Language :
This is the hardest part of living here - not knowing the language. Though its changing slowly, most of them here do not understand english. When they do speak english, they do not understand our accent. To make things more complicated, everything has a chinese name, not like in India, where we have common english phrases like road, light, fan, bus, taxi - the chinese have a name for everything in their language and do not know the english equivalents.
It helps if you know the language, so as soon as you arrive try and join chinese classes. There are a lot of language schools teaching chinese, you can either join one of them, or try through some friends to get teachers willing to come to your home and teach. Language schools will be more expensive, with a one to one or group class, and someone willing to come home,if they are students wanting to earn some pocket money will be less expensive, and more flexible to your needs - if you are a housewife you will want to know what different household items, vegetables are called in chinese - and if you are an employee, you will want to know about computers, telephone conversations - so it might be easier.
It really helps in the beginning to have a translator come to your house on a hourly basis, ( everyone charges by the hour) to explain to your maid ( called ayi) what you require of them, to call up the apartment management office, or repair men, etc. It will also help you to buy a english - chinese book with useful phrases - you can find them in Carrefour, the hypermarket, or other book shops. It helps a lot. You might also consider getting a sheet typed out with questions like " where is the bath room ?" " where can I find....?" and also names of vegetables and get it written down in chinese. Also, if you are a vegetarian, get that written down as well on a card, to show to the waitress at any restaurant. The chinese do not have a vegetarian concept, so explain this well to the translator that vegetarian means no meat, as well as fish and eggs. It will help you avoid any embarassments, or irritation at finding that your noodles have eggs when you wanted a vegetarian dish. Of course, when you go to Indian restaurants you wont face a problem since they will have indian staff.
Maids :
They have what they call Ayis, ( its the chinese name for aunt actually, not maidservant) who will come to your house and work for you. The expense is higher than in India, right now the rate is something like 18 yuan to 25 yuan per hour, which works out to a monthly bill of 1800 to 2500 yuan, , depending on how many hours you will want to have them working for you. Part time is more expensive than full time maid. Part time, like three to four hrs a day - ,full time meaning morning to evening, around 10 to 12 hours a day, helps if you have babies or small children to take care of.One day of the week, they will take a holiday, there is no let go for that rule. You can decide which day you want her to take off, generally its either saturday or sunday. It does seem a lot of money, but believe me, the ayis are much better, and more efficient, and more work oriented than our maids back home. They are also honest. Many people just give them the keys to the apartment to come, work and lock up after they leave. You need to be careful too, does'nt mean you leave too many valuables around - just take reasonable care. The only problem will be the language - see tips above. They will do what ever you tell them, in the time they agreed to work for you, wash dishes, clean and mop the floors, ( this is a terrible job to do in winter believe me) put clothes to dry, iron the clothes ,( laundries are expensive here, and difficult to find one who will just do ironing), make the beds, buy vegetables , cut vegetables - some even cook, though its difficult to teach them rotis and other indian dishes.
Best way to find one is through neighbours or friends, whose ayi will have a friend who is willing to work. There are also ayi agencies - more expensive, but you can find through them, and they will translate for you what you require of the ayi, some people like that option. What ever you choose, take a copy of the ayi's identity card ( all the citizens have id cards - mandatory) and keep it with you. Check with your apartment complex, some will need you to register your maid ( to keep track and prevent possible theft) - you will just need to fill in some form and give a copy of your ayis id .
Update :
As I said before, life gets easier... I saw this on some other website, might help you to buy one of these. I have'nt used them or seen them, but what I saw on the website seems good . I wish I had one of those when I was a newbie. These are fridge magnets which have words in english and chinese on them, to use while communicating with your ayi.
FRIDGE MAGNETS WITH CHINESE
As this blog was written a long time ago, we used to have to resort to all these things. now a days we have smart phones which translate - makes life a lot easier.
Help Lines : The government run service, Shanghai call centre, is a really good service. Keep this number in your mobile, call when you want some translation, tell your taxi driver the address in Chinese, etc - 962288. They have helpful, english speaking operators to help.
This is the hardest part of living here - not knowing the language. Though its changing slowly, most of them here do not understand english. When they do speak english, they do not understand our accent. To make things more complicated, everything has a chinese name, not like in India, where we have common english phrases like road, light, fan, bus, taxi - the chinese have a name for everything in their language and do not know the english equivalents.
It helps if you know the language, so as soon as you arrive try and join chinese classes. There are a lot of language schools teaching chinese, you can either join one of them, or try through some friends to get teachers willing to come to your home and teach. Language schools will be more expensive, with a one to one or group class, and someone willing to come home,if they are students wanting to earn some pocket money will be less expensive, and more flexible to your needs - if you are a housewife you will want to know what different household items, vegetables are called in chinese - and if you are an employee, you will want to know about computers, telephone conversations - so it might be easier.
It really helps in the beginning to have a translator come to your house on a hourly basis, ( everyone charges by the hour) to explain to your maid ( called ayi) what you require of them, to call up the apartment management office, or repair men, etc. It will also help you to buy a english - chinese book with useful phrases - you can find them in Carrefour, the hypermarket, or other book shops. It helps a lot. You might also consider getting a sheet typed out with questions like " where is the bath room ?" " where can I find....?" and also names of vegetables and get it written down in chinese. Also, if you are a vegetarian, get that written down as well on a card, to show to the waitress at any restaurant. The chinese do not have a vegetarian concept, so explain this well to the translator that vegetarian means no meat, as well as fish and eggs. It will help you avoid any embarassments, or irritation at finding that your noodles have eggs when you wanted a vegetarian dish. Of course, when you go to Indian restaurants you wont face a problem since they will have indian staff.
Maids :
They have what they call Ayis, ( its the chinese name for aunt actually, not maidservant) who will come to your house and work for you. The expense is higher than in India, right now the rate is something like 18 yuan to 25 yuan per hour, which works out to a monthly bill of 1800 to 2500 yuan, , depending on how many hours you will want to have them working for you. Part time is more expensive than full time maid. Part time, like three to four hrs a day - ,full time meaning morning to evening, around 10 to 12 hours a day, helps if you have babies or small children to take care of.One day of the week, they will take a holiday, there is no let go for that rule. You can decide which day you want her to take off, generally its either saturday or sunday. It does seem a lot of money, but believe me, the ayis are much better, and more efficient, and more work oriented than our maids back home. They are also honest. Many people just give them the keys to the apartment to come, work and lock up after they leave. You need to be careful too, does'nt mean you leave too many valuables around - just take reasonable care. The only problem will be the language - see tips above. They will do what ever you tell them, in the time they agreed to work for you, wash dishes, clean and mop the floors, ( this is a terrible job to do in winter believe me) put clothes to dry, iron the clothes ,( laundries are expensive here, and difficult to find one who will just do ironing), make the beds, buy vegetables , cut vegetables - some even cook, though its difficult to teach them rotis and other indian dishes.
Best way to find one is through neighbours or friends, whose ayi will have a friend who is willing to work. There are also ayi agencies - more expensive, but you can find through them, and they will translate for you what you require of the ayi, some people like that option. What ever you choose, take a copy of the ayi's identity card ( all the citizens have id cards - mandatory) and keep it with you. Check with your apartment complex, some will need you to register your maid ( to keep track and prevent possible theft) - you will just need to fill in some form and give a copy of your ayis id .
Update :
As I said before, life gets easier... I saw this on some other website, might help you to buy one of these. I have'nt used them or seen them, but what I saw on the website seems good . I wish I had one of those when I was a newbie. These are fridge magnets which have words in english and chinese on them, to use while communicating with your ayi.
FRIDGE MAGNETS WITH CHINESE
As this blog was written a long time ago, we used to have to resort to all these things. now a days we have smart phones which translate - makes life a lot easier.
Help Lines : The government run service, Shanghai call centre, is a really good service. Keep this number in your mobile, call when you want some translation, tell your taxi driver the address in Chinese, etc - 962288. They have helpful, english speaking operators to help.
2 comments:
We are planning to go to shanghai around next month. Ur blog s very useful. Thanks for sharing.
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