During the six weeks on OIP in China, it was not easy for me to get used on the living here. In the beginning, I thought that it was almost like in Singapore which could allow me to manage my living more efficient. However, I was found that I was underestimated. I remembered that on the first day we arrived, the first meal that I had during the evening was the local curry noodle. The curry noodle that I ate was not really as tasty as in Singapore. And I was almost spilt out whenever I was eating it. Maybe I wasn’t getting used to the taste in China. At the same night, the weather was seemed to be so cold, and the temperature was about 8 or 9 degrees Celsius since the moment when we arrived at Wuhan Airport. And I was hardly to move around as my feet were shivering from the cold temperature.
Through this OIP, I have achieved quite a number of learning objectives that I set on the first assignment before the trip. One of the learning objectives that I achieved in China was the culture. The culture between in Singapore and in China was difference by so much. In China, littering and splitting were everywhere as the people here usually did that most of the time. And I had noticed that there were some people who did smoke in the air-conditioned places such as shopping mall, cinemas and etc even though it has smoking prohibited sign shown everywhere. Unlike in Singapore, by doing one of these mentioned, it would end up on paying fines or going jail for weeks if consistently. Another factor which I noticed that the people in China were likely to be followed the 3 R’s, Recyle, Reuse, Reduce. I remembered during one of the days in China, I was asking from the cashier in the shop for plastic bag to carry the stuffs that I bought. Then, I was shocked that the amount charged was printed in the receipt for the quantity of plastic bags I used. In order to overcome the problem I encountered, I was told myself to bring a bag along wherever the places I been, so that the moment when I was buying stuffs, I could put them together into a bag to carry. In China, not only applied to plastic bags, it also applied to empty bottles in the school as well. I believed by doing these, would cut down the resources cost in China. Unlike in Singapore, plastic bags seemed to be used every day and the resources might cost probably as twice as much than China. However, there always have pros and cons of doing it in China, The advantage was allowed to save the cost and cut down the resources but the disadvantage was brought inconvenience to the customers, which I found that it was not the proper way to conduct the business.
During my stay in Wuhan, my communication level and social skill were much better than before. In the past, I was used to be a quiet person who didn’t really to communicate more with others and lack of sociability. However, I began to improve on these two areas whenever there’s an interaction with the local students. In the beginning, I was feared to communicate with them as I wasn’t really good at starting the roll of conversation. But unexpectedly, they turned out to be ones who started it instead. Since then, I took the courage and slowly improved on my sociability and communicability after having a few interactions with them. Through the conversations that we had after few weeks, I found that their study lifestyle in China was much different than in Singapore. They even had to attend extra lesson during Sundays in order to complete for two certificates every year. What I felt that they were working much harder than me.
I had been two different sites for industrial visits during the trip in Wuhan. One of those visits that I went and learnt was the Yangtze Optic Fibre & Cable Company. This company was specialized in making the network cables by using the raw materials such as optic fibre, silicon, germanium and etc. It was the second largest fibre making company in whole China and currently joined with other two major companies from other countries. From this trip, I also had learnt on how those network cables being processed and how they worked according to the requirement met. Although I had learnt how it worked through the theory in ITE before but I had never got a chance by learning practically. Other than the industrial visits in Wuhan, I had also learnt and discovered in many areas during the tour trip on every weekends. The places that I went were Three Gorges Dam, Yellow Crane Tower, Hubei Province Museum and Wudang Mountain. One of those trips that I found quite interesting to learn was the trip to Three Gorges Dam. Upon this trip, I had learnt how the dam operated and how it was being built by under certain condition during the past. According to what my tour guide told me that the dam was operated with 26 generators to generate hydroelectric power and provided the electricity to every household in the province as well. And the dam was not easily to be built since 1970s as it had to be considered on the high rise and low rise of sea level. Then, from there, I had also gone to visit one of the ethnic groups in China, known as the Tujia group. This group was quite different from others in China in terms of their cultures, lifestyle and etc. One of their cultures that I found amazed was their wedding culture. Although its procedures were almost the same according to the Chinese traditional but in Tujia wedding, it worked quite differently. The different was that the children had to cry as much as possible for the bride during the ceremony. This was known as the Ku Jia, a crying wedding ceremony. Another factor which I came across from this group that if a guy steps on the left leg of opposite sex with the right leg, which means that both parties were fell in love on each other and getting to be married. Unlike in Singapore, there wasn’t much to be followed on those traditional as nowadays the newlyweds were following the simpler way to conduct their wedding ceremony. In another issue was that by stepping on one another’s legs doesn’t mean anything instead of causing conflicts easily in Singapore
In addition, I had learnt the history of China, Chinese FengSui and the background of Chinese cultures such as Taoism, Confucianism, Buddhism and etc during every week of IS lesson. Although those lessons were conducted by the guest lecturers instead of Ngee Ann’s, I had the opportunity to experience on their teaching method and given my full attention for it as well. One of those lessons that I found interesting was Chinese Fengsui. It was described as the law of environment. The guest lecturer taught me on furniture placing in our home. This was to be done with five balanced elements such as water, wood, fire, metal and earth. Without having those balanced elements, it would not able to improve in my vitality, financial and etc.
Since over the weeks in China, I had also discovered on the languages they used to communicate. According to what my tour guide told me that there were several languages that used in China. And the language use was different from one province to another. For instance, people in Hubei usually spoke in Southwestern Chinese or some dialects and people in other province like Guangdong, they spoke in Cantonese. However, most of the people in Wuhan usually spoke both in dialects and Mandarin, just like what we spoke in Singapore. In the beginning, it was hard for them to understand the way I spoke. As time went by, they slowly got used on my communication.
Although these six weeks in China was seemed to be long, however I found that it was short. As the days passed, I have managed to get used on the living here. At the same time, I got to know more new friends in China and had fellowship with them as well. This allowed me to expand my social network and improve on my communication during this period. However in Singapore, I couldn’t have an opportunity for having this as most people have very small area on social network. Having fellowship with them was my opportunity given as I could know and understand them better through their life, study and interests. This also allowed me to improve the friendship and relationship that I had with them. I remembered during one of the days, I went to the Wuhan Zoo together with the local students and my two classmates. They were seemed to be generous as they helped to pay the bus fare for us when we boarded the bus. However, we didn’t know it in the first place but we decided to have a dinner treat for them in our return. We did this way because we didn’t want to take for granted from them and let them have the difficulty to cope on their expenses. Aside from the local students, I even had got along well with the local residents. One of the examples I had was having my dinner at the stall outside. In the first place, the stall owners didn’t know that I was from Singapore. However they thought that the way I talked was being treated as one of the locals here. Since then, we began to understand on each other well.
The three global skills that I assess myself during OIP in China were open-mindedness, curiosity about other cultures and respect for other beliefs. Firstly, with open-mindedness allowed me to have different opinions when dealing with some situations. Although in China, I have seen many people like to spill around but in the beginning, I found that it was very unhygienic to me and yet slowly I got used to it on their lifestyle. To my certain view, what I thought that the way they did was just to clear their throat. Secondly, with curiosity about other cultures, it allowed me to learn and know more about the cultures in China. I remembered during the trip to Three Gorges, I had learnt about the wedding practices in Tujia ethnic group. In the beginning, I found that it was weird whenever they have crying wedding ceremony for the bride. But lately, I understood the reasons behind of doing it. Lastly, with respect for other beliefs, I found that the people in China had the habit of drinking alcoholic since young, In Singapore, alcoholic wasn’t suppose to drink at the age of 18 or below according to the law by the government. However in China, people do drink a lot and yet the price of alcoholic drinks was much cheaper than in Singapore.
In my understanding of cross-cultural in China, I found that there were much different than what I seen in Singapore. One of my understandings in China was the food. Normally in Singapore, foods were considered as healthy and balanced diet with the standard given by the government. However in China, some of the foods were much oily, salty and unhealthy diet that what I expected during the first day in Wuhan. Sometimes I could find that the way they cooked their food was using the existing cooking oil instead of replacing with the new one. And another point of my understanding in China was the transport. Whenever I was taking the bus to city area, the first thing that I noticed was the way they drove. Regardless about safety, people still love to overtake with one another as they would drive to opposite side of the road and surpassed the slowest. Thus, none of the accidents took place during the trip of 42 days in China.
As my conclusion for this trip, I was glad that I have the opportunity to learn and gain something that I have not been encountered before in Singapore. Through this trip, I have the opportunity to be more independently and got to know the cross-cultural between in China and in Singapore. Although in Singapore, there were certain areas that I couldn’t explore and get to know more but in China, it was much eye-opened for me as learning took place every day.
