What It ’ s Like To Be an Expat
by Taylor Kim
have lived in China for almost four years . It hasn ’ t
I been very long yet , but I ’ ve experienced plenty of things in this short period , whereas it is quite a long time . I learned a lot about things that I cannot easily experience in Korea and the culture here .
8 | SLAS TIMES
I encountered difficulties when it comes to interacting with the natives . The biggest problem was communicating . Since Chinese was unfamiliar to all of my family members and the dialect sounds different than mandarin that we used to learn , we couldn ’ t understand what they are saying . Misunderstanding can lead to a conflict because it can very likely cause bad blood between the partners if the problem is not resolved . It will eventually create a complete illusion of each other .
When I first came here , I sometimes had a hard time because of the unique smell of spices . Whenever I passed by the street , I could feel enough rejection of the smell of mala and food . At first , I could not eat Chinese food , and I kept encountering Korean food . However , the smell that I hated began to feel like a delicious scent recently , and now I eat well . However , there are more pros than cons . I could learn a new language and culture here . I am glad to come to China because learning new things that I ’ ve never encountered before is an opportunity that I do not have in my life . In addition , it is very entertaining to communicate with foreign friends from different countries at school .
To conclude , we might encounter many difficulties in a foreign country , such as a lack of communication and the unfamiliar aroma of spices . However , as an expatriate in China , I could learn new languages , and cultures , and meet new foreign friends