"Chinese Mentality" by Ms. Gesina Osterndorff  (2011-1-7)

Ms. Gesina Osterndorff, we also call her “Sina”, was from Germany and is graduate student specializing in language translation. she spent a few months in Shanghai during Shanghai World Expo 2010, then came to Beijing to take Mandarin courses in our center in November and December.

Once you have experienced the Chinese mentality, you will love it. The Chinese living style is very different compared to the European one. This makes it very interesting to stay in China for a long time and not just for two weeks holidays.

All in all, I have lived in China, Hong Kong and Taiwan for more than one year. The longer I stay in this country the more I like it.

During my time in China I realized that Chinese people often cannot imagine that foreigners are able to learn and speak Chinese. They love talking about the outer appearance of foreigners because they seem to look so different to them. Actually many female foreigners should get used to be called ‘mei nü’, which means ‘beautiful woman’. I had many funny experiences when listening to Chinese without letting them know that I was able to understand them.

One day, two of my German friends came to visit me in China and we decided to have a massage near the place I lived. The three Chinese women massaging us were talking about us in Chinese. My friends were not able to understand a single word but I could. The three women tried to find out where we were from. They talked about the ‘beautiful golden hair’ of one of my friends and our ‘wonderful white skin’ and ‘long noses’. After a while they even recognized the French brand name of the expensive-looking shoes my friend had. No, we were not from France, I thought. But sure, how should they know? When they tried to find some other typical French details, I could not avoid giggling. The three women asked themselves why I was laughing and said that they hoped I could not understand them. Later I told my friends what they were talking about and they had to laugh as well. In the end I explained to the Chinese women that it was a very ‘interesting’ massage and that we are not from France but from Germany. They looked at me very surprised and could not believe that I was able to speak Chinese. I think, they felt a little bit ashamed and disappeared without saying anything else.

Sometimes it is amazing how easy it seems to be to make Chinese people happy. I got the impression that in contrast to some Europeans they really know to appreciate living a simple life without having lots of money. When a Chinese asks a foreigner on the street if it is okay to take a picture together and the foreigner agrees, it seems to be one of the luckiest days in the life of this Chinese. Some Chinese do not see foreigners often or do not have the opportunity to talk to them. But nevertheless, many Chinese really like the Western life style and everything which has to do with that, for example singing Backstreet Boys songs or celebrating Christmas.

Chinese people love to enjoy themselves hanging out with many friends. They do not like it quiet because they probably got used to the fact that there are so many people around them wherever they are. In China there are more than 1.3 billion people living – nearly twice as much as in Europe.