get immersed in the chinese culture
Well, I wanted to learn authentic Filipino-Chinese culture. There are however, five things holding me back: (1) I do not have funds for this, (2) I do not have enough time for this, (3) I don’t know where to start, (4) I’m unsure about this lifetime project, and (5) I also need to learn Japanese. Feeling inadequate in monetary, time, energy and psychic costs, I need to see to it that the functional and emotional benefits of doing this project so reaps a greater ratio in value (as we do in marketing, of course). So and so, how do I pull off the trick of learning the culture and its language in a very short period of time?
Immersion can be one of the answers.
Immersions are one way of understanding one’s culture. I remember a trip to Canumay ages ago where I stayed with a family of rice planters. Although they were the producers of rice grain, their family has limited supply since it was a lean season. We also do not have viands to go with except for the canned goods and packed instant noodles we have brought for the trip. My partner and I hugged to last the whole night because of the cold seeping through our skin.
This kind of program is actually being offered in Beijing, China through the Lotus Educational Foundation. I found this link through Friendster (seriously) and got interested so I made a click through and walah, a very expensive trip to China. The first thing in mind of course is how to cut costs but unfortunately, free lodging can only be done if and only if (1) I offer at least 1 hour of English tutorial to my host family [checked!] and (2) I am a native speaker of English [oh, aren’t they interested with Filiponly? Huhu]. So that’s a big NO ENTRY for me for financial support.
The program is a homestay (you stay with a Chinese family for the whole trip) service. This allows us to be thoroughly immersed in the Chinese culture and be consistently alert in learning the language. Host families can be found near the campus or all over China. Most offers your own bedroom, shared bathroom, and host family is between 30-50 years old with only one child (remember the one child per family policy of China?). You may also choose your own package depending on the length of stay that can run from almost a month to a year (that can cause from PhP35,000.00 a week or PhP150,000.00 a year). For the year 2008, they are offering a package that includes the experience of the Olympics 2008 that will be held on the month of August. However, the cost is at the minimum of PhP150,000.00 for a 5 days trip excluding costs such as VISA, flight, and game tickets.