Where to go after studying in China

[Angelina]

I was thinking today and decided to stay in China. I haven't got used to the local lifestyle, I might never get use to it. However, I can't go back home so I have to deal with it.

[Simon_CH]

Get a great job in either Shanghai and Beijing and live the expat life for a while - can be a good break from "too much China". 

[Angelina]

To be honest I realized I feel like a refugee right now, not an expat, not an immigrant. I came here out of necessity. It is a good idea to start having more fun and to live the expat life for a while.

I meet a great poetry group in Shanghai. Shanghai is nice. I have to be in Hangzhou because of my studies though. Maybe next year.

These are some ideas I have at the moment:

-Start a poetry club in Hangzhou. I am thinking West Lake Poetry Society;

-Get in touch with people at my uni working with Slavic languages.

I need a holiday now. These are my plans for the future.

Chinese culture is Chinese culture, you cannot say it is not special, because it is. On the other hand, I have to be honest with myself and admit I am not passionate about it enough.

Expat fun coming soon

[BanZhiYun]

Hey, Angelina, I am from Bulgaria, so I more or less can relate to how you are feeling. I would suggest reading Tuesdays with Morrie, if you have read it, read it again (if you've read it in English, then read the Chinese version) and take some time to think about the book. Then consider what to do next.

[Angelina]

Thanks. This book sounds good. I just checked their Wikipedia page, great suggestion. It can help.

"Schwartz's and Albom's conversations canvas acceptance, communication, love, values, openness, and happiness. Albom emphasizes the importance of forging a culture of one's own to transcend the tyranny of popular culture, suggesting that the media are preoccupied with death, hatred, violence and depression. Misquoting his favorite poet, W. H. Auden, Schwartz insists we must "love each other or perish"."

Yup. We need to forge our own culture, nationalism is a bad idea. I miss certain things, maybe it is good to have them here. While still being open to the outside world of course.

BTW Auden said "We must love one another or die" in September 1, 1939. Auden is not my favorite, but I know enough to correct a misquote

[xuefang]

Hi Angelina, what you describe sounds familiar to me from a year or two back. I didn't have enough things to do, wasn't motivated on doing anything and the cycle went on and on. What helped me in the end was my husband's suggestion to travel for two weeks on my own, I actually visited Hangzhou on my trip! After that my masters started and I was busy and happy again.

For me it helps to be busy, for someone else taking a holiday helps, or both. Roddy's advice is good too, sometimes you just need a break from China. Like mentioned, Hong Kong is great for that. Or perhaps even a long weekend in Shanghai?

[Angelina]

Thank you.

I am ok now. Decided not to leave.

How is your master's going?

A list of the issues I am facing:

- I am not able to write academic papers in Chinese;

- I don't have enough money. How can I make money? It's not legal to work- will I have any rights if I do?;

- Don't like anyone- as in I don't feel attracted. Hopefully one day...;

- Time management problems;

- I like the people at my program, they like me too, but I don't have the feeling I am one of them. It's a strange feeling. It's not that my feelings are not positive- it's more about feeling different. Will the feeling ever go away?;

- Nightlife. Shanghai is good, but I want to have it all the time.

How is your academic writing? I hope I will manage to learn how to write decent papers. If I don't, I would rather drop out and start somewhere else than plagiarize/use ghost writers. There is no point in producing original research that is not original.

So how to do it?

[Lu]

- Attraction: it's not you, it's just that there's nobody around you at the moment that sparks your fire. At some point you will be in a different place, or among different people, and you'll be attracted to someone (or more someones) again. Don't fret it, just spend your energy elsewhere for the time being.

 

- Academic writing: try your best again and again. At first it will be very bad, later it will be rather bad, but if you keep at it, it will gradually get better. Don't get stuff ghostwritten, rather get someone to correct your work. Or if that takes too much time, write part of it yourself (the first paragraph, the conclusion, whatever) and have the rest ghostwritten if that's what people in your situation do.

 

- Shanghai nightlife: if this is something you enjoy, make a point of setting out time and money to go there regularly. Nightlife is never something you can have all the time (unless you're Paris Hilton I suppose, but I'm assuming that's not your ambition), but you can make sure it's part of your life.

 

- Time management: you don't specify, but perhaps search around online for a bit. Many, many people have this problem and have found a great variaty of solutions. Read around a bit and you might well find some solution that works for you.

 

Good luck, and keep at it!

[Angelina]

- Academic writing: try your best again and again. At first it will be very bad, later it will be rather bad, but if you keep at it, it will gradually get better. Don't get stuff ghostwritten, rather get someone to correct your work. Or if that takes too much time, write part of it yourself (the first paragraph, the conclusion, whatever) and have the rest ghostwritten if that's what people in your situation do.

 

Proofreading is ok. The problem is, I still need to be able to express myself in Chinese. A proofreader should only correct the usual small mistakes everyone is making when not paying enough attention.

 

Do I really want to learn? It seems too much work. I definitely don't want a degree without the effort it takes. Do I want to work that hard though? 

 

 

Nightlife. This is really interesting. I can't believe people work as club promoters and are promoting terrible places no one actually likes. Shanghai, yup, nice. 

 

Time management. I am starting to get up early and then nap like the Chinese. Can't function otherwise. I feel out of sync with the others. 

[Flickserve]

I dont know if this helps. My dissertation was written in English and not Chinese.

The focus of my Masters was learning about the breadth of the subject and papers came thick in fast. We had to read a lot, analyse methodology, assess the validity and conclusions drawn. Some people struggled at it. There were some particularly difficult modules where a few of us put in all nighters to finish assignments. And the majority of us where working full time. I would say all Masters should train you in the ability to read papers.

Writing - we all had to do a project. Some of us had to think of our own projects and got very little help. Some got data and projects given to them! I was hoping for the data to come to me but that never happened. Don't know why. We were given very little guidance on how to write our dissertation except for a standard booklet issued by the University. In the end, I went back through past projects done by previous students and had a look to see what made the good ones and what made the ordinary ones. I remember the literature review being my weaker area - judging how to not to put in too much information and not too little from the references. I also went to the library and pulled out a few books on how to write a paper. The more I read, the more insight I got. I even pulled out some PhD theses in the University of Hong Kong (accessible online if you want to read some). Those were particularly insightful as I saw good Masters Dissertation write ups follow the same format. After a while, I got a feel of the academic writing style and how much to write. It didn't go that well - my supervisor saw the draft proposal once, write up once, and said it was okay-ish and never saw the revised version that was submitted! (I paid a lot of money for that degree!!)

Besides writing up in my spare time, I also took annual leave just for the write up. Compared to all the previous years' dissertations, mine looked a bit thinner. But what can one do? The revision dissertation was submitted without my supervisor seeing it. The submission went well with very positive comments all round. Met my Supervisor after the whole thing and he said the literature review was pitched just right! The course coordinator later said to me the dissertation was of MPhil level.

But really, it made me think for the majority, a Masters only gives a basic introduction to learn how to write. I didn't get much help at all in that respect and it was mainly from my own effort. To really learn how to write, that's what a PhD and post docs are there for. YMMV in China.

BTW, I later went to Oxford on a short postgrad course. When there, I looked up the PhD (DPhil) of a well known author. I was expecting a PhD from Oxford University to be amazing. To be honest, it was actually fairly straightforward! LOL.

[Angelina]

Thanks Flickserve!

 

In the end, I went back through past projects done by previous students and had a look to see what made the good ones and what made the ordinary ones.

 

At least I can distinguish between a well-written Chinese thesis and a not-so-well-written Chinese thesis now. I will try to follow general advice for thesis writing. 

[洋人丹]

Angelina,

 

I know this is going to sound obvious, but if you can set an hour or more out each day just to practice writing. Write whatever you want, and if you can, find someone who can look over it and give you suggestions.

 

Many well-known philosophers, academics, and writers set aside time everyday just to write. Practice everyday, set goals, etc. It will go a long way to improving general writing skills.

[Flickserve]

Proofreading is ok. The problem is, I still need to be able to express myself in Chinese. A proofreader should only correct the usual small mistakes everyone is making when not paying enough attention.

Do I really want to learn? It seems too much work. I definitely don't want a degree without the effort it takes. Do I want to work that hard though?

Nightlife. This is really interesting. I can't believe people work as club promoters and are promoting terrible places no one actually likes. Shanghai, yup, nice.

Time management. I am starting to get up early and then nap like the Chinese. Can't function otherwise. I feel out of sync with the others.

I won't comment on the nightlife. Past that stage long ago. LOL.

Proof reading is OK after you have had a good attempt. I didn't do this and did all the revisions myself. But it meant sometimes leaving a section to 'rest' for a while and come back to look at it again. I always tried to write as if someone could follow the text. It takes many, many attempts and can sometimes feel like a bit of despair when you keep rewriting the same passage. Probably best to proof read in stages.

With the part about not feeling totally part of being in with people, this true. I find this in HK. I have HK friends but am not totally on the same wavelength. I think I never will be despite being able to speak Cantonese. I just had to find my group which took its time. Just had to accept I am different since I had to follow a plan here.

[emmanuel]

@Angelina

Why do you have to write academic papers in Chinese? I am doing master degree in Chinese, but I am going to write papers and thesis in English. I don't see any reason do it in Chinese.

[Angelina]

Is the language of instruction Chinese?

 

Is it a Master's Degree in Chinese Philology taught in English? 

[emmanuel]

@Angelina

Master's degree in engineering. The language of instruction is Chinese. 

[Angelina]

Will your entire thesis committee be able to understand and evaluate a thesis written in English? My department told me they are not able to find enough qualified people. 

 

Maybe it's different for engineering.

[emmanuel]

@Angelina

Of course they will. What about papers? We send papers to international conferences/journals. Academia lives in English. 

[Angelina]

Ah academia is in such a bad state right now. Bad English, bad Chinese, bad argumentation. Many 'academics' write, think, and speak as if their mental age is 12.

 

Their excuses: "this is not my native language", "I am not good with writing".

 

Not to mention conferences.

[Angelina]

I know this is going to sound obvious, but if you can set an hour or more out each day just to practice writing. Write whatever you want, and if you can, find someone who can look over it and give you suggestions.

 

Many well-known philosophers, academics, and writers set aside time everyday just to write. Practice everyday, set goals, etc. It will go a long way to improving general writing skills.

 

Good idea. I will try. 

 

 

Proof reading is OK after you have had a good attempt. I didn't do this and did all the revisions myself. But it meant sometimes leaving a section to 'rest' for a while and come back to look at it again. I always tried to write as if someone could follow the text. It takes many, many attempts and can sometimes feel like a bit of despair when you keep rewriting the same passage. Probably best to proof read in stages.

 

It makes sense to write a longer piece of writing in stages, then to have it proofread in stages as well.