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Greetings all,
Well, just like the title says I am looking at being shipped out to Tianjin. I am a Geologist that works in the oil/gas industry and have had a wonderful career since 2003. Ranging from Alaska, Alberta, Canadian Territories, North Dakota, Wyoming, and Texas, my travels for work have been a major highlight of my time is the industry. Outside of work I have been lucky enough to spend quite a bit of time in Europe as well. The only true obstacle I can say I've faced culturally is well, being Canadian in Texas
For those that take the time to read this and have never worked in an industry such as big oil, well.....it can be a challenge. January 2007 to December 2008 I took off 13 days from work for example. The powers that be are not afraid to stomp out careers for mistakes, and have very short memories. I have witnessed firsthand individuals that have spent 15+ years in this industry producing stellar results go through a dry stretch thanks to their personal lives (divorce, deaths in the family, ect). And quite simply they just don't care and point out "You aren't paid this much to make mistakes". Despite all of this so far for almost 10 years now I have been able to produce the results they like to see.
Now thanks to this well I had the meeting with the bosses and asked about my being interested in going to Asia. Things are staying at a steady pace in my present location and the next move for me is to leave the field for the office, or leave this patch for a different patch, or stay in my present state. The bosses know of my South Korean longtime girlfriend and she has made numerous comments at company social functions about how homesick she is at times. Now China may not be her home, but it's a much quicker flight from there to South Korea versus Saskatchewan to South Korea.
However there are some problems I do have about this potential transfer. First and foremost is communication. I can hold my own in French and German, but my knowledge of Mandarin is well....nonexistent. Coworkers that have been sent over there that I have spoken with only commented on the amount of women they slept with and such. Which would be fine and dandy for me except that if I were to stray from my lady she would remove my genitals forcibly.
More or less this has simply been an outlet for me to think out loud. Any comments, advice, heckling, and such is more than welcome.
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Your OP says trip but your post makes it seem like you're considering moving to China for a while. If it's the latter I'd be more worried about your Korean girlfriend adjusting to China than you (assuming you're white).
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Plenty of Koreans and westerners in Beijing but not too sure about Tianjin but it's a major city so you shouldn't have trouble finding other people who speak your language.
There are also plenty of entertainment and media available, so you definately won't be lonely or bored.
Are your accommadation taken care for you by your work? That's the biggest issue I have when in China, I'm Chinese but trying to find a rental in a major city is just one huge shitfight, every ad and agency trying to scam you.
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Man first thing I would do if I were you, I would stop working for devils.
After this I would talk to my girl and ask her where we wanna live and If we should have kids or not.
If you guys want kids then i would decide what would be the best place for them to grow.
Maybe Korea maybe Germany, France or EnglAnd.
If you guys don't want kids you have to look for a agreement on where to stay for a period of time. I guess she is away from home for a pretty long time, so it's time to maybe get to korea for some period.
There are more important things then earning alot of money.
If you find fullfilment in finding more Oil so that the rich and powerfull get richer and more power that's fine.
I wouldn't wanna work in that Industry. Maybe I'am to idealistic but thats how I feel.
Nethertheless I wish you and your girl the best.
Just wanted to say maybe you have decide between the girl and your career if not yet then most probably at some point later.
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@ red4ce Yup it would be for a while and she is in every way for it. Her time spent in China was a great time according to her and she is very much pushing for it.
@ haduken Wow thanks man for all the great news. I still would like to think I could not be completely helpless with the local language but I guess time will tell. And as for the entertainment and media I'm assuming it is available in a variety of languages? As for accomadations yup. Paid company housing with the standard "no destroying property ect ect". Most people opt to not live in them due to the appliances/furniture usually being well worn to say the least. But I wasn't aware it was that much work to find a place to live there.
@ i3rainless Can we just leave the job/industry thing out of this bud? I am well aware of all the negative press big oil has but a man has to pay his bills. And kids are something the old lady and myself both agree we would be best not producing given both of our careers and lives outside of the workplace.
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This might be relatively minor, but you should keep in mind that:
Facebook, Twitter, youtube, bloomberg.... are blocked in China.
Google and gmail is partially blocked, like 80% of the time.
This is why I work in China everyday (my office is in China) but I go across the border back to Hong Kong at night.
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On November 30 2012 18:33 Bojingles wrote:
@ haduken Wow thanks man for all the great news. I still would like to think I could not be completely helpless with the local language but I guess time will tell. And as for the entertainment and media I'm assuming it is available in a variety of languages? As for accomadations yup. Paid company housing with the standard "no destroying property ect ect". Most people opt to not live in them due to the appliances/furniture usually being well worn to say the least. But I wasn't aware it was that much work to find a place to live there.
For the blocked stuff, just use VPN, your company should even provide one for you. I don't live in China any more but it wasn't hard to get access, just do some research before you go, by the time you find some friends they will show you how
It's not hard to get access to English language media, music / movie are plentiful, of course plenty of stuff in mandarin as well. K-Drama and K-pop are also very accessible.
Rentals are tricky as you won't know the language to browse on real estate sites, even if you know the language it's very difficult as there are so many dodgy agencies, fake photos, some of them will post up photo of a room in very good condition with good pricing but when you call them it's no longer available and they try to switch you to some shit hole...anyway I guess that won't be a problem for you at least in the immediate future, maybe get acquainted with a local and ask them to help you.
The thing about China is that in every city, some parts are incredibly modern and westernised while the rest are a few steps behind... sometimes you would think you live in a metropolitan city just like NY, a few blocks later you wonder if you just got off at some random village in Indonesia.
The same can be said about Chinese culture and mentality, try not be judgemental and don't set too high standards.
The best thing about a Chinese city is the busy and nervous energy that you experience everywhere everyday but it's also the worst thing about China, some times it feels like everyone is going to a concert but you are not invited  personally I wouldn't live there for more than a year and I'm saying this as a Chinese immigrant, it can be great for single ambitious youth but definitely not a place to develop a family.
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About the language:
You can do what a lot of expats do, and live in an expat bubble without learning Chinese. But then you're getting a relatively shallow experience, which sucks. Still, for a year or so, why not? You'll still have fun, and I guarantee it will always be interesting.
The best thing to do is to learn the language of course, and the truth is that the difficulty is greatly exaggerated. Anyone can do it. The problem though, is that it does take a lot of time, especially if you have a job. I'd say if you can devote a lot of your free time, you can get your spoken Chinese to conversational in a year or so. Reading will take longer, and writing much longer.
Either way, you may as well give it a shot.
I also agree with the other posters, in that China isn't an ideal place to bring up a kid. Apart from that, go for it! I'm having a good time. Also I've met a lot of Korean expats, so your girlfriend should be in good company.
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EPT
