Expert: Victoria Hamilton - 8/12/2009

Question
Hello Victoria,

I am a junior in high school.  School hasn't started yet, but it will in a few days.  I have been extremely interested in Asian culture, especially Chinese, since I started high school.  It all started when I met a girl named, Dan Wang.  

Anyways, since then, I have always wanted to travel to China.  Either to attend college there or to become an exchange student in China.  I talked to my mom about it, but she told me that China was not safe.  She told me to look at the Teninamen Quare protest and the Beijing Olympic Protest.  I know China may have its issues, but that goes for any country.  
I still want to become a foreign exchange student in China.  My mom suggested I do Japan instead.  She said it would be more safer.  I told my mom that the exchange programs check families, and make sure you are safe and secure.  My mom replied that I may be in a safe zone, but the area next to me may not be so safe, and the people in that "unsafe" area may decide to raide the house I would be staying in.

I am so confused right now.  I still want go to China, but my mom has her opinion.  Don't get me wrong.  It would be nice to visit Japan, and I would like to, but I am learning Chinese and am interested in China at this time.

What should I do?

Thank you so much for taking the time to read my email.  I have no one else to go to for this question.

Answer
Hello again!!!

Well let's see...why did I choose to study Chinese at university? Well it was actually my mum who thought it would be an excellent idea to learn a language that would be incredibly useful once I graduated! This surprised me because I didn't really know anything about China but I could see she had a point about learning a language that not a lot of people at that time at least were learning. So I signed up for Chinese. Some other people I met signed up to do Chinese AND Japanese but had to drop the Japanese as learning two Asian languages from scratch together was a bit over ambitious! They actually said Chinese was the easier of the two!

My year abroad in China was one of the best things I ever did. I learned so much about a culture I knew nothing about before, I finally learned how to use chopsticks correctly and I got to eat yummy Chinese food for a year! I made lots of Chinese friends who wanted to make English speaking friends and I got taken on lots of trips by my friends' parents to places you needed cars etc, hospitality here is abundant! Everyone always wants to help and make your stay here pleasant.

If you want to talk about protests or riots, yes of course there are some, but my bet is that there are far more in other countries only because China is controlled more and so they cannot happen as often. As for the Olympic protests, did you not notice that they happened all outside of China? It was the foreigners who were complaining, not the Chinese! Tiananmen Square happened in 1989...you can't possibly still use that to compare what the country is like now...things are drastically changed and for the better! There are about 300,000 expats living in Beijing and among my friends and family who have travelled here, we are all of the same opinion: we feel much safer here than we do in our countries! You can go out at night and not be worried about being mugged, stabbed, kidnapped etc...it really does feel safe!

Very few people speak English here. Of course those who work in foreign companies do and every student learns english at school but you'll be surprised how little people in jobs like taxis and banks and restaurants speak english, so knowing Chinese is a definite plus.

Your interest in learning Chinese is something I strongly feel you should follow as it will open your eyes to many new things and also create job opportunities for you once you graduate. I have had a lot of fun jobs here in China due to being able to speak the language! Your mum's concerns about China are also understandable, my mum was worried about my first trip here, but once she came to visit, she felt a lot better because she saw what the people and places were like. If you are in big cities like BEIJING and SHANGHAI it's like being in any other big city in the world. If you are in smaller cities, you will really feel like youre in another world, it depends what experience you're looking for. There is no 'raiding of houses', there are no 'unsafe' vs 'safe' zones, they are regular cities with regular people. If you chose to go to areas in the far west of China, then although not dangerous, it's a bit more unstable, but as always, anywhere can be dangerous as you yourself said.

I hope this helps with your decision making and maybe if your mum has any questions she can write to me as I would love to be able to help out. It is a great chance to come to China and although there is nothing wrong with Japan, I think you would get more out of China as it is developing everyday so you get to see the old becoming new. Japan has been like this for years already, so there may not be as many things to learn from.

Speak soon,
Victoria.