Communicating with HongKongers

• What do you think will be especially difficult for you to adjust to in your host country?

Learning Mandarin in class, yet hearing Cantonese from all over this crazy city will make communication VERY difficult for me. I pray that I will be able to quickly learn basic conversation and grammar concepts enough to jump start my ability to speak Cantonese with those I meet off campus. Of course, one of the main reasons for my exchange to Hong Kong is in fact to learn how to speak a Chinese dialect. It will be interesting because Hong Kong actually declared themselves "triliteral/bilingual". I am confident that I will be able to figure things out quickly.

• What would you want to know about the culture in which you will be living in order to help guide your response?

How best to converse with peers, and how I should change my style of conversation with elders or officials. Should I be direct, attached, or over-expressive? Knowing this will help me begin to understand important parts of HongKong's cultural differences from my own.

• What might be some positive aspects of being in your host country, and how might these help compensate or ease some of the difficulties?

I have always struggled in my own culture with being to honest in my speech or quick to speak. I feel that being in a class setting in HongKong shall be interesting. From what I hear, students don't raise their hand or make comments - they listen to the professor's lecture and that's it. However, this will be good for me because I feel that I will be able to humble myself a bit and know how it feels to just listen and not be so flippant with comments. I am sure that there will be instances where I will show my personality though and this may be good for Chinese students to experience something diverse, who knows!

• In order to ease the transition and adapt to life overseas, you may need to make some temporary, yet fundamental concessions. What adjustments or changes are you willing to make?

I'm willing to not be so picky on what I eat. Here I really get choosy on what I want to eat for my meal. Although I am sure HongKong has a great selection, I will be in situations where I will have to stretch my taste buds. Instead of refusing, I will just have to go ahead and eat whatever is available. I'm also willing to embarass myself in order to practice speaking and learning how to live as they do.

• What personal qualities do you think are important for adjusting to life abroad? Do you have these qualities?

Humble. Kind. Considerate. Understanding. Cautious. Aware. I feel that I have these qualities and will do my best to improve any weaker qualities that I may have as well. I definitely need to be controlled in some instances like convincing myself that I am capable to find my way around. I need to be more humble in many ways. This main characteristic will make or break how I adjust to living in HongKong.