Today was our third day taking classes at Nanjing University and it was awesome! I had my first day of 4 hour classes so I met for the first time my second professor; her name is Gao Fanya. In the 4 hours we looked at various things such as tones and strokes on various Chinese characters, but mostly we spent time continuing our work with greetings, which has been really helpful in expanding my vocabulary. I learned how to ask what someone does for a living and where are they from. I also learned how to answer if someone asked me these same questions. I have even been able to use what I have learned on daily greetings with other students and members of the university.
In the afternoon, we had the opportunity to visit Jiangsu Sainty, Rulong Trade Company Ltd., and got to know Mr. Zhang, Yong. He is the head of one of the subsidiaries of the company, and happily showed us around. We first visited the headquarters of the largest trading group in Jiangsu province owned by the government, where there are over 1000 employees, and then visited Mr. Zhang's offices. The company works as the middleman and connects different Chinese manufacturers with markets they can sell to around the globe. Sainty works along various business categories including machinery, clothing, and with natural resources such as iron ore. I found it interesting how the organization has various levels of subsidiaries making it a very big company involved in many different markets. The best part though was visiting a toy-manufacturing factory where we were able to see how a teddy bear is built from beginning to end.
When we arrived at the factory in Liuhe, a suburb in Nanjing, they had arranged for us a conference room with fruits we all enjoyed. They made sure we were all sitting down and even had drinks; in China, this is how they welcome their guests. I was reminded of how everywhere we have been to, from a migrant house in Beijing to a toy factory in Nanjing, it is in Chinese culture to make their guests feel at home. This has really surprised me since it shows how polite and respectful Chinese are. It made me feel welcomed to everywhere we have been. It also reminded me of my previous co-op in Dominican Republic, where it is also in their culture to make their guests feel at home.
After the visit we got back to the hotel to be with our language partners. I went with Xu Yang Yang (my language partner) to a coffee shop to keep practicing my Chinese. On the way we stopped at Imn, an incredible yogurt place. Xu Yang Yang bought the best yogurt I have tried in my life with little pieces of banana. Xu Yang Yang also brought me duck as a surprise, since we went through the names of animals yesterday and I mentioned how I really like ducks. We then went through asking and saying the time in Chinese, which I had not learned yet but really needed to.
Overall today was a very productive day. We got the chance to learn even more about the Chinese language and about the Chinese economy. I am loving it! (Me encanta)!
-- Juan P. S.
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