Uriel Yak尤里专线 (1)

Uriel Yak 1尤里专线 (1)

Uriel: Hello, this is Uriel. Welcome to Uriel Yak! I have with me in the studio Philip Short. Philip is a British man living in China. He's going to tell us about his experiences here. Philip, what made you want to go to China?

Phillip: Well, I think it's because of my grandmother. She used to live near the University of York, and many times she used to have foreign people to live with her for maybe five months at a time. We used to have Chinese people for, sort of, a few months, and Japanese people, French people.... It was quite an international house sometimes. And we used to go out to them with part ... to parties, and we used to go to the University and they used to show me around. And I was ... I was sixteen at this time. And the last people were, the last two was a man and a woman, and they were I think about thirty, and they ... they used to talk to me about China, hours and hours at night when they used to stay at my grandmother's house.

U: When you started teaching 2 -- it was in Tianjin --you suddenly had a class of students. You'd never taught before, had you?

P: Never. No, never.

U: How many students did you have in your classes?

P: The first classes I had sixty-two, I think it was.

U: Sixty-two in one class?

P: Yes.

U: About eighteen years old?

P: Well, eighteen to nineteen, yeah. So that was quite ... that was, well ... hard to say the least -- controlling the back, the back ....

U: The back rows.

P: Yes, they were the worst ones. But slowly I began to pull them towards the front and the situation got better. I used to try and get them to think about China, and not take things for granted 3. And why China may be unique, and maybe why it's so different to England. So in a way I tried to make them understand differences about themselves. But, but ... for the best reasons.

U: What ideas did you come away with? Can you give us some specific pointers? Any particular themes that you were addressing with these Chinese students?

P: Yes, well, one of the main themes was young people.

U: Young people?

P: Yeah, and obviously 4 they were teenagers, so the .... I think it's quite a major issue ... issue to them.

U: What about boyfriends and girlfriends? How are the Chinese different from the British people -- say, in your university, when ... when you were studying?

P: I think that maybe Chinese students are a lot more romantic. They have quite a romanticized vision 5 of boyfriend and girlfriends.

U: You mean, if a boyfriend-girlfriend get together typically they'll expect to eventually get married or be together for life?

P: Yes, in a way I think that in England a boyfriend/girlfriend is just something quite transitional -- it's just something that's going to move on and you don't think about it.

U: You know it's temporary, right?

P: That's it, yeah, but in China I think there's more a tendency to look towards a future, a major future with that person.

U: Is that just -- you know, about Western people being transitional and relationships being temporary -- is that just an idea that people have in ... about Western relationships, or is that something that's true in your own experience, say with .... If you think about your friends, are they in relationships that they figure are probably going to last only a short time?

P: Yeah, I think so. I think that it's a lot easier to move around between different partners. And it's ... it's not seen as .... There's not a stigma 6 attached to doing that. I think that in China if you do that you're seen ... you're labeled easier. And it's ... it's something that people try and stay away from. Especially ... especially girls. Maybe .... I'm not saying that in England girls constantly have different boyfriends every week, but I think it's not as much of an issue.

U: Say like .... Before marriage, in England, it wouldn't be unusual for a girl to have maybe what, three, four, five boyfriends?

P: Yeah. Yeah, and that's seen as quite, quite acceptable 7. Maybe not by her family as much but by ... socially ....

U: Her peers 8.

P: Her peers, yeah. It's ... it's quite fine. I suppose that in that sense it's quite a major difference.

U: What other significant 9 points of difference are there between the Chinese and the Western people in your experience?

P: Well, I'll say food.

U: Yeah?

P: But that's partly cultural. And I think...

U: Food ...? In what way? Would you like to ....

P: Well the food thing .... For example I .... Before I came to China I think food was the major issue. People would say to me, oh you .... Some of the things you'll have to eat .... You'll eat snake, monkey, which is quite .... I mean, I .... Obviously it's not possible to eat monkey but this was .... I think people in England have got a strange idea of ... of food in ... in China. Which is partly true.

U: But in England you ... you .... You have Chinese food restaurants everywhere, don't you?

P: We do but it's a special type of English Chinese, which has been tainted 10 to suit the taste buds 11 ....

U: The Western palate.

P: Yes.

U: Well how about all the .... What about all the Chinese people living in England? What do they eat -- in restaurants?

P: Well I don't think they go to Chinese restaurants. I .... Unless it's a ... a... quite a spectacular 12 one, where they maybe know that the people who ... who ... who work there .... They would mostly keep away from the Chinese restaurants.

U: Well, where'd the Chinese people eat -- the Italian restaurants?

P: I think so, yeah. Pizza Huts.

U: Philip, thank you very much for joining us here at Uriel Yak, it's been a pleasure talking to you! And please tune 13 in next time for our Uriel Yak show!