my life (to be honest, I'm still trying to figure that one out...)

 

How long are you planning on being at Tsinghua for? Any plans after that? 

Any interest in teaching philosophy in China?

[Demonic_Duck]

1. I'm here for the year. Due to bad planning on my part, I'm following the 高级三 class with the 高级二 one (better planning would've been to study at 北大 for the second semester, but their deadlines are earlier than Tsinghua's). My plans after that are still distinctly hazy - I'm thinking of perhaps looking for embassy jobs or the like. I'm not dead-set against going back to teaching English full-time, nor indeed...

...taking up teaching philosophy, although I'd think the market for foreign teachers with a bachelor's degree teaching philosophy would be minimal to nonexistent. I don't think it's a common subject to be taught in state schools, still less in international programmes, and at the university level I assume they'd want a higher level of education.

[jbradfor]

 

3. My major was Philosophy. I chose it because I'd discovered in secondary school I was pretty good at it, and at that time had no real idea what I wanted to do with my life

 

I assume you started with Western Philosophy?  Have you started learning more Chinese / Asian Philosophy?