Exchange in Beijing

In September 2007, I decided to go on exchange at Tsinghua University in Beijing to further my Chinese language skills. I chose to go on exchange because I believed it would significantly improve my language skills by living in a Chinese-speaking environment. I also wanted to experience something new and exciting that would take me out of my comfort zone. Whilst I had visited Beijing numerous times before exchange, it was always as a tourist. In fact, in all my life, I had never lived away from home let alone in a non-English speaking country. It would certainly be a whole new experience for me.

Initially I had some misgivings for I did not know anyone at Tsinghua University and I experienced some difficulty whilst getting checked into a dorm. The arrangement was that I would be provide with a room, however, when I arrived a week before the semester began, I was horrified to learn there were no rooms left. It was only until 11.30pm at night that the administrative staff realised I was from Melbourne University and a room was already booked for me. As a result, my first day in Beijing was largely spent in panic. To make matters worse, if that was even possible, I was swindled in my second week by a man fixing my bicycle who charged forty times the price of the retail bicycle part. These mishaps really made me question the benefits of exchange.

However, exchange proved to be a significant learning experience for me and I soon learnt to laugh at my misfortunes in Beijing. At first, I was absolutely furious with the bicycle swindler. Yet, in time I could laugh at my own stupidity for spending money on a bicycle part that was more than the cost of my bicycle. I learnt that though there were many swindlers around Beijing, there were also kind people, those who helped me pay for a parcel to send when I was short of cash. I also learnt how to be more accommodating and compromising. I suppose one has to when there were only three toilets, including two squat toilets, on a floor of about twenty-five girls. Sharing a room with my eccentric roommate who took photographs of all the handsome Korean guys on television showed me how lucky I was in Melbourne to have a room of my own, without having to worry about when to get changed or when to switch off lights or even when to wake up in the morning. Exchange made me appreciate what I used to take for granted in Australia.

Spending so much time in China, it was inevitable that I learnt the ways and habits of Chinese, eventually adopting them as my own. I learnt, as the Chinese do, to be aggressive and competitive on the roads. Riding a bicycle in Beijing can be a traumatic experience as bicycles share the same lanes as buses, so it is not difficult to imagine the chaos that eventuates when buses wish to stop, and there are cyclists. Towards the end of my semester in Beijing, I learnt to ring my bell right back at the buses who honked me to get out of the way. I also became aware that gaining weight in Beijing is to be expected as I mastered the art of eating copious amounts of food as the Chinese do, with huge bowls of rice accompanied by meat and vegetables. Additionally, I learnt that when one going out with Chinese people for dinner, and feeling as if I would burst from the amount of food I ate, the Chinese would still claim I had not eaten enough and then force me to wolf down the rest of the food on the table. Furthermore, I found out that the lacks of queues in China are a way of life, and pushing to get to the front is the norm. And if you need to ask a Chinese how long it will take to get to a destination, it is best not to wholeheartedly rely on their response, for when a Chinese person says a place is “not far” to walk, it really means a good twenty to thirty minutes walk.

Moreover, I found that my Chinese really did improve. Using Chinese everyday was such a new experience for me. Not only were all my classes conducted in Chinese, but I also had to use Chinese a great deal outside of class. Meeting Chinese, French, German, Korean and Japanese friends at Tsinghua where Chinese was our only common language greatly improved my Chinese speaking skills. It was strange speaking Chinese almost every waking hour, even to a great deal of English speaking people as they often did not understand me due to my apparently thick Australian accent. This was a nightmare at first; for there were many times I did not know the word in Chinese and made a fool of myself. However, gradually I felt that my Chinese vocabulary was expanding, even learning some Chinese slang. I learnt that when a guy says he is an “airport” in Chinese, it means he is probably very sleazy because lots of girls like to land on him. When someone asks “how many second milk cars do you own?” it means “how many mistresses do you have”. I even learnt how to use the Chinese term for “add oil”, which is equivalent to saying “go” in English. This could be used in almost any situation. When someone is struggling to finish their food you can say “jia you”. When someone is losing in a sports game, you can say “jia you”. When someone is struggling to get up, take a test you can say “jia you”. The real indication that my Chinese had improved was the fact that Chinese shop owners did not feel quite so inclined to swindle me. It was evident that I was no longer the ignorant international student when the item I had bargained long and hard for was practically thrown at me.

Subsequently, I found studying Chinese in Beijing a truly valuable experience. I made so many friends from all around the world, people who I want to meet again, and learnt Chinese in such a way that would not have been possible in Australia. I may have had times when I questioned why I had decided to go on exchange, but the kind hearted man who paid for a portion of my parcel when I was short of cash certainly cancelled out the bike swindler. I believe going on exchange has made me more compassionate about other people’s cultures and customs. It is ironic that at the beginning of my semester in Tsinghua I was counting down the days until when I would return to Melbourne, yet by the end, I was planning when I could return to Beijing. As a tourist I liked the sites, beauty and people of Beijing, but as a student, I loved it.

Canberra Youth Theatre are running 2 fun holiday drama workshops this coming school holidays.

From 7-11 July the 7-9 year olds can create, act, play and perform in HEROES! and from 14-18 July the 10-12 year olds take their turn in KAPOW!

The workshops actively engage the imaginations of the participants as they play games, create characters and tell stories. There is a short performance at the end of the week for family and friends.

Where: C Block Theatre, Gorman House Arts Centre, Braddon, ACT
When: Daily 10am-3pm
7 – 11 July (7-9 yrs)
14-18 July (10-12yrs)

Cost: $220.00/child (friend/sibling discount available)
What to Bring: Snacks, Lunch & a Drink Bottle (no access to shops)
What to Wear: Warm clothes you can Muck Up in

Contact us at CYT for more information or enrolments 6248 5057 or [email protected]

Canberra Youth Theatre has just released its program for the second half of the year, with lots of fun to be had in the latest drama workshops which are enrolling now.

7-9 year olds have on offer two fun workshops for little actors who want to explore the magic of theatre. Participants will play drama games and actively engage their imaginations through creative movement and vocal expression as they improvise characters to create performances of either:-

Giraffes can’t Dance by Giles Andreae….a tale about a giraffe who loves to dance but can’t seem to find his own groove OR
The Bremen town Musicians by the Brothers Grimm….the story of a rag taggle posse of animals seeking freedom and a home to call their own.

Both workshops are on at Gorman House Arts Centre from 4:30 to 6:00 pm Wednesdays commencing 30 July.

10-12 yr olds have on offer

Bad Habits: The Littlest Biggest Musical – a humorous and deeply irritating musical set in the offices for the Ministry for Bad Habits – a story of intrigue, betrayal, mystery, love, and……annoyance. OR

Go Go McGoo’s Goulash: On her first day as an apprentice chef, the heroic Go Go McGoulash is chosen by the MYSTERY CHEF to go on an epic quest to find the magic spices to make the goulash of protection to save her world…from evil! Will she find those spices? Can Go Go save the world? and what does her goulash taste like? Participants in this crazy workshop will answer these questions and more as they create this play.

Both 10-12 workshops run from 4:30 to 6:30 pm at Gorman House Arts Centre in the C Block Theatre. Bad Habits on Mondays, and Go Go on Tuesdays.

The fun isn’t just for the younger members. 13-25 year olds can write their own scripts with Artists Unite. 13-17 yr olds have the chance to ham it up in the exaggerated melodrama of OverActors Anonymous, or to strut their stuff in front of the camera rather than on the stage in Screen Acting: Lights, Camera, Action.

All these and more (in fact 11 exciting workshops and productions) are enrolling now. Workshops generally run for 2 hours a week for 15 weeks. Enrolments close 18 July and workshops and classes commence the week of the 28th July. For more information visit the Canberra Youth Theatre website (www.cytc.net and click on ‘program’), or call 6248 5057.

We’ve been receiving quiet a few e-mails and phone calls recently on what else you can do as a seller to get your property sold, so for those of you out there still sitting on the market unsold here is some advice and some tips.

For the majority of people you have been doing the marketing and have been presenting the property well, and you are using a decent agent. So why is your property still not sold? (If you are not sure whether your agent is the right one send us an email and we will let you know!)

The root cause of your problem may well be the rising interest rates… perhaps not a real revelation but let’s look at that in a little more detail.

You see the buyers that you are relying on feel the pain as well as interest rates continue to rise… their borrowing capacity decreases and their dream of purchasing their first home fades little by little and many just simply give up hope!

This has a direct affect on you the home seller as now there are fewer buyers that can actually afford to service a mortgage. As a result many properties are taking substantially longer to sell and the average sale price is dropping in many areas across Australia.

This drop in sale price frustrates sellers as they usually have some minimum figure in mind that they are willing to accept. Sometimes it is a figure plucked out of thin air or perhaps their neighbour sold 12 months earlier and that was a similar place so they expect to get the same or more.

Let’s not ignore the wood for the trees here, now more than ever with the market being as tough as it is, it is particularly important at this time that you look at both aspects of your transaction, the sale and the subsequent re purchase. You see most sellers, when sold, are re-purchasing almost straight away, and are usually doing that in generally the same location.

Ask any seller who is on the market “what they want?” and you will almost always receive an answer in dollars amounts. In reality if they thought about it a little more “what they want” is to get sold and then buy a new place. Therefore the most important focus here is not the sale price so much, it’s about the changeover dollar amount!

So the market is down a few percent more than your expectation… but is that really a negative…. not if you are selling and trading up buying… this can actually work in your favour!

Let’s look at a typical scenario… someone selling to purchase a larger home expected to sell for $500,000 but the shift in the market gives a sale figure of $475,000. That’s 5% down on their expectation!
On the re-purchase side they expected to pay $750,000 for their next property but only paid $712,500 also five percent down on expectation! Overall in that transaction the move to the new home worked out to be $12,500 cheaper because the market had dropped.

So although your sale price may be down a few percent, a perceived negative, you should also realise that your outlay for your next property will also be a few percent lower!, a positive. And that means that you have saved $12,500 plus now have to pay less in Government Stamp Duties and when the market does pick up again the percentage increase on a property worth $750,000 will be greater than that on a property worth $500,000… so you’ve made more money!

Now is the time to sell and trade up!

If you are not getting offers talk to your agent to find out what you can do. Without an offer you have nothing to consider so get some offers coming in, it doesn’t mean you have to commit to one, but it starts the negotiation process and means you can go out confidently and establish the “changeover figure” on your purchase. If all the numbers add up you then proceed with the sale and purchase simultaneously.

About Independent Real Estate Consulting (IREC)
IREC is a consultancy firm providing real estate know-how directly to consumers. The team at IREC has a combined 30 years of hands on real estate experience and developed the business after witnessing increasing consumer demand for independent and impartial real estate advice and guidance. IREC also provides an opportunity for sellers to get a cash refund on their chosen agent’s selling fees! Rob Williams 1300 886359 [email protected] www.irec.com.au