I have made it to Guangzhou! Landed this afternoon, currently staying in a hotel, where I'll stay for three days before shifting to another hotel to stay until I find a more long term apartment with a reasonable kitchen in a reasonable place for a reasonable price.
So far, Guangzhou is a little hot and muggy for my taste, and it doesn't get too much cooler at night. However, the food is delicious, my boss is awesome, and I have started to learn some Cantonese. These include such important phrases as: "hello," "excuse me," "good-bye," "pretty woman," and "fuck off." Cantonese is a very weird sounding language, with many more tones than Mandarin (seven to nine depending on how you count), more final consonants in syllables, and different vowels.
Additionally, while just about everyone speaks Mandarin in Guangzhou, almost everyone also has their own home-town dialect, such as Cantonese, Hakka, and Teochew/Chaoshan. Just from my one day of talking to people, it appears that having a local dialect is not only more common, but these dialects (unlike those of northeast China) are unlikely to be mutually intelligible with Mandarin or each other. So there's that.
More on Guangzhou, as well as the completion of my blogs on Seoul, Harbin, and Beijing, to follow.
So far, Guangzhou is a little hot and muggy for my taste, and it doesn't get too much cooler at night. However, the food is delicious, my boss is awesome, and I have started to learn some Cantonese. These include such important phrases as: "hello," "excuse me," "good-bye," "pretty woman," and "fuck off." Cantonese is a very weird sounding language, with many more tones than Mandarin (seven to nine depending on how you count), more final consonants in syllables, and different vowels.
Additionally, while just about everyone speaks Mandarin in Guangzhou, almost everyone also has their own home-town dialect, such as Cantonese, Hakka, and Teochew/Chaoshan. Just from my one day of talking to people, it appears that having a local dialect is not only more common, but these dialects (unlike those of northeast China) are unlikely to be mutually intelligible with Mandarin or each other. So there's that.
More on Guangzhou, as well as the completion of my blogs on Seoul, Harbin, and Beijing, to follow.
WAIT BILLY DID YOUR VISA WORK OUT!??!?!?!?! YOU DIDN'T FOLLOW UP!
ReplyDeleteALL YOU WRITE ABOUT IS FOOD. NOW I AM STRESSED BECAUSE I AM IMAGINING YOU BEING DEPORTED FROM CHINA
ReplyDeleteSorry about that Noel; everything did in fact work well and now there are no dangers of me being kicked out of the country or any such matters. I'm here to stay now.
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